Lori Crane

Margaret and Thomas Speedwell are looking forward to a relaxing vacation with their twin girls Sarah and Emily at the Witch Dance campground near Margaret's home town in Mississippi. The area of Witch Dance not only carries the story of the witches themselves, areas where the witches danced in circles, where grass no longer grows. It is also where the people of the Choctaw tribes settled and buried their people in what are known as the Bynum Mounds. Sarah and Emily run off to play on the Mounds as soon as the family arrives, however only Emily comes back from the Mound. Sarah has disappeared without a trace and Emily won't talk. Margaret is desperate as search efforts and police turn up with nothing. However, Margaret's childhood friend Rich digs up reports from the past about other children disappearing from the same area. They are all children who are twins and none of them have returned. Determined to find her daughter, Margaret will have to accept help from an unlikely and unbelievable source and dig into a story that is centuries old.

An intriguing mystery that combines history and the supernatural for a chilling tale. Lori Crane weaves together the legend of Witch Dance and the stories of the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes in order to concoct a compelling reason for the children to disappear from the Mounds. I was pulled into Chicksah's wife, Salina's story as she dealt with tragedy and found her way into a life changing coven. Margaret is a difficult character, she is a doting mother but clearly suffering from postpartum anxiety. This was a fast paced read where time moved quickly. The mystery and suspense intensify as Salina and Margaret's stories converge as to how and why Sarah was taken. Clues are dotted throughout the book, however some of the twists were very surprising to me. Witch Dance is a shorter read and the a so I felt some details were skipped that could have added a lot more ambiance and suspense to the story. Overall, a unique thriller combining different aspects of historical myths and modern day sleuthing.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.… (plus d'informations)

There is a Mississippi bridge that many consider haunted by victims of a terrible series of crimes by a sociopath around the turn into the twentieth century. Thomas, a Dalton gang member who escaped the gang’s final raid and downfall, travels down to Mississippi where he decides that it is better to have his victims and their wealth come to him, so he buys a somewhat isolated home near the Chunky River and main stagecoach route which he turns into a small inn to attract select settlers heading west and shippers transporting goods. The slightly hidden location allows him to kill his customers late at night, bury their bodies next to the nearby bridge on the Chunky, and incorporate their property into his property. He takes in a poor orphan boy to help him attract customers off the trail and assumes the last name of one of his first victims, Stuckey, to create a veneer of legitimacy, but how long will it be before the local sheriff hears of missing travelers? The author has taken her deep research into the broad outlines of what is known about the murders at the time of discovery and sought to fill in the blanks by fictionally looking at the story from the perpetrator’s point of view prior to discovery. The story is a quick read, but very insightful and engaging for profiling fans of “Criminal Minds” even if set in a much earlier time period. However, there is a scientific flaw in the descriptions of the bodies upon discovery, though I felt this may have been the author’s way of humanizing the victims for the reader.… (plus d'informations)

A story based on folklore based on legend with some tidbits of the truth all rolled into one attention grabbing book. Who knows what may or may not have happened at the turn of the century in the dark backwoods along the Mississippi??

Old man Stuckey has devised a way to steal from the rich AND poor travelers who happened by his home aka his inn. He takes in and involves an orphan boy who is actually even more devious that he...tho he finds THAT out too late. But timing is everything as they say.... If not for the re-building of the bridge spanning the river behind the inn Old Man Stuckey just might have gotten away with murder… (plus d'informations)