โ Scribed by Priest, Cherie
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The fields at Chickamauga, Georgia--America's oldest national military park--claimed 35,000 casualties during the Civil War. Any good guide will tell you that the grounds are haunted. The battlefield even has its own resident haunt, called Old Green Eyes for his tell-tale luminous gaze. It has long been said that Old Green Eyes intends no harm to those who respect the park. He is no menace, but a guardian of the dead. While he walks, the dead may sleep secure in the knowledge that their rest will be undisturbed. While Old Green Eyes patrols the battlefield, there is nothing to fear, for graves are not robbed and bones are not moved.
But suddenly a different phenomenon starts puzzling and frightening visitors, causing tours to be canceled and rangers to quit their jobs. These new ghosts are no illusions carved out of the low-rolling fog. One by one, the solemn-faced spirits in ragged uniforms show themselves, and one by one, they point a determined arm off into the distance. Why do the soldiers march again, and what has become of their unblinking custodian? The spirits need a go-between, someone who can speak to them, and for them.
Eden Moore is not interested.
But the ghosts aren't taking no for an answer.
Eden Moore sees dead people. To be more precise, she sees ghosts; and it just so happens that in her hometown of Chickamauga, Ga., ghosts seem to be a dime-a-dozen, especially at the memorial park that was once a battlefield where thousands of Confederate and Union soldiers died in the Civil War. Unexpectedly, regular folk in the county have started seeing ghosts of the fallen soldiers-all pointing off into the distance. Eden isn't keen to get involved in the matter until her demented cousin Malachi (who tried to murder her in 2003's Four and Twenty Black Birds, the first volume in this wonderfully eccentric Southern-gothic series) calls her from the local looney-bin, even more freaked out than usual after catching sight of Old Green Eyes, the local legendary supernatural creature. What is it that connects Old Green Eyes to the pointing ghosts on the battlefield? And why is someone shooting at battlefield visitors? Those questions finally entice Eden to play detective and ask the ghosts what it is they want. Priest has brought to life a spunky mixed-race young woman, who does double duty as an able detective and off-beat metaphysical magnet.
Copyright ยฉ Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Civil War battlefield at Chickamauga, Georgia, where thousands of Confederate and Union soldiers died, is the country's oldest national military park. There have long been tales of sighting Old Green Eyes, said to be the guardian of the battle's dead, and now there's a new wrinkle. To wit, sightings of ghosts trying to communicate vocally but ultimately resorting to pointing frustratedly across the battlefield. What do they want? Enter Eden Moore, first introduced in Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds (2005), who enlists the aid of a couple of college classmates to try to photograph and record the ghosts. All hell breaks loose as a pair of celebrity ghost hunters shows up, and also a crazed killer shooting at anything that moves on the field. The plot, which begins slowly by setting the stage, builds a roiling crescendo and climaxes in an explosive scene at the top of the tower at the battlefield's edge. The flamboyant mix of ghosts, the preternatural Old Green Eyes, and murder keeps one on edge. Sally Estes
Copyright ยฉ American Library Association. All rights reserved
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
The fields at Chickamauga, Georgia--America's oldest national military park--claimed 35,000 casualties during the Civil War. Any good guide will tell you that the grounds are haunted. The battlefield even has its own resident haunt, called Old Green Eyes for his tell-tale luminous gaze. It has long