Barbara Frances’ spellbinding,
long awaited, third novel takes you to the coastal, deep South, where the past
and present collide in a gothic tale of insanity, murder, and sexual intrigue.
You’ll
meet the beautiful Elaine Chauvier, former actress and proprietor of Shadow’s
Way, her family’s antebellum home where she nightly honors her long-departed
confederate grandfather.
You’ll
also meet many other characters whom Elaine controls and often abuses including
the esteemed Archbishop Andre Figurant, who longs for her and his fallen
identical twin, Bastien, who fears Elaine’s powers. Newly arrived and beautiful
Ophelia, her half-sister, and Elaine’s nephew Rudy who have come to explore
their Chauvier roots and ties to Shadow’s Way. They bring bad news regarding
Elaine’s ownership of Shadow’s Way which she dreads to hear.
Under a
veneer of piety and Southern graciousness you are faced with the questions:
What is good? What is evil? What is reality? The answers draw you into a
thickening and dangerous plot.
A spell weaver, Shadow's Way, kept me in suspense, which, as
a lover of good mysteries is not an easy for an author to do. I often guess an
ending before I hit the middle. As in her last book, Like I Used to Dance, Ms.
Frances' characters are delicious portrayals, richly textured, gradually
revealing their good and evil humanity, as her hauntingly realistic
settings and surprising story unfolds. To say more might give away
the best of her new book. I have thoroughly enjoyed both of her
novels and highly recommend them.
Sherry Haskin
Ms. Francis’ novel Shadow’s Way, had me enthralled from page
one, it kept me reading until so late into the night that I used a flashlight
in order not to wake my husband.
I’ve always enjoyed reading gothic tales, but this one went
beyond most that I had read. The synopsis was correct, past and present mingled
and left me on the edge of my seat. Was G – G – Daddy a real paranormal
experience or a figment of Elaine Chauvier’s imagination, which got worse as
she sunk deeper into insanity?
I loved the various characters that Ms. Francis brought into
play as needed to heighten the story. They were well rounded and interconnected
in ways that one has to keep reading to get the full picture.
