Search - Midnight Bayou

Wow, what a story. This is why I love Nora Roberts' books...romance, both past and present, and a ghost!!! Loved it. Read it in two days because I was home from work sick. Couldn't put it down and hated to see it end.

There are ghosts in Manet Hall. The aging plantation mansion long ago lost its luster and has been sold and resold as owners flee the souls that still inhabit its rooms, playing out a long-ago tragedy. But former Boston lawyer Declan Fitzgerald is drawn to the house after seeing it on a visit to the city. He ditches his big-time law career and fancy fiancée, packs his bags, and relocates to Louisiana, where he plans to restore the mansion's former glory.

Upon his arrival, he meets the lovely Angelina Simone, a barkeep raised on the bayou, who like him has her own set of emotional baggage. And slowly it becomes clear that Angelina has a strange and mysterious connection to the past events replaying themselves in Declan's new home. Not even thumps in the day and night, his unsettling visions and episodes of sleepwalking, or Angelina's rebuffs make Declan give up his mission of uncovering that connection. He single-mindedly pursues his goal amid the slamming doors and flying cups and saucers, and -- through an amusing role reversal -- his relationship with Angelina blossoms.

Although you have to suspend all sense of reality to accept the supernatural happenings as everyday fact at Manet Hall, Midnight Bayou is a fast and entertaining read. Nora Roberts's legions of fans will eat it up. (G. M. Dixon)

I read this as an unabridged audiobook which is usually an advantage for me but I may have been better off reading the paperback version because I wasn’t thrilled with the male narrator who reads the bulk of the book. His voice kept putting me off and kept me at a distance from the story or maybe I should face the fact that the romance just wasn’t that great. I guess the combination of the two didn't help.

The prologue details some nasty business featuring rape, murder and madness that went down in the 1800’s. Just when it had my full attention it leaps forward to 2002 and loses me a bit.

Declan Fitzgerald is 31 and a successful attorney but his heart isn’t in it and he decides to trek across country and purchase a Louisiana mansion with the intent of fixing it up even though he’s no carpenter. Yes folks, this is the mansion where the nasty stuff happened. It is soon revealed that Declan had basically left a fiancee at the altar a few months earlier and the thought occurs to me that he’s running away from life which doesn’t exactly win me over. Almost immediately he starts seeing visions and hearing a baby crying and this intrigues instead of frightens him because, as we're told over and over again, he feels like he is finally exactly where he belongs.

His love interest is local bar owner Angelina (call me Lina because I’m no Angel) whose grandmother lives near Declan’s property. Lina is independent but soon swoons when Declan is near and begins to help him unravel the secrets of the mansion. She’s gorgeous and a good business woman but she was just a bit too distant for me for a large portion of the book. The reasons why were revealed way too late because at that point I had nearly tuned her out.

I found the ghostly aspects of this story much more compelling than the modern day romance. It was all rather by the numbers and “meh” without much emotional connection and the love scenes were a snore. The flashbacks to the past were much more interesting to me and I found myself wishing on more than one occasion that the entire book was set in the past. As the story continues events are revealed to tie in the current day couple to past but it all seemed a little off to me. Not my favorite by Robert’s but not the worst book I’ve ever read either.

This is one of her best romantic mysteries.

Book is set in New Orleans, and has a great story. One of my favorites from Nora Roberts.