Novels
Only Charlotte
Now available for order at your local independent bookseller.
Lenore James, a woman of independent means who has outlived three husbands, is determined to disentangle her brother Gilbert from the beguiling Charlotte Eden. Chafing against misogyny and racism in the post-Civil War South, Lenore learns that Charlotte’s husband is enmeshed in the re-enslavement schemes of a powerful judge, and she worries that Gilbert’s adoration of Charlotte will lead him into disaster.
Inspired by a production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Lenore adopts the role of Paulina for herself to discover how far Charlotte’s husband bears the blame for his wife’s fate and whether or not he is capable of atonement. In her process of unraveling the intricacies of the lives of others, Lenore finds that Gilbert’s love for Charlotte is, indeed, his saving grace while Lenore’s passion for creative expression is her own.
Hardback Library Edition ISBN 978-1-935722-99-1
Trade Paperback coming July 2019
Women of Magdalene
After years of serving as a wartime surgeon, Robert Mallory is accustomed to soldiers missing limbs. At the Magdalene Ladies Lunatic Asylum, he learns that the women are missing pieces, not of their bodies, but of their lives. And he finds that his employer, Dr. Kingston, is also missing a part of himself: a conscience.
As Robert comes closer to understanding Kingston's part in the cruel treatment and sudden deaths of certain patients, Kingston abruptly sends him away. Robert must escort a patient, Effie Rampling, to New Orleans, and the journey transforms them both.
What Remains
"It was Isabelle's turn to sit with the body. The room was mercifully cold. The chill masked the odor of decay, froze it midair between the coffin by the shuttered windows and the smoldering fire in the tiled hearth across the room. Isabelle stared into the ashes crumbling around a half-hidden heart of embers that glowed orange beneath black like a small, secret hell."
In November, 1865, still mourning her fiance's death, Isabelle Ross joins with journalist Paul Delahoussaye at Belle Ombre Plantation to untangle a murderous web of secrets and lies.
Juliette Ascending
"How I love the night! My family's house, like others in the French sector of New Orleans, is tall and narrow, walled and gated, its beauty hidden from any passersby. And I am hidden, too . . . Only at night may I slip out, unchaperoned, onto the balcony overlooking the street and glimpse the world beyond the iron railing."
Romance and suspense combine at an 1874 Mardi Gras ball when fifteen-year-old Juliette Carondel meets her forbidden love, Union Private Roland Montgomery. Juliette's narrative of her dangerous courtship weaves details of ballroom, wedding, and burial customs with a touch of voodoo, as Juliette defies her family's prejudices and finds a way to live for love, not die for it.
