Forty-six-year-old Madeline Fairbanks has no use for ideas like “separation of the races” or “men as the superior sex.” There are many in her dying Southern Appalachian town who are upset by her socially progressive views, but for years—partly due to her late husband’s still-powerful influence, and partly due to her skill as a healer in a remote town with no doctor of its own—folks have been willing to turn a blind eye to her “transgressions.” Even Maddie’s decision to take on a Black apprentice goes largely unchallenged by her white neighbors.
Then a charismatic and power-hungry new reverend blows into town and begins to preach about the importance of racial segregation, placing Maddie and her friends in Jamesville’s Black community squarely in their sights. Maddie had better stop intermingling with Black folks, discontinue her herbalistic “witchcraft,” and leave town immediately. Faced with this decision, Maddie is terrified . . . and torn. Will she bow to their demands and walk away—leaving behind all that she’s built, or will she stay and fight for all that she loves? $8.99 on Kindle.
