Robert Daines

Since the year 1840, two families have lived under the roof of Charleston’s magnificent Dorchester Mansion: the Dorchesters are White, and their servants, the Walkers, are African-American. In 1923, after a Walker maid steals the diary of her mistress, a trail of blood begins shackling the two families together in manacles that last beyond the grave. In 2012, the deathbed confession of a cold-blooded killer reveals his part in avenging the secrets contained in the diary. Passion, love, rape and murder are the strands in this sordid tapestry of hatred and revenge. (Adult language and graphic descriptions.)