Kudzu

After a painful divorce, Casey returns to the haven of her childhood, great-grandmother Weesie’s tiny log cabin. Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia, the cabin rekindles memories of her happiest years as a young child enjoying Granny Weesie’s tales of treasure. Casey seeks a peaceful refuge she will share only with her cat, Smokey. However, much more than early memories await Casey in Bluejay, Georgia. Weesie’s childhood diary turns up in the cabin.

The scrawled pages transport Casey back into the late nineteenth century. Far from finding the peaceful time she expects there, she uncovers a web of adultery, murder and intrigue that threatens to entangle Casey’s twenty-first century life. That life threatens to become more complex when her new neighbor turns out to be a handsome victim of his own marital disaster.

Velma Lou seldom does anything altruistic. Hiring her cousin, Casey, as a reporter for her newspaper, The Bluejay Bugle, is no exception. Like the voracious vine, Velma Lou has learned the hard way to use her beauty to trap and ensnare. As Casey is drawn deeper into Weesie’s life and times, her “real” life becomes more complicated. by her growing attraction to Lee. Some strange occurrences happen in the cabin mirrored by tales of ghostly sightings in her family history. As she travels back to 1879, she meets an intriguing cast of characters.

Donald Stuart, Lillith’s faithful lover, David, his evil-hearted twin brother, Ma and Da Garrett, Louisa’s parents and her own direct ancestors, Louisa’s brothers and the inhabitants of early Bluejay. When Casey becomes involved with a battered wife as she followers the case for the paper, she incurs the ire of an abusive husband, Zeke. Zeke believes he has every right to chastise his own wife and child. Casey begins to take his irate threats seriously when her car is sabotaged. Even Casey has to believe the number of life-threatening happenings is no coincidence.