"A delightful romance"

Declan Fitzgerald has a thriving law practice and is getting married in three weeks when he realizes he isn't leading the life he wants to live. He ends the engagement, calls off the wedding and moves to dilapidated Louisiana mansion, Manet Hall. Not too long after he moves into his new home, he meets Angelina and deeply falls into real love.

The besotted Declan is determined to marry Lena and he wages a one-man battle to wear down her formidable resistance. Lena is fighting her attraction to Declan for all she's worth because they are replaying the events that happened a hundred years ago to the original owners of Manet Hall, hopefully with happier results.

Nora Roberts has written a beautiful romance centering on a couple who have been reincarnated to fix what went wrong in their previous life together. A haunted house, complete with ghosts, seems genuine when placed in Ms. Roberts' story line. The fast paced, action oriented plot is heading for the best sellers lists as MIDNIGHT BAYOU looks to be an award winner.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted September 13, 2001

Summary

2001 RITA Finalist

The phenomenal #1 New York Times-bestselling author presents a novel set deep in the bayou of Louisiana-where the only witness to a long-ago tragedy is a once-grand house.

Declan Fitzgerald had always been the family maverick, but even he couldn't understand his impulse to buy a dilapidated mansion on the outskirts of New Orleans. All he knew was that ever since he first saw Manet Hall, he'd been enchanted-and obsessed-with it. So when the opportunity to buy the house comes up, Declan jumps at the chance to live out a dream.

Determined to restore Manet Hall to its former splendor, Declan begins the daunting renovation room by room, relying on his own labor and skills. But the days spent in total isolation in the empty house take a toll. He is seeing visions of days from a century past, and experiencing sensations of terror and nearly unbearable grief-sensations not his own, but those of a stranger. Local legend has it that the house is haunted, and with every passing day Declan's belief in the ghostly presence grows.

Only the companionship of alluring Angelina Simone can distract him from the mysterious happenings in the house, but Angelina too has her own surprising connection to Manet Hall-a connection that will help Declan uncover a secret that's been buried for a hundred years.