Steamboat gothic is a type of architecture patterned after the Missisippi River boats of the late 1800s. in ante-bellum Richmond, a proliferate riverboat gambler befriends a soon to be widowed belle of the South whom he eventually marries. For her he reforms and purchases a plantation estate (a steamboat gothic mansion) on the Louisiana River Road where he manages to turn his stepchildren into mirror images of his former self: the stepson a gambler and scamp; the stepdaughter, through indulgence of her every whim, the proverbial prodigal child. This could be "Dallas" 80 years earlier. Mrs. Keyes continues her detailed research into the life and times of Cajun Louisiana complete with bibliography. Reading her vivid descriptions is half of the enjoyment of her novels.

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