Death
Brings A Shadow by Rosemary Simpson brings to life the
post-Civil War period of the Gilded Age. Along with a murder
mystery, Simpson explores the South during the Reconstruction
era.
The story opens in 1889 when Prudence MacKenzie and Geoffrey
Hunter are traveling from their residence of New York to Bradford
Island, a sea island off the coast of Georgia. The setting
provides a very creepy atmosphere, which fits into the plot
line perfectly. It will remind readers of the line from the
“Wizard of Oz,” only this time it is alligators,
snakes, and mosquitoes-oh my.
Simpson noted, “I remember walking in Cumberland Island,
off the Georgia coast. As I walked along the sand, it was
so beautiful with the ocean breeze. But as I continued walking
away from the ocean across the sand dunes, all of a sudden,
I was surrounded by a cloud of mosquitoes and was looking
down for snakes. People can get lost, dehydrated, bit by a
snake, and can fall over a tree root. It is very dangerous;
yet, it is also magical in an eerie sort of way. I think the
setting is another character in the book because it is so
dominant.”
It also delves into the culture and thought process of Southerners
after the Civil War, where bigotry still runs deep. This story
has two families from different backgrounds that are merged
by the soon-to-be wedding of Yankee Eleanor Dickson and Southerner
Teddy Bennett. The Dickson’s are financially secure,
while the Bennett’s are struggling to survive. Eleanor’s
father bought the island as a summer retreat and has allowed
Teddy’s family to keep their ancestral home that once
was a thriving plantation. Some ex-slaves become secondary
characters in the story, including Aunt Jessa, an elderly
African woman who practices white voodoo and Queen Lula, a
practitioner of black magic.
I lived in the South for more than thirty years. Sometimes
I felt apart from the culture. The South back then, even nowadays,
is very insular and defensive against people who do not share
the common background. While there, I listened to people and
absorbed the attitudes, and the way they looked at things.
Many Southerners still believe in the voodoo. There is juju
and spells. Sometimes it worked because the person attributed
something that happened to the spell. The doll and the bracelet
are realistic, as well as spells that can not be reversed.
I took a lot of this information from first person accounts
and stories.”
Unfortunately, the wedding turns into a funeral after Prudence’s
best friend, Eleanor, is found dead in the swamp. The main
characters, Prudence and Geoffrey, find that the body has
numerous bruises and a dislocated shoulder, indicating that
someone held Eleanor underwater. Prudence, along with Geoffrey,
run a private investigation firm and are determined to get
to the bottom of what really happened. To do this, they must
battle complications that arise from more murders taking place
and the strain that Geoffrey’s Southern background has
created.
“I wanted to write more about Geoffrey and his background.
He left everything behind, but still carries his family with
him. He is a conflicted character because he cannot be completely
disloyal, but has moral qualms. This is why I put in this
quote, ‘The hidden places of the private Geoffrey, where
blood and family and conflicting loyalties warred for control
of who and what he was.’ At some point, I will take
him back to North Carolina to the plantation where his family
still lives.”
As the story progresses, so does the tension. With each truth,
some twists and turns keep the readers guessing. The depiction
of the South is very unsettling because of the moral injustices
and hidden secrets.
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