Walking Through Shadows - Softcover

Marshall, Bev

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345483383 ISBN 13: 9780345483386

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2005

Synopsis

When Lloyd Cotton hears that Sheila Barnes is consistently beaten by her daddy, he offers her a room and a job cleaning up around his dairy farm. Despite physical deformity, poverty, and years of abuse, Sheila manages to see the silver lining in every cloud-and her bright spirit touches everyone in the Cotton family, including young Annette who finds an enchanting Best Friend. Stoney Barnes, the handsome boy who milks the cows, is especially taken with Sheila. And when they marry, it seems that God has finally given her the good graces she deserves.

But in a cruel twist of fate, Sheila's body is found in the cornfields. Soon the little town of Zebulon, Mississippi, is awash in scandal. Who would want the innocent young woman dead? Her alcoholic father, her opinionated husband, or perhaps the faithfully married Lloyd Cotton, about whom unsavory rumors swirl?

Surprising secrets will crack open a rural community, and more than one family will suffer in the telling.

About this title

Review

"So mesmerizing, so intriguing, and so beautiful that I was happily out of breath by the time I finished it. Unforgettable."
-Silas House, author of The Coal Tattoo

"This is a moving and beautifully written story that has the same authentic feel for a small southern town as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Olive Ann Burns's Cold Sassy Tree."
-Library Journal

"Marshall's suspense-filled novel grabs you from the first paragraph. The voice is authentic and compelling, and the descriptive details are unusually vivid. You will have difficulty putting this one down."
-Cassandra King, author of The Same Sweet Girls

"Magnificently crafted with powerful characters that tug at the heart and create a spiral of emotions."
-Booklist

About the Author

Bev Marshall grew up in McComb and Gulfport, Mississippi. She holds degrees from the University of Mississippi and Southeastern Louisiana University, where she taught in the English Department. Her short stories have appeared in Xavier Review; Potpourri; Maryland Review; Stories from the Blue Moon Café, Vol. 1; Acts of Discovery; and elsewhere. Her first novel, Walking Through Shadows, was a Featured Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild and a finalist for the Florida Parishes Regional Arts Award for Literature, and was selected by The Times-Picayune as one of the best debut novels of 2002. She lives with her husband, a retired Air Force officer and Delta Air Lines Captain, in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, just down the road from the cage where a live alligator serves as the town's main tourist attraction.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0345483383
• ISBN 13: 9780345483386
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 295