Silence Never Betrays

Hadrian Boswell, eccentric owner of The Oaks, an antebellum mansion in a small town in southwestern Louisiana, has a terrible fear of the ghosts that haunt the mansion. To assuage his fears, he instigates nighttime pranks. His black servant and companion, King, alternately despises, and admires him. Because of Hadrian's shenanigans, most townspeople shun him—as do famous artists and writers after they have visited The Oaks. Waverly Bradford has been in love with Hadrian despite their aborted marriage, thirty years earlier, when they were art students in New Orleans. They had married secretly, and because Hadrian could not consummate the marriage, it was annulled. Waverly, living on nearby Deer Island, plans to visit Hadrian now that he has returned to Comeaux to renovate his antebellum mansion. However, the visit is short-lived. Hadrian stages a zombie prank that causes her to flee and vow to take revenge.Meanwhile, Joseph Hollier seeks out Hadrian for art instruction, and Hadrian takes him on. On a wild boat excursion to Lost Island in the Gulf of Mexico, Hadrian permanently damages his right hand trying to escape "cachemars."King plots to get rid of Joseph Hollier; Joseph plots to get rid of Hadrian. Voodoo houngans enter the scene, and Hadrian is pushed or falls from a second-story gallery of The Oaks mansion. He dies in the hospital. Was he pushed? If so, by whom? Is he really dead?

About the Author

Diane Marquart Moore is a writer living in Sewanee, Tennessee during the summer and in New Iberia, Louisiana during the winter. She has written novels, articles, and non-fiction books, has been an editor and is a retired archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Louisiana. Diane has lived in Louisiana, Texas, Maine, Tennessee, and in southern Iran during the reign of the Shahanshah. She writes a weekly blog entitled "A Words Worth."

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