What Remains

I recently tuned into Houston's KUHF, the local classical station, and heard an interview with a local author on her new book. The author had the finest voice; her pacing in her comments was perfect as was her enunciation. I wanted to read the book just after hearing her. Her name is Rosemary Poole-Carter, and her new book is "Women of Magdelene." Well, it wasn't available at the library yet, so I ordered a book of hers that they did have entitled "What Remains." This story centers around Isabelle, a woman recently bereft of her Civil War beau, and a journalist named Paul Delahoussaye who has come to the family home of Belle Ombre to return a packet of loveletters Isabelle had written to her fiance. He has fallen in love with her through his surreptitious reading of the letters. Also residing at Belle Ombre are the deceptive and graciously Machiavellian Aunt Delora, her great-uncle Babcock Vasseur and his wife Lydie Vee, a young and rather mischievous cousin Euphrasie and a vital assortment of former slaves who still live at Belle Ombre. Almost immediately a murder (?) and then another takes place and Delora asks Paul to stay on and use his skills as a journalist to find out who is behind this second death. Family secrets are revealed as more sinister things seem to be going on behind the scenes at this plantation home. The language, mannerisms and culture are vibrant in this well-researched book. It feels completely of its time, and one is easily transported there. The character development is wonderful, and the pacing of the mystery is fabulous. It truly is a page-turner. The author truly has a gift, and I really look forward to reading the book she was promoting. Allow me to relate the first sentence as it is just fabulous: "It was Isabelle's turn to sit with the body." I love that! Just 9 words, but do they ever pack a punch! I defy you to not be able to continue reading after that line!

Call it a haunting mystery or a tantalizing romance, or a tantalizing mystery and a haunting romance. WHAT REMAINS is a celebration of the expediency, ingenuity, and indestructibility of Southern women. Set on Belle Ombre Plantation shortly after the Civil War, with characters so real we recognize them, emotions so universal we have all encountered them, the story involves the reader--and after all the sighs and shudders, we are satisfied that justice has been done in an oddly appropriate way. At Belle Ombre, this is called discretion. The ending implies that's not all there is and leaves us eager for the sequel, which must be forthcoming.

Set in the South just after the American Civil War, What Remains by R. Poole-Carter is a grim novel of murder, intrigue, lies, and buried secrets that begins in 1865. Isabelle Ross is a woman mourning the loss of her fiance and joins forces with Paul Delahoussaye, an intrepid journalist, to uncover the truth behind a murderous wall of deception and hidden secrets. Isabelle and Paul must combine their wits and resolve to discover the truth beneath dark and ruthless motives. One of those historical mysteries that are so easy to pick up and so difficult to put down, What Remains is an original, atmospheric, evocative, and deftly woven novel that engages the reader's total attention from first page to last.

Several cuts above the average history-mystery for sure. The author keeps layering on new complications in her plot and energizes the ambiance with lively historical detail (I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, when the heroine momentarily allowed the edge of her hooped skirt to cover the toes of the hero's shoes -- where ARE my smelling salts?). The ending leaves open the possibility of a sequel or two and I am delighted at the prospect of following the young protagonists (and Isabelle's fascinating cousins and aunts) through further adventures in the post-war south.

I thoroughly enjoyed this complex historical mystery, set in Louisiana at the end of the Civil War. The individual characters are fascinating, and the plot intricately complex. Amazingly, the author brings all the various plot threads together for a very satisfactory and startling ending. I am recommending the book to my book club because of the historical insights of the setting and the superb character development.