Washington Square Secrets is a new 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 picturesque Washington Square area is now called the Oakleigh Garden District. The neighborhood spanned dozens of blocks south of Government Street between Broad Street on the east and Michigan Avenue on the west.
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 might 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, is complete and going through final edits. It will release in late Summer 2024.
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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The final book, tentatively titled Desires, is in early editorial stages and will be a 2025 release.
carriedalby.com 