Local legend has it that the house is haunted, and with every passing day Declan's belief in the ghostly presence grows. He is seeing visions of days from a century past, and experiencing sensations of terror and nearly unbearable grief-sensations not his own, but those of a stranger. But the days spent in total isolation in the empty house take a toll. So when the opportunity to buy the house comes up, Declan jumps at the chance to live out a dream.ĭetermined to restore Manet Hall to its former splendor, Declan begins the daunting renovation room by room, relying on his own labor and skills. All he knew was that ever since he first saw Manet Hall, he'd been enchanted-and obsessed-with it. (Oct.#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents a novel set deep in the bayou of Louisiana-where the only witness to a long-ago tragedy is a once-grand house…ĭeclan Fitzgerald had always been the family maverick, but even he couldn't understand his impulse to buy a dilapidated mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans.

Roberts's role reversal-here it is the male character who hears voices and even swoons-gives her faithful readers a little extra thrill, and the lush setting and the satisfying if predictable romance round out the package. In the end, only Lena can bring him back from the tragic past that threatens to engulf him.

Abigail's story, which unfolds in 1900, is woven so tightly with Declan's that he finds it difficult to escape her grasp. The cries are followed by voices, particularly that of Abigail Manet, the baby's mother.

As Declan digs deeper at the Hall, he often hears a baby crying. Declan encounters an additional challenge in the person of Cajun beauty and bar owner Lena Simone, who has her own dark history and a surprising connection to Manet Hall. But Manet Hall comes with a dark history, and restoring it means uncovering its past, which includes rape, murder and betrayal.

Now, on the eve of his wedding, Declan leaves Boston, the law and his fiancée, buys the decrepit hall and embarks on a mission to restore it with his own sweat, blood and money. Declan Fitzgerald, a Harvard-educated Boston lawyer, has longed to possess Manet Hall ever since he and his friend, Remy Payne, broke into the old place as drunken students on a lark. Triple-platinum romance doyenne Roberts spins a tale of bayou passions old and new in her latest romantic suspense novel, set on the grounds of a dilapidated postbellum mansion outside New Orleans.

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