This year is also the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. My hero, Seth, was a witness to the terrible events of that war as an ambulance driver. Sara discovers his letters home in a trunk hidden in the attic of the island house she's renting.
Along with the excerpts, I'll be sharing some photographs that inspired me as I was writing the novel.
In today's excerpt, Sara sees some of Seth's memories from the Battle of Verdun, one of the most horrific battles in human history.
Along with the excerpts, I'll be sharing some photographs that inspired me as I was writing the novel.
In today's excerpt, Sara sees some of Seth's memories from the Battle of Verdun, one of the most horrific battles in human history.
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Sara stepped through the back door onto the moonlit dunes. She wandered across them, looking for Seth, but something had changed. The patch of dunes wasn’t this large on the island. Sara looked down and saw not sand beneath her bare feet, but soil littered with bullet casings and bones. She let out a soft cry of distress. There was an odd, high-pitched whistling above her head and the sky burst into red and yellow brilliance. Sara looked around in confusion. What was this place? she wondered.
Jagged tangles of barbed wire blocked her path, but when she turned around, she was faced with a pit of corpses behind her. Rats swarmed over them, and wriggled under their clothes. Sara let out a choked cry of horror and backed into something. She felt a hand on her shoulder and a scream rose in her throat.
“It’s just me,” Seth said. He looked broodingly down into the pit.
“Where are we?” A huge explosion cut off her words and the ground beneath her feet trembled.
“Verdun.” Seth sighed. “I’m sorry. I was too tired to fight it off tonight. Follow me.” He gave Sara his hand and she clutched it tightly, jumping at every blast. The explosions were constant, the sound hitting them from the left, from the right, from behind, and above them. After one blast, she heard a man scream, a horrible, agonized sound that wore on and on until it suddenly silenced with a gurgle.
They walked over the broken landscape, past trenches and craters, some occupied by the living, some filled with the dead, some with a combination of both. No one seemed to notice them. Another explosion sounded, this one seemingly right at their feet. Sara threw her arms around Seth and hid her face against his back.
He stiffened under her grip, but relaxed after a moment. He gently pulled away and turned to face her. “You don’t need to be afraid. Nothing can hurt you here.”
“Are we in your memories?” Sara asked.
“Yes. It’s not the same each time I come here, though it always ends the same way.”
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About the book:
Newly single, unemployed, and with her savings dwindling to an all-time low, Sara thinks things are finally looking up when she lands a job ghostwriting a popular politician’s biography, and rents the affordable island home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925. Strange things begin to happen as objects break, go missing, and terrifying visions appear, making Sara wonder if Seth ever left, or if she is slowly losing her mind.
She gets no answers from his family who closely guards the secret of his disappearance. Through an old trunk of letters Sara discovers in the attic of her seaside cottage, Sara unravels the mystery and becomes caught up in a tale of greed, lost love, and the horrors of WWI. Will she be the one to break the “Fortner Curse” by helping Seth conquer his demons, and heal both of their hearts in the process?
Available from:
TWCS
Abe Books
Powell's
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