Ghost Moon - Hardcover

Robards, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038531972X ISBN 13: 9780385319720

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 2000

Synopsis

Karen Robards, the New York Times bestselling author of The Senator's Wife and The Midnight Hour, has written her most compelling novel yet in Ghost Moon, a mesmerizing, powerful tale of forbidden love, family intrigue, and a proud woman's return to the dark secrets of her past.

Olivia Morrison, raised by her affluent stepfather John Archer on a lavish estate in Louisiana, enjoyed a life of privilege until she ran off with a cowboy and left the wealthy Archers behind. Years later, with her eight-year-old, Sara, in tow, Olivia returns to that long-ago estate--a prodigal daughter returning home, unsure of what she'll find there.

Olivia thinks she is prepared for a chilly reception, but she doesn't expect the emotions that churn when she comes face-to-face again with Seth, her older stepcousin, to whom she had once been so close. Seth, himself the father of a daughter and engaged to be married, is still disturbingly, dangerously, attractive. Olivia must contend, too, with the powerful emotions evoked by the past, and with a flood of dreams about her mother's death by drowning so many years before. When a new danger threatens her and her daughter, Olivia must face down her old demons, and find the courage to confront her new ones, in order to rebuild a new life with her little girl--and with the man she loves.

About this title

About the Author

Karen Robards lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and their three sons.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Karen Robards:

"Robards is one terrific storyteller."
--Chicago Tribune

"One of the most popular voices in women's fiction."
--Newsweek

From the Inside Flap

s, the New York Times bestselling author of The Senator's Wife and The Midnight Hour, has written her most compelling novel yet in Ghost Moon, a mesmerizing, powerful tale of forbidden love, family intrigue, and a proud woman's return to the dark secrets of her past.

Olivia Morrison, raised by her affluent stepfather John Archer on a lavish estate in Louisiana, enjoyed a life of privilege until she ran off with a cowboy and left the wealthy Archers behind. Years later, with her eight-year-old, Sara, in tow, Olivia returns to that long-ago estate--a prodigal daughter returning home, unsure of what she'll find there.

Olivia thinks she is prepared for a chilly reception, but she doesn't expect the emotions that churn when she comes face-to-face again with Seth, her older stepcousin, to whom she had once been so close. Seth, himself the father of a daughter and engaged to be married, is still disturbingly, dangerously, attractiv

Reviews

The fainthearted should be warned: Robards (The Midnight Hour) has crafted a mossy modern gothic drenched in gore. In northern Louisiana, little girls die at the hands of a twisted villain, and the author's detached style makes the killings' gruesomeness especially hard to take. The psychotic murderer has kidnapped four girls over the course of a decade, and he's ready to strike again. Will the next victim be eight-year-old Sara, weight-conscious daughter of broke, divorced Olivia Morrison? Or will it be eight-year-old Chloe, glamorous offspring of single dad Seth Archer, Olivia's stepcousin? Livvy and Seth remain blissfully ignorant of lurking danger, consumed with the welter of contradictory emotions kicked up by the ongoing drama in their family. Raised by her stepfamily, the wealthy Archer clan, Livvy left La Angelle Plantation nine years ago to become the teen bride of a no-good cowboy. She has just returned to the Louisiana estate, humbled by her greatly reduced circumstances and with daughter Sara in tow. Though she is welcomed back, Livvy is haunted by shadowy, frightening nightmares and the mystery surrounding her mother's death almost 20 years ago. Robards conveys the dusty heat of the Louisiana summer, and has an ear for the nuances of dialogue. But the cast of characters is so big, and the dramatics so unrelenting, that readers never have a chance to fully absorb the dynamics of the clan, and the serial killings remain an unintegrated subplot till the very end. When the bogeyman makes a move close to home, and Livvy and Seth get romantically involved, the murder mystery and the love story finally, satisfyingly, converge. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A grisly romance about stepcousins who become lovers, and a serial killer who murders eight-year-old girls and then stuffs them like moose heads. Olivia Archer Morrison and her daughter, Sara, return to LaAngelle Plantation in northern Louisiana, where Livvy was raised. Just the sight of her causes Big John, the Archer family patriarch, to keel over with a stroke. Livvy, a divorced single mom who had been a teenage hell-raiser, was brought up by the Archers, but shes not one of them by blood. Her mother, Selena, married into the family and shortly afterward was found dead in a lake on the property. In her old bedroom at LaAngelle, Livvy has nightmares about Selenas death and wakes smelling her mothers perfume, White Shoulders. This must be her imagination, right? Any romance reader these days knows that spirits and ghosts of all kinds watch over protagonists in danger from human monsters with their own agendas. As Livvy tries to remember the events of her mothers death, Robards (The Midnight Hour, p. 1691, etc.) fills us in on the multiple murders committed more than 20 years ago by a serial killer who preys on little girls the same age as Sara. She leads us through the last night on earth of each of several children, right up to the time a chloroformed rag blacks out their futures. Also keeping Livvy safe is family scion Seth Archer, a stern big-brother figure to her when they were growing up who has begun to look at her cutoff jeans in a whole new way. Livvy and Seth, divorced with a daughter as well, cement a relationship and a home as the danger the reader knows will never hurt them comes closer and closer. Robards does a decent job mixing elements of family, love, and mayhem. Not one of her most exciting efforts, but fans wont be disappointed. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

For the first time since a disastrous elopement led to her estrangement from her wealthy stepfamily, Olivia Archer Morrison returns with her daughter, Sara, to the Louisiana estate on which she grew up. Olivia has many unhappy memories of her childhood, but noen of the mother who drowned when she was a child. Soon after returning, however, she begins hearing her mother's voice telling her to run away, smelling her mother's perfume, and having "dreams" in which someone pulls her mother under water. Meanwhile, Sara has begun waking up screaming, insisting that a vampire has been in her room. Robards (The Senator's Wife) has combined edge-of-your-seat suspense with a nicely developed romance to produce a real page-turner. This should have parents thinking twice about their children's nightmares-maybe there really is a monster under the bed! Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.
--Elizabeth Mary Mellett, Brookline P.L., MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Mom, I wet the bed." The small, shamed voice and the little hand that went with it tugged Louise Hardin out of a deep sleep. She opened one groggy eye to discover her daughter Melissa, standing at her bedside in the darkened room. Behind her, the alarm clock glowed the time: one a.m.

