Gaslight and Gloom

Gaslight and Gloom is a poignant and gripping genealogical mystery exploring the intricate threads of family relationships, love, betrayal, and tragedy.

Californian Seth Landry is living with his second wife and their two young children, when he gets devastating news about his first wife, news that threatens to upend his contented life. Coinciding with that news, Seth stumbles across a shocking, mysterious story about his great-great-grandparents on his father's American side of the family tree. Desperate for a distraction from current problems, he throws himself into searching for answers to the many questions surrounding the couple. He must put on his sleuth hat like his older brother and dig into the past to find the truth of what happened in the rural northern town of Telephone, Texas. Did his great-great-grandmother really deserve what happened to her or was she gaslighted? Did her children know the truth? Is there anyone still living who might know the gritty details?

Alternating with Seth's story, the reader is taken back in time to 1908 to live with his ancestors, JW and Celia Taylor. The couple fell in love and married fourteen years earlier, then bought a cotton farm and began raising a family. But as the birth of their seventh child nears, Celia discovers that not only has their love story ended, but her husband has seized control of her life.

The deeper Seth delves into his family's history, the more he discovers about his own roots. However, what he truly longs for is to figure out how to bring peace to his troubled older children from his first marriage and heal his fragmented family. Will the events of the past help him understand what he needs to do to protect his family?