The Girl on Legare Street »

Karen White is the author of eight previous books. She lives with her family near Atlanta, Georgia.

Acclaimed author Karen White returns with the sequel to the national bestseller The House on Tradd Street.

Melanie has grown accustomed to renovating old houses, but she never imagined she'd have to renovate her own life to include her estranged mother. Ginnette Prioleau Middleton left Charleston thirty-five years ago. She's returned wanting to protect the daughter she's never really known after receiving an ominous premonition.

Melanie never wanted to see her mother again, but with some prodding from her partner, Jack Trenholm, she agrees-and begins to rebuild their relationship. Together Melanie and Ginnette buy back their old home. With their combined psychic abilities they expect to unearth some ghosts. But what they find is a vengeful dark spirit whose strength has been growing for decades. It will take unearthing long buried secrets to beat this demon and save what's left of Melanie's family...

Publishers Weekly

In White's less than exciting sequel to The House on Tradd Street, Melanie Middleton reprises her role as the Lowcountry realtor with psychic powers. This time out, she's enlisted to help her estranged mother, opera star Ginnette Prioleau Middleton, buy back her family's ancestral home. Ginnette fears Melanie's in danger from a supernatural force, and she plans to keep her daughter close, even though Melanie's long since written Ginnette off. Meanwhile, local hunk author Jack Trenholm again offers his investigative services to determine and neutralize the threat, and a nosy local reporter is intent on writing a story about Ginnette's return. Jack's attempts at intimacy with Melanie are generally rebuffed, and their “relationship” comes off as annoying background noise compared to the better-handled relationship between Melanie and Ginnette. It doesn't help that the ghostly doings develop at an excruciatingly slow pace, and the reporter's role (of course much more important than it first appears) takes too long to gel. Hopefully, White's next installment will regain the snap of her first outing. (Nov.)