Garden of the Moon — Elizabeth Sinclair

Sara Wade has a gift . . . or an affliction, depending on your point of view. She talks with the dead. An embarrassment and an anomaly to her mother, this twenty-seven-year-old mistress of Harrogate Plantation discovers the dark secrets that lurk within this historic mansion.

From the murky depths of St. Claire's Bayou and St. Lucius Parrish in 1855 Louisiana, Sara travels back to 1805 via the diary entries of Maddy Grayson, a beautiful, intelligent woman who lived sequestered behind its smothering walls along with her vindictive, illegitimate sibling, Katherine, a bitter child raised as her fraternal twin. Within the confinement and madness of nineteenth-century arranged marriage, a tragedy unfolds. Katherine is betrothed to Jonathan Bradford, the love of her sister's life -- Maddy's only reason for existing. Before Jonathan disengages himself from the clutches of social obligation, he pays the ultimate price, heartbroken and bereft.

As Sara falls in love with Jonathan, his ghost emerges in soul-moving clarity, much more than an ephemeral presence. Startling and real, her diversions fifty years into the past take on a frightening intensity. Caught up in the catastrophic misfortune of deceased Harrogate residents, Sara realizes that her involvement with Jonathan is not mere coincidence.

The shocking answer lies in the dusty pages of time.