SILENCE NEVER BETRAYS

Many years ago, I discovered a maxim that has remained among my favorite quotations, a saying attributed to a Chinese philosopher who penned the line, “Silence is a true thing and never betrays.”   The image of an old live oak voicing this statement always comes to mind when I read the words that became the last sentence of a book I’ve written entitled SILENCE NEVER BETRAYS.  It’s my latest novel, an ebook released by Border Press this past week on 14 June.

The dark novel is set in bayou country, Louisiana and centers on an old mansion and its owner, Hadrian Boswell, an eccentric who gains notoriety as a mischief maker and whose last mischief before dying involves voodoo houngans.  It’s a story with the steamy ingredients of a southern Gothic: house guests who are frightened out of their sleep by Hadrian; a wild boat ride with Hadrian steering a rowboat in darkness at Last Island, Louisiana; Waverly, the spurned wife of Hadrian who vows vengeance because Hadrian refuses to consummate their marriage; King, a manservant who has ambivalent feelings about his eccentric employer and wishes to kill him; and Joseph, a young artist who moves into the mansion but resents Hadrian’s patronage. The surprise ending includes a scientific discovery and a strange transformation in Hadrian’s behavior that eclipses his past eccentricity.

One publisher who reviewed the manuscript of SILENCE NEVER BETRAYS wrote that he envisioned a movie being made of the story.  Well, HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE was filmed nearby on the old River Road in Louisiana!

This is an e-book with a handsome cover, the photograph rendered by Victoria Sullivan (author of Adoption) and designed by Martin Romero, my grandson.  Click on http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66678 to download  a novel that underlines the idea that if all those ancient live oaks in Louisiana could speak, they’d tell some dark stories…however SILENCE NEVER BETRAYS!