6The year 1898 finds young Jim Wilcox enjoying a privileged life in beautiful coastal Elizabeth City, North Carolina, but his world blazes under a rising tide of Southern intrigue and violence. After Jim falls in love with Nell Cropsey, a newcomer from Brooklyn, he gradually drifts into ragged torment from her habitual rudeness and unspeakable secrets. Then twenty-year-old Nell, who claims to be nineteen, disappears from her riverside home on a cold moonlit night in November 1901. Within days, her mysterious disappearance becomes a national sensation. Local mobs point angry fingers at Jim, but has another person cleverly covered an unthinkable sin? William E. Dunstan brings old twisted wounds to stunning light in the pages of this nonfiction novel, accurately describing historical figures and events but told also by imagining Jim's thoughts and conversations. Braving the thorns of fate, Jim finds himself trapped in a searing tapestry framed by love and treachery, loyalty and betrayal, truth and dishonor. The rich narrative shows impeccable research and unfolds with masterful intensity and compassion, from its gripping beginning to haunting ending. A gifted educator and writer, William E. Dunstan writes and conducts research as a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.