"Keith Lafleur, Louisiana's largest and greediest building contractor, thinks he's cut the deal of a lifetime. The huge old, two-story house is his for the taking as long as he can move it to a new location. It's too big to move as is, but Lafleur's solution is simple: divide it in half. He has no idea, though, that by splitting the house he'll be dividing a family -- a family long dead, a family that still exists in the house, including a mother who will destroy anyone who keeps her apart from her children."
One half belongs to Matt Daigle and his son, Seth, and Matt's Tin Cup Cafe. The second half is the Beauty Box salon and home to Laura Toups, Tawana Batiste, and Tawana's "slow," psychic cousin, Moweez. Things are pretty peaceful for Matt and Seth until the Beauty Box opens its doors for business and Moweez begins drawing visions of the future -- in graphic detail. Odd, dangerous things begin to happen in both houses...noises in the middle of the night, the smell of leaking gas, and the appearance of hundreds of dead birds in both yards. And Keith Lafleur begins a killing spree -- with a nail gun, no less.
The house isn't just an old house but witness to a scene of a mother's madness, and the death of every one of her children by her own hand in an effort to "save" future generations from the sins of their father. To add to the mystery, it is revealed that one of those children did not perish after all. Are the sins of the father being visited upon the head of Keith LaFleur?
Tauntly written with plenty of tension and pace, this is a fabulous tale far beyond anything told around a campfire. The characters seemed murky at first and I couldn't get a handle on their thoughts and motivations, but their differing personalities come into their own as the novel progressed. As atmospheric as any good ghost tale should be, it has more meat on its bones than true horror. It is more of a testament on the power of family and the ties that bind...even from the grave.
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Mass Market Paperback: 326 pages
Publisher: Leisure (May 30, 2006)
ISBN: 0843957301