Description
In 1888, Gideon Blake's body was discovered, mutilated almost beyond recognition, in the garden behind his Gothic Revival mansion in what looked like an act of black magic and blood sacrifice. Since then, Blake House has passed quickly through a series of owners. None of them ever succeeded in restoring Blake House to its former glory, for it was once a magnificent structure. But all of them agree that Blake House is haunted. All of them are right. Now the historic structure lies on the brink of ruin. Without the right tenant, Gideon Blake's last stronghold will be condemned, leaving his spirit without an anchor to the physical world. For the first time in the more than one hundred years since his murder, Gideon needs someone who can move beyond the walls of Blake House. Someone who can help restore it to its former glory. Someone he can trust with the secret of his existence. What's left of his life depends on it. Running from the ghosts of her past, Elizabeth Griffin retreats to her dimly remembered childhood home of Whitfield, hoping it's the one place where her past cannot find her. Against all common sense and well meant advice, Elizabeth feels a strange kinship with the decaying structure. As a historian, part of her simply wants to restore an endangered relic. But a deeper part of her knows the wreck of a house is an apt metaphor for the state of her own soul: if she can save one, maybe there is hope for the other. But Elizabeth and Gideon soon learn that there is more than one kind of ghost; that some hauntings emanate from flesh and blood; that 'living history' is more than a metaphor; that walls can imprison just as easily as they can shelter. Meanwhile, they have one hell of a fight on their hands. Not everyone in Whitfield wants to see Blake House resurrected, and only some of their enemies are human. But all of them are dangerous.
Chapter One: Trapped
