by Sandra Dallas, 2006 (Author of The Persian Pickle Club)
Pretty good book. Nora Bondurant of Denver gets called to Natchez, Mississippi, because her Aunt Amalia was murdered and she is the sole heir. Turns out the Aunt was really her grandma and she was murdered by Bayard Lott, a white man who loved her all her life, probably raped her, and saw her in bed with her “slave,” Ezra. Nora finds all this out by the end of the book. Everyone thought Bayard was the father of Nora’s dad, but no one knew for sure.
The mansion she inherits is called Avoca and it is in terrible, run-down shape. Nora never even knew she had relatives – her Dad died when he was 25. So, she gets a telegram to come to Natchez and finds all this out.
Nora was recently divorced and her ex-husband died shortly after so she has no ties to Denver except her Mom and Step-Dad, Henry, whom when loves.
We find out 3/4 way through why she divorced David – she caught him in bed with his best friend, Author, and why he died – flew airplane into Lookout Mountain.
This is all set in 1933 which was neat but also caused difficulties – don’t think she did a good job staying “old.”
Nora comes to terms with her love, guilt over David after spending time at Avoca with Aunt Polly and Ezra and also time in the South.
She eventually decides to live in the Billiard House of Avoca and let Avoca crumble.
You don’t find out about Ezra and Amalia’s love until the last pages and no time is spent throughout the book presenting it, building up to it. We find out that contrary to belief, Bayard Lott didn’t kill himself after he shot Amalia – Ezra shot him with the “Captain’s” gun and threw the gun in the river. Bayard’s gun was assumed to be the murder-suicide weapon. It was only the murder weapon.