This spooky dual timeline gothic, set in 2015, is predicated on a 1955 murder. The heir to Leighcrest house searches for the truth about her white ancestry and the mysterious death of a Black musician, whilst unearthing secrets which will upend everything she knows about her family.
In Revere, Mississippi, 1955, Mady (Mary Dell Leigh), was three when her father, William Leigh, ran off and her mother took Mady to Iowa to begin a new life. Mady has neither met her father, presumed dead, nor any of her relatives, including William’s only sister, her aunt, Imogen. Following Imogen’s death, Mady, now in her late 50s, becomes sole heir to Leighcrest, a rundown, neglected mansion chock-a-block with family heirlooms and furniture and the accumulation of 55 years of Leigh presence. What the house does not contain is any Leigh family portraits. In Imogen’s specially built ‘museum’ in the rotunda, there is one large portrait of Bo Washington, the brilliant musician who committed suicide at Leighcrest.
Mady’s arrival prompts a whirlwind tour from Naomi Washington, who turns down an offer to help clear and clean the house. Days later, overwhelmed by the house’s many attempts to hinder progress, young Henry Washington, Naomi’s son, shows up willing to help. The wealthy white Leighs and the poor Black Washingtons have been connected for generations, and it’s Mady’s job to find out what those connections now mean. An out-of-the-blue note from her long-lost father begs Mady to bring him to Leighcrest. He may be the only answer to Mady’s many questions about what really happened in 1955.
Johnson’s creation of Leighcrest is spot on and so eerie and macabre, as the house takes on a life of its own. I wasn’t initially sure about Mady’s easy dismissal of the strange things the house throws at her, but at times she admits to being afraid, and the whole premise works spectacularly. Mady is easy to like, means well and has a stiff backbone. Facts come to light in a slow, sometimes haphazard fashion which ups the plot tension, making this a superb read.
All the characters live and breathe on the page, and the Mississippi zeitgeist runs through the novel, particularly through music. Race is a strong theme as one might expect and Johnson plays with known tropes to effect, eg: the acceptance of young Black and white children being in each other’s company and how that alters in young adulthood. Some characters ooze a sense of an underlying threat, or seem to have a hidden alter-ego that will burst forth any moment to overwhelm Mady. How did Mady’s father and aunt come to have such a strong relationship with Bo? What do the present day Washingtons feel the Leighs owe them?
Mady’s trek through this old mystery is exciting, fast-paced and scary. Highly recommended from this reviewer.