In this darkly ironic, multiple-mystery/drama, even the past cannot suffocate the insatiable human heart. Driven by overwhelming longings, both the outliers and the establishment in this labyrinthine-plotted tale refuse to accept the roles society has forced upon them. In 1859, Durksen Hurst, a visionary charlatan on the run, encounters a dozen hungry slaves stranded in the Mississippi wilds. Led by the deceptively simple-looking Big Josh, together, they agree to build their own egalitarian plantation, with Hurst acting as ...
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In this darkly ironic, multiple-mystery/drama, even the past cannot suffocate the insatiable human heart. Driven by overwhelming longings, both the outliers and the establishment in this labyrinthine-plotted tale refuse to accept the roles society has forced upon them. In 1859, Durksen Hurst, a visionary charlatan on the run, encounters a dozen hungry slaves stranded in the Mississippi wilds. Led by the deceptively simple-looking Big Josh, together, they agree to build their own egalitarian plantation, with Hurst acting as figurehead "master" to hoodwink the town. But wise Big Josh fears that Hurst's grandiose schemes may doom them all to the hangman's noose. In the town, the reclusive widow, Marie Brussard French, manipulates the region's bankers and cotton brokers, everyone...except her frail, rebellious heir-apparent, Devereau. Driven by unbearable loneliness to mad acts, Devereau threatens to expose the family's own tenuous fa�ade-which would prove fatal to the Frenches. Meanwhile, Antoinette DuVallier, a beautiful, Cassandra-like fugitive from New Orleans with mysterious ties to the Frenches, arrives on her own desperate mission. Her overpowering presence detonates long-repressed conflicts, unleashing a devastating upheaval of fire and blood that tears asunder the once-sleepy hamlet. As the story's tangled webs of deceit unravel, each startling plot twist and cathartic revelation shines a fresh light on what it means to be a man, a woman, free or enslaved-indeed, what it means to be human.
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A twisted tale of wanting things you cannot have. A charlatan who wants peace, no more running; slaves who want freedom, an old woman who wants to be in control of everyone and everything; a son who wants to be rid of her forever, yet wants a child to carry on the family name; the child's mother, who had him torn from her grasp and is desperate to get him back; a young woman who is compelled by God to free the slaves, and...the Civil War is at their door. From the first sentence to the last, I was pressed to find out the truth. Can't wait for the sequel.
- CJ Loiacono
