Christine Candland

Topaz Woman Christine Candland

It's 1975 and Cassidy Brookes is stuck in a dead-end job at a Hollywood movie studio. A testy encounter with A-list director Jeff McConnell provokes her into dusting off her ambitions to become a writer. Taunted by McConnell, Cassie decides to write a screenplay to show him what she can do-but she is at a loss for a story. While shopping at an antiques fair, Cassie buys a jeweled brooch containing a rare Imperial Topaz. She learns the brooch was once owned by a mysterious red-haired woman who lived in Ouro Preto, a fabled eighteenth-century city in Brazil, known for its Topaz mines and rivers of gold. As Cassie fingers the brooch, she feels a powerful connection to the red-haired woman, who lived half a century before. So great is her obsession with the story, Cassie quits her job and abandons McConnell, with whom she is falling in love. After traveling to Brazil, Cassie arrives in Ouro Preto to track down the clues which lead to Amanda Savage. A child of two continents and a jazz-age rebel, Amanda proved to be a formidable activist in her day, as she challenged the aristocracy and their treatment of the local miners. Amanda's courage blossoms in Cassie who is driven to solve the riddle of Amanda's death and bring the legendary tale of the Topaz Woman to light. How Cassie writes the story of Amanda Savage, battles the studio and Jeff McConnell, brings this romantic adventure to its exciting conclusion.