Road Trip

Mary Kay Andrews’s 2026 novel, Road Trip, is a work of Southern women’s fiction that blends family drama, romance, and historical mystery. A New York Times bestseller and a “Friends & Fiction” book club pick, the story follows estranged sisters Maeve and Therese Dunagin, who reunite in Savannah for their mother’s funeral. Their strained relationship is tested when they discover that their mother gave their inheritance to a televangelist, leaving them with a mountain of debt and a final request: They must use their mother’s secret cash savings to take a trip to Ireland. Propelled by the hope that a prized family portrait is a valuable lost masterpiece, the sisters travel to County Wicklow to uncover the truth about their great-grandmother, a young woman who fled Ireland a century earlier under a cloud of scandal.

The novel uses a dual-timeline structure, weaving the contemporary story with letters from the sisters’ great-grandmother, Kathleen Connor. This narrative device explores The Weight of Ancestral Secrets, drawing parallels between the historical exploitation of Kathleen by a powerful aristocratic family and the contemporary financial abuse of her granddaughter, Mary Helen, by a charismatic preacher. As Maeve and Therese unravel a history involving an illegitimate birth, a long-unsolved murder, and a notorious 1974 IRA art heist based on a real event, they are forced to confront their own fractured relationship. The journey leads to Healing Sibling Estrangement and prompts a journey of self-discovery, particularly for the pragmatic Maeve, who must learn the value of Embracing Risk Over Certainty. The novel was inspired in part by the immigration story of Andrews’s own Irish grandmother.

This guide refers to the 2026 St. Martin’s Press First U.S. Edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of gender discrimination, antigay bias, illness, death, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, sexual content, rape, child sexual abuse, pregnancy loss, pregnancy termination, cursing, child death, and animal death.

Plot Summary

In Savannah, Georgia, estranged sisters Maeve and Therese Dunagin reunite for the funeral of their mother, Mary Helen. Maeve, a creative writing professor, is exhausted after serving as their mother’s full-time caregiver through dementia and cancer, while Therese, a struggling actress, arrives late and causes a scene. Their strained relationship is tested further when their uncle, Keith Dunagin, reveals that Mary Helen secretly took out a $325,000 mortgage on their childhood home and donated the entire amount to a televangelist named Brother Jerome, leaving the estate worthless. The sisters’ only inheritance is a coffee can containing roughly $9,000, which Mary Helen stipulated they must use for a road trip to Ireland to explore their family roots. Simultaneously, Maeve is fired from her university job. With their lives in Savannah collapsing, the sisters are propelled by one last hope, a family heirloom. Therese recently discovered that a portrait nearly identical to their mother’s prized painting of a supposed ancestor, Lady Geraldine Fitzhugh, just sold at auction for $1.2 million. Believing their version is the more valuable original, they agree to the trip, determined to prove the painting’s provenance. They also hope to clear the name of their great-grandmother, Kathleen Connor, who they learn was framed for the painting’s theft and her guardian’s murder when she fled Ireland in 1926.

The sisters travel to County Wicklow, Ireland, and stay at an inn on the Tarrymore Estate, the ancestral home of the aristocratic Rossington family. A 1926 prologue reveals that Lady Delia Rossington, fearing for her illegitimate niece Kathleen’s safety, stole the portrait of Lady Geraldine. She gave Kathleen the painting, family jewels, and money, and arranged her passage to America moments before Delia was killed by her own family. In the present, Maeve meets and begins a romance with Liam Grogan, the head distiller at the Tarrymore Distillery. Meanwhile, Therese befriends the last remaining Rossington on the estate, Lady Esme, in a local pub. Their investigation leads them to an elderly cousin, Isabel Woods, who provides a box of letters Kathleen wrote to her brother Tommy after arriving in America. The letters confirm that Delia gave Kathleen the painting and jewels as her rightful inheritance because Kathleen was the illegitimate daughter of Lord Edward Rossington. 

Maeve and Therese learn of a 1974 IRA art heist at Tarrymore, during which another portrait of Lady Geraldine was reportedly stolen. As Maeve grows closer to Liam, he reveals that his cousin is married to the son of Starr McGahee, the leader of the IRA gang responsible for the 1974 heist. Therese continues to press Esme, who eventually confesses that she was a secret participant in the IRA robbery, having been radicalized in her youth and feeding insider information to her friend, Starr. The portrait stolen in the heist was a preliminary study, which Esme had hidden for decades before selling it at the recent New York auction to alleviate her financial troubles. As Maeve and Therese unravel these secrets, they become targets of escalating threats: Their rental car’s tires are slashed, and a speeding car nearly hits them on a dark country road. 

On the day the sisters are scheduled to leave Ireland, Maeve discovers her passport is missing. Therese, who secretly hid it in the inn’s safe to force Maeve to stay and sort out her relationship with Liam, flies home alone. Stranded and low on funds, Maeve is offered shelter by Esme in her former handyman Reggie’s now-vacant toolshed, which turns out to be a rat-infested shack. Fleeing in terror, Maeve seeks refuge at Liam’s cottage. The next day, Maeve returns to Esme’s home to search for her passport and walks in on Reggie looting the house. He attacks her with a knife, and she defends herself by striking him on the head with a candlestick. The police arrive and discover Esme murdered in Reggie’s shed, making him the primary suspect. The investigation reveals that Reggie is the culprit behind the threats against the sisters. Soon after, Esme’s estranged brother, Geoffrey, appears, aggressively asserting his claim to the estate and threatening Maeve. Esme’s protective cocker spaniel, Sinead, viciously attacks Geoffrey, and Maeve notices scratches on his hand and a missing button from his jacket, which matches one she finds at the murder scene. She presents this evidence to the police, and Geoffrey is arrested for killing his sister after she refused his demands for money. 

In the aftermath, Esme’s lawyer reveals that she left her entire estate, including the inn, the gardener’s cottage, and all financial assets, in a trust for her dog. Maeve and Therese are named as Sinead’s legal guardians, with the stipulation that one of them must reside in Ireland to care for the dog. Upon Sinead’s death, the entire estate will revert to the sisters. Faced with this life-altering choice, Maeve decides to stay, embracing a new life in Ireland with Liam and her newfound canine companion. Back in Savannah, Therese persuades the bank to forgive Mary Helen’s mortgage. Deciding to put down roots, she buys Maeve’s share of their mother’s house and begins a serious relationship with Scotty Childress, the lawyer who helped her argue her case with the bank.

The sisters agree to sell Lady Geraldine’s portrait for $800,000 to Liam’s wealthy brother, Luke, who donates the painting back to the Tarrymore Estate, returning it to the manor’s portrait gallery. The epilogue, set six months later, shows Maeve marrying Liam. Therese is her maid of honor and is still happily in a relationship with Scotty. The family’s secrets are resolved, and both sisters, having embarked on a trip to find their roots, have instead found their futures, each discovering love, purpose, and a true sense of home.