The Gates of Evangeline by Hester
Young
Charlie Cates needs a fresh start. She recently lost her young son and her grief
is overwhelming. She needs to get out of
the home they shared and get a change of scenery. She does need to work, but returning to her
job at a women’s magazine (think Cosmo but classier) just seems too frivolous
to deal with after the tragedy in her life.
Coincidentally a former employer calls her about a job. Her former employer has gone from editing a
true crime magazine to true crime books and he wants Charlie to write one of
the decade books they are working on, specifically the greatest unsolved case
of the 1980s, the disappearance of Gabriel Deveau.
She can’t deal with the idea of
writing about a tragedy befalling a boy even younger than her son when he died,
and is going to turn the offer down when she gets a vision of a boy in a
swamp. Details from the dream seem to
match what could have happened to Gabriel.
After one of her dreams comes true she feels she can’t ignore the pull to
the Louisiana swamps and Evangeline, the Deveau estate. Maybe her vision is wrong, but could she live
with knowing it could be true and she did nothing? Will she finally find Gabriel? What else will she find?
The mystical element is integral to
the plot, but it is never overwhelming.
Charlie gets occasional visions and feelings, nothing too revealing,
just glimpses that help reveal things that would otherwise be hidden. The characters are great from the ever
optimistic housekeeper, to the disgruntled cop, to an extremely unlikely love
interest for Charlie. Rumor has it that
this is the first in a trilogy; I certainly hope so I’d love to see these
characters again.
Read this one if you enjoy
well-plotted mysteries that are great at throwing in red herrings with the bona
fide clues and don’t mind a little of the paranormal sprinkled in your read.
