Allegra's Child — Jennette Letton

The most unlikely place for Maggie to return to is Medford. Not only was it her childhood home and the scene of her mother's death, but Maggie is now pregnant and recently released from a sanatorium after a breakdown. At best Maggie has a fragile grasp on reality. And yet, some unexplainable force urges her on.

In her daydreams Maggie can recall climbing up the winding stairways and looking dizzyingly up the blue-shadowed skylight. She can remember her little room. She can still inhale the fragrance of white roses that reminds her of death.

But memories are not enough. Some unfinished, unknown feeling of evil summons Maggie back to Medford.

Though he dreads the outcome, Maggie's husband knows he cannot stop her. So Maggie voyages into the past to face the terrors she has desperately been trying to escape.