cover image On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor

On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor

Jaime Jo Wright. Bethany House, $15.99 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-7642-3390-6

Wright (Echoes Among the Stones) captivates with this eerie story of lost Civil War gold and a haunted manor. In 1885, Adria Fontaine is sent to Foxglove Manor, a massive estate overlooking Lake Superior that's owned by her father's business partner, to recover after a suicide attempt; secretly she plans to help her father recover stolen gold he hid there during the war. In the present, Kailey Gibson returns to Foxglove Manor as a nurse's aide hoping to confront and move past the trauma of her brief kidnapping during a family vacation at the manor when she was a child. Upon their arrivals, both Adria and Kailey are pulled in by the eerie feeling that pervades Foxglove Manor and the story of Lucy, the ghost that purportedly haunts it, and discover the manor's connection to the Confederacy. When Adria's father threatens her with permanent institutionalization, Adria ramps up her search effort, and, in the present, a local girl is briefly kidnapped in a manner mirroring Kailey's own childhood experience, prompting Kailey to try to unlock the memories she had chosen to forget. Both must work with the manor's staff to figure out what the ghosts of Foxglove Manor want, and finally put them to rest. While spiritual elements are subtle, Wright's fans will be thrilled with this haunting tale. (June)