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The Gates of Evangeline

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The Gates of Evangeline

By: Hester Young
Narrated by: January LaVoy
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For fans of Tana French and Gillian Flynn, THE GATES OF EVANGELINE is the addictive first book in a fantastic new crime series, that will have you guessing until the very end.

When grieving mother and New York journalist Charlie Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about children after her only son passes away, she’s sure that she’s lost her mind. Yet she soon realizes these are not the hallucinations of a bereaved mother. They are messages and warnings that will help Charlie and the children she sees—if she can make sense of them.

The disturbing images lead her from her home in suburban New York City to small-town Louisiana, where she takes a commission to write a true-crime book based on the case of Gabriel Deveau, the young heir to a wealthy and infamous Southern family, whose kidnapping thirty years ago has never been solved. There she meets the Deveau family, none of whom are telling the full truth about the night Gabriel disappeared. And as she uncovers long-buried secrets of love, money, betrayal, and murder, the facts begin to implicate those she most wants to trust—and her visions reveal an evil closer than she could have imagined.

 Crime Crime Fiction Genre Fiction Small Town & Rural Supernatural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Paranormal Fiction New York
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Continue the series
The Shimmering Road cover art
The Shimmering Road By: Hester Young

Critic reviews

This sweeping, hypnotic debut is from a young American with a fresh voice and a taste for the lush, Gothic world of the American Deep South… The incestuous atmosphere is beautifully evoked.. Eerie and haunting, the novel is as addictive as mint juleps served by the servants in white gloves on the veranda… and just as creepy.
A grieving mother's eerie dreams turn out to be clues to an even eerier mystery.
In this spooky thriller, everyone’s a suspect and the plot twists will keep you guessing.
What a delicious book! Gripping and atmospheric - with a heart-stopping twist - The Gates of Evangeline is an imaginative blend of sothern gothic, family epic, and spooky whodunit. Trust me: you won't just read Hester Young's debut, you will absorb this gorgeous novel using all 'six' senses.
Part riveting murder mystery, part supernatural ghost story, Hester Young’s The Gates of Evangelineis an atmospheric novel armed with a stash of complex thrills and spooky chills… At times dark and disturbing, other times optimistic and heart-warming, The Gates of Evangeline is the type of book I wished would never end. Thankfully the Charlie Cates series is just beginning.
The Gates of Evangelineis gripping, with a tremendous sense of place.
Hester Young's The Gates of Evangeline is not just a riveting story about the search for a long-missing child. It's also a powerful and haunting examination of a mother's grief and her long road to recovery. Hester Young's protagonist, Charlotte 'Charlie' Cates, is tough and vulnerable, wounded and fearless, and I simply could not stop reading this thrilling, beautifully written southern gothic mystery. I can't wait for the next entry in this captivating new series.
Step through The Gates of Evangeline with Charlotte Cates, a grief-stricken Northerner tasked with uncovering a Southern dynasty's dark secrets. Hair-raising and heart-rending, Hester Young's first novel is one of buried shame, children taken too soon, and, ultimately, of immense true love that binds across the mortal divide.
The hothouse atmosphere of Evangeline and the tortuous and tangled motives of its denizens make for an enjoyable puzzle box of a mystery. An eerie but inviting debut.
In Hester Young's haunted Louisiana, the ghostly labyrinth of the past opens its great doors to deliver up a lush gothic thriller. The Gates of Evangeline is a darkly marvelous debut, a classic whodunnit stitched with otherworldly chills.
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Overly dramatic reading. Central mystery was very easily guessed early on. Most of the peripheral issues were pretty obvious too. That said, there was a certain pull to the story.

Not great, but has something.

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