A Light on the Veranda

Publisher: Random House/Ballantine 2000; Sourcebooks Landmark reissue March 2012

ISBN: 1402222734, 978-1402222733

Fiction

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A “stand-alone” sequel to Midnight on Julia Street, this novel tells the story of Daphne Duvallon, a wayward southern belle and Juilliard-trained harpist, who returns to Natchez, Mississippi from New York’s cut-throat classical music world, weary from professional battles and personal despair. Still wounded from the uproar that ricocheted through her family when she ditched Jack Ebert, her philandering groom, literally at the altar, she has an unexpected rendezvous with her future when she meets Simon Hopkins, a nationally-renown nature photographer with a dark secret of his own. Reinventing her life as a jazz musician while sorting through a series of bizarre collisions with her nineteenth century ancestors—and Simon’s as well—Daphne begins to get the feeling that she might well be better off making her way as a second-rate musician at society weddings than as a wildly successful woman band leader whose past is deeply rooted in the “Land that Time Forgot.”

In this wonderful sequel to Midnight on Julia Street (1999), Daphne Duvallon leaves her native New Orleans for New York City after abandoning her philandering fiance at the altar in front of 500 guests. Now her brother, King, wants her to come back south for his wedding in Natchez. A talented Julliard-trained harpist, the trip truly becomes a life-altering experience when she meets Sim Hopkins, a nature photographer.  Both are cautious, and for good reason, as the distant past impacts their future, cued by the music of a mysterious harp. This ghostly instrument opens a gateway to a sequence of tragic events beginning in the late 1790s. Thoroughly engaging in its own right.

Patty Engelmann- American Library Association

As someone well acquainted with Natchez, the setting for A LIGHT ON THE VERANDA, I found this book to be an honest reflection of a unique town lost in time. It’s both engrossing and entertaining and shows a vivid familiarity with the Mississippi landscape, both past and present, as it gracefully weaves dual story lines. In no way a frothy romance, VERANDA is a richly rewarding read brimming with local color, humor, sexual tension, environmental issues and even a fun glimpse into the world of jazz bands.

Five-Star review, Amazon.com