Washington Square Secrets is a historical Southern Gothic series with a paranormal/parapsychology slant by Carrie Dalby.
Return to old Mobile–or visit for the first time–and get to know the charm and hostilities within this bay front city with small town vibes. The neighborhood spanned dozens of blocks south of Government Street between Broad Street on the east and Michigan Avenue on the west. The picturesque Washington Square area is now called the Oakleigh Garden District.
Carrie has already written several stories featuring this neighborhood (including the Melling mansion in The Possession Chronicles and the Allen-Graves house in The Malevolent Trilogy.) Now it’s time to explore new characters, though a few old friends will stop by.
Book one, Discernment, is set in September-November 1910. You can buy it now.
Newly wed and newly arrived in Mobile, Alvin and Deborah Farley attempt to settle into the Washington Square neighborhood in September 1910, but all is not peaceful in the idyllic, tree-lined streets.
Suffering under widowed Aunt Catherine’s jealousy and control of the household, Deborah is also struggling with an increase of ghostly apparitions and messages from beyond. While Alvin is busy with his teaching position at Barton Academy, Deborah seeks to establish her place in their new home and bring peace to neighbor Sean Spunner, who is tormented by the weight of his dead fiancée’s haunting.
Will Deborah be able to further develop her powers as a medium to master her weaknesses and banish Sean’s oppressor, all while the truth of Catherine’s husband’s death comes to light?
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The majority of book two, Alliance, takes place over the winter of 1912-1913 and is available to read in paperback and ebook.
In December of 1912, Josephine Wolf of Washington Square has three things on her mind: the changing dynamic of home life, her approaching spinsterhood, and the legacy of her lingering childhood nickname.
Josephine’s telepathic and astral skills create a personal web of empowerment for the woman who lives on the fringe of society as an herbalist, but the threads begin to tangle. Her first love walks back into her life the same day she meets a new man in town. Then Josephine crosses paths with the person responsible for the majority of torment she went through in her youth. Armed with her mystic abilities, sibling ties, and strong friendships, Josephine battles her way through heartache and distress in an attempt to build a life with the man she loves while safeguarding her brother’s secrets—and her own.
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Book three, Loyalty, released in August 2024. You can buy it now.
In the autumn of 1920, a murder-suicide shakes the residents of Washington Square. Officer Jim Abbott doesn’t realize the return of his shellshock is only the beginning of his concerns. Jim is assigned to keep tabs on the surviving child, Ernest Hart, who appears to be haunted by the recently departed murderer.
Neighbor Francesca Wilton grows closer to Ernest during her temporary guardianship of him, but his deteriorating emotional state reveals there is more to the seven-year-old than she expected. Then a loss of her own throws her life into further turmoil.
As the haunting looms closer, Francesca involves a friend gifted with telepathic and astral powers, as well as a skilled medium from the neighborhood to rid Ernest from his father’s oppression. In their attempt to save Ernest, Jim becomes entangled in the women’s unconventional abilities on a level he never expected.
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Betrayal released on June 24, 2025 in paperback and ebook.
July 1927 is scalding in Alabama, and it’s not just the humidity. A season of civil unrest sweeps the state as Mobile Police Department motorcycle officer Jim Abbott strives to endure another summer working traffic patrol. Work stresses, financial burdens, and mounting concerns over his adopted son pushing the boundaries with his growing telekinetic abilities have Jim at the boiling point.
Fourteen-year-old Ernest Abbott is eager to win the heart of his first love. After months of private training to hone his telekinesis gives him a perceived edge over the competition, Ernest still thinks he lacks what a society girl wants. When an old family friend enters the young man’s life with an offer to tutor him in the romance department, Ernest accepts the help.
Neighbor Marie Marley arrives just in time to assist Ernest, but her plans are more nefarious than anyone could imagine. Unleashing the biggest threat to strike the Abbotts yet, Marie earns the contempt of Jim and his circle of supernaturally gifted friends. With the allure of power within his grasp, Ernest must decide where his loyalty lies in the final novel in the Washington Square Secrets quartet.
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