Heartbreak Hotel by Jill Marie Landis

Set in California, this book is about Tracy Potter and her son, Matt.  Her husband, Glenn, has just passed away and left her a mountain of debt from his business dealings and the Heartbreak Hotel, an old run down inn that Tracy decides to remodel and sell.  Tracy can't figure out where Glenn's money has gone, but she sells her home and moves into the hotel.  During the renovation, a man on a Harley stops and checks in to get out of the rain.  Wade MacAllister, unknown to Tracy, is a world famous author whose last book inspired a killer to copy the methods in his book and kill 12 people.  Wade is just trying to get some peace in his life.

The book is full of twists and turns.  Wade begins to dream about a ship's captain who returned from being shipwrecked for a year, to find that his wife died in childbirth and his child was still born.  The dreams are so real that he stays on at the hotel to find out about the story of the captain and his wife.  Tracy works on the hotel, discovers she is strong, then finds out a terrible thing about her dead husband; he had an affair with her best friend and fathered a child. 

The writing is very good but a little predictable.  I enjoyed the book. It mixes historical fiction with present day lives.  Mystery lovers will like it, too.  There are several mysteries to be solved in the story.