But Lori’s not the only one looking for clues. Also driving the tension are Nathaniel’s July 3 deadline (or he’ll have to wait again until next year’s re-enactment of the battle) and the unyielding attention of Evan, the very much alive B&B groundskeeper for the summer, who offers to help with the case. Competing theories, involving treason, a Hatfield-McCoy–type family feud and a missing ring once owned by Abraham Lincoln, as well as numerous historical elements, keep the teen’s predictable, first-person, present-tense narration from growing stale. And in just a few days’ time, Lori not only agrees to solve the mystery of Nathaniel’s death, but falls deeply in love with the soldier. When Lori Chase and her hospitality-industry–driven parents move the family from a snazzy Philadelphia hotel to a bed-and-breakfast in Gettysburg, it’s not long before the 16-year-old begins seeing a dashing yet melancholy Union soldier (although the book’s title implies the opposite) named Nathaniel Pierce. This middle grade novel was inspired by the author's visit to the plantation and her experiences there.Īt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.Fervor for the Civil War never dies neither can one of its soldiers. Laurel Oaks is a thinly disguised version of the legendary Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana, which is on the Smithsonian's list of the ten most haunted places in America.

Shifting back and forth from Lila's world in the present to Daphne's world in the past, the true story of what really happened that fateful night finally comes to light. Daphne's spirit senses that Lila is the very person she's been waiting for, the one who can prove her innocence so her spirit can rest at long last. One spirit eager to tell her story is Daphne, a slave girl at Laurel Oaks in the 1840s, who was blamed for the poisoning deaths of two girls and their mother. But secretly, Lila suspects there are ghostly presences willing to communicate with her, and her alone. When Lila and her family visit Laurel Oaks Plantation in Louisiana, her parents and brother scoff at the claim that the house is haunted. A haunting historical mystery based on real life events, told in the alternating points of view of a contemporary girl and a 19th century slave accused of a horrible crime.

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