"Mom." Missy's hand tugged once more at the long sleeve of Louise's pale green nylon nightgown.

"Oh, Missy, no! Not again." Louise's whisper was despairing as she rolled out of bed, careful not to disturb her husband, Brock, who slumbered peacefully beside her. Brock had to get up early, at quarter to seven, to be at the office by eight. As he said, the rest of them could sleep all day if they chose, but he had to earn a living. Besides, he hated the fact that Missy sometimes still wet the bed. He was a pediatrician, he knew Missy should be over wetting the bed by now, and he tended to take her frequent accidents personally.

Consequently, Louise, Missy, and her ten-year-old sister, Heidi, conspired to conceal Missy's accidents whenever possible.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Missy offered in a tiny voice when they gained the relative safety of the hallway outside the bedroom. The blue shag carpet felt soft and warm beneath Louise's bare feet. Through the hall window, left uncurtained because it was small and high and on the second floor, Louise could see pinpricks of tiny stars and a wan sickle moon drifting against the black sky. "At least this time I dreamed I was on the potty. It seemed so real! And then I was all wet, and I woke up and I wasn't on the potty at all."

"All your dreams seem so real." If Louise's voice was just a tad dry, she couldn't help it. She was really, really tired, and this was getting to be almost a nightly occurrence. As a seven-year-old, Missy was getting her up at night almost as much as she had when she was a baby.

Light glowed around the partially closed door of the hall bathroom, illuminating the path to Missy's bedroom, which was at the far end of the hall, past Heidi's bedroom and a smaller guest bedroom. Louise had started leaving the light on at night because, in addition to wetting her bed, Missy had suddenly become afraid of the dark. She had nightmares about monsters hiding in her room and watching her as she slept. Sometimes she woke up screaming, and Louise would jump from bed like she had been shot and race down the hall to find her daughter huddled in the center of her bed, in a ball, with the covers pulled over her head, crying her eyes out and gasping something that made no sense. Inevitably, Louise ended up bringing Missy into bed with her and Brock, a practice of which he strongly disapproved. That, Brock informed her, was undoubtedly a large part of Missy's problem. Louise treated her like a baby, rewarding her misdeeds by giving her attention (which was what Brock said she wanted all along) when Missy should have been disciplined instead. Louise knew that Brock probably knew best--as he frequently pointed out, he was the expert--but she could not find it in her heart to punish her seven-year-old daughter for being afraid of the dark. Or for wetting the bed. Or, as Brock said, for nearly anything at all.

The ammonialike smell of urine struck Louise in the face as soon as she stepped inside Missy's room. She sighed. Missy's hand twitched in hers.

"I'm really sorry, Mom," Missy offered again.

Without a word, Louise let go of Missy's hand, closed the door, turned on the light, and crossed to the chest to extract a clean nightgown from a drawer. When she turned around, nightgown in hand, she was frowning. Maybe Brock was right, she thought. Maybe she should try being a little tougher on Missy. She was really becoming tired of getting up in the middle of almost every single night.

Accustomed to the ritual, Missy had already pulled her wet nightgown off and was in the act of dropping it on the floor. Lips thinning, Louise moved to her daughter's side and tugged the dry nightgown over Missy's head. As the gown fell into place, she reached around behind Missy's neck to free the long dark brown braid of her daughter's hair. When Missy glanced quickly up at her, her big hazel eyes questioning, Louise gave the braid a small tug.

"You can help me change the sheets," she said, with more sternness than was usual for her.

"Are you mad at me, Mom?" Missy asked humbly, as the two of them worked together to strip the wet sheets from the bed. Louise's heart smote her. Missy was so very little, after all. And she was small for her age. She'd been born six weeks premature, and Louise had often thought that her early arrival might account for some of Missy's problems. Her body had just not yet matured as much as that of most seven-year-olds. Brock, of course, said that was nonsense.

Damn Brock.

"No, baby, I'm not mad at you." Her task made easier by the vinyl cover that saved the mattress from total ruin, Louise carefully tucked in the corners of the clean sheets that were kept, along with spare blankets, in a trunk at the foot of Missy's bed. She smoothed a pink wool blanket over the sheets and pulled back a corner. "Hop in."

"Don't tell Daddy," Missy said, obeying.

"I won't." It was a ritual, these words. Some part of Louise felt it was wrong to promise to keep something a secret from Missy's father, but the larger, practical part didn't want to listen to Brock's lectures if he discovered that Missy had wet the bed again. She didn't want Missy to have to listen to them, either. No matter whether Brock was the expert or not.

Louise tucked the clean, dry bedclothes around her daughter as Missy snuggled onto her side, a small smile curving her lips as her cheek burrowed deep into the pillow with its tiny white hearts on a deep pink background.

"Good night, baby." Louise brushed her lips across the warmth of her daughter's exposed cheek, and straightened.

"I love you, Mommy." Missy's voice was already sleepy, and her eyelashes were beginning to droop.

"I love you, too, Miss Mouse. Now go back to sleep." Louise gathered up the wet bedding and nightgown.

"Leave the bathroom light on."

"I will," Louise promised.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 038531972X
• ISBN 13: 9780385319720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 313