The Jexville Chronicles
The Jexville Chronicles
By Carolyn Haines
These three books are tentatively linked through the McVay family line, but in three distinctly different time periods. I want to tell you a little of how these books came to be written. I was a horse crazy girl–and still am. SUMMER OF THE REDEEMERS is a coming of age story that blends that love of horses, the deception in the hearts of some people, and what it means to confront a world where justice isn't guaranteed. It's set in 1963 Mississippi. TOUCHED is set in the same area in 1926 and involved a young girl who is dancing (frowned upon in Jexville) and becomes prophetic. It's a story of a mother's love for her child and the power of love to heal and bring courage to the forefront. JUDAS BURNING is contemporary and set in the same region around another member of the McVay family. It's a more traditional murder mystery with some of the magic and wonder of the Pascagoula River system included
Summer of the Redeemers
Carolyn Haines
$32.00 $29.76This was my first published novel. It’s a coming of age story, about a young girl, Bekkah Rich, who lives on a red dirt road in rural Mississippi in the ‘60s. Bekkah is a good girl, though a bit horse crazy and confronting the time when she begins pulling away from her family and trying to discover who she is. The ‘60s in Mississippi were a tumultuous time, and Bekkah confronts some of those issues. But the driving story of the book involves the abduction of an infant, Maebelle VanCamp Waltman, the baby sister of Bekkah’s best friend. Bekkah believes members of a religious cult are to blame, but she when and Alice start investigating, they bite off more than they bargain for. When I was growing up, I was the most horse-crazy kid in the world. And I love local legends and folk lore. The story of Kali Oka Road and Cry Baby Creek originated in Mobile County, but I “borrowed” them for my purposes in this novel. Not a single event in this book happened, but there is a lot of emotional truth between the covers.
Touched
Carolyn Haines
$32.00 $29.76This book involves members of the same family as in SUMMER OF THE REDEEMERS, the McVay family. But it’s set in 1926 in the same community of Jexville. Conflicts in a small Southern town bubble to the surface in this tale of repression and prophecy, the second book in The Jexville Chronicles trilogy. Sixteen-year-old Mattie comes to Mississippi in the summer of 1926 as a mail-order bride and finds a quiet, deeply religious community wrapped in rigid views of a woman’s proper role. When Duncan McVay, the nine-year-old daughter of Jexville’s most controversial woman, is struck by lightning while dancing, the townspeople are horrified when she doesn’t die but survives—and is given the gift of prophecy. Abused and mistreated by her handsome husband, Mattie defends Duncan. She finds comfort in her friendship with JoHanna and the McVay family, but defying the town has consequences. When a hurricane lashes the area, the townspeople blame Duncan. Action leads to tragedy. For both Mattie and Johanna, the future holds heartache, but ultimately a long-awaited and stunningly executed revenge.
Judas Burning
Carolyn Haines
$30.00 $27.90In the concluding story of The Jexville Chronicles trilogy, Dixon Sinclair moves to Jexville to run the local paper, resolve the turmoil over her father’s murder. She moves into the McVay house, which is her heritage. Running the local paper is her last-ditch attempt to save herself. Two teenage girls disappear from a sandbar on the Pascagoula River. When the bodies are found, hung and burned, it’s clear that something other than simple murder is at work. Couple that with attacks on the local Catholic Church, and Dixon’s research brings up the possibility of Judas burnings—a ritual to exorcise evil. Dixon trusts no one, but she must work with Sheriff J.D. Horton even though she suspects he’s protecting an older river man, Eustace, and his companion, a much younger and psychologically damaged woman. When the investigative focus shifts to a young Mexican transient, the town is ready to mete out justice, unless Dixon and J.D. move to stop it.
