Kentucky Poet Laureate, Gurney Norman, says: “Tanglevine comes from Shannon’s ancient imagination, an original place where Kentucky dreams a dream of itself.”

Demoted war hero Jihan arrives in the Bluegrass to extend the Domed City’s power and salvage his family’s reputation. When a fellow official disappears, he commandeers a horseback caravan as backup and rides to the remote village of Tanglevine to investigate. Windland, the caravan leader, guides him through bewildering woods to a blighted village where only the locals’ respect for Windland shields them from resentment. The savage killing of a young woman and her child provokes Jihan to vow justice, but deceived by the villagers, targeted by a hostile witch and seduced, then betrayed by an elusive dancer, he begins to suspect that Windland has an agenda of his own. Gradually Jihan realizes that instead of a hunter pursuing a murderer, he is the prey of a hunter far more ancient than he. If he cannot believe in the impossible, the woman he loves will be destroyed.

Beth Tashery Shannon, a native of Kentucky, holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon, has taught college courses in creative writing and literature, and has edited fiction for publishers. Under the pseudonym Elizabeth Adair she is the author of The Sun and Stars, a mystery novel set in the court of Henry VIII (BearCat Press, 2012). Under her own name she has published short fiction in Pushcart Prize III and IX, Chicago Review, TriQuarterly Review and Pleasures: Women Write Erotica (Doubleday), and an essay on Salome in Approaches to Teaching the Works of Oscar Wilde (MLA Press). Also holding an MA in ancient art history, she has worked on the staff of the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at el-Amarna and contributed to Amarna Reports IV (Egypt Exploration Society) and symposia of the American Research Center in Egypt. She lives in Georgetown Kentucky where she writes, designs books, and is a volunteer tour guide and researcher with Old Friends, a retirement facility for Thoroughbred horses.

Look for the TANGLEVINE link in the BearCat Store.

MEDIA RELEASE

FLOATS THE DARK SHADOW
BY YVES FEY

Pub date: September, 2012
BearCat Press

Casebound: ISBN 978-1-937356-20-0
Trade paper: ISBN 978-1-937356-21-7
Kindle: ISBN 978-1-937356-22-4

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—FLOATS THE DARK SHADOW is a literary mystery set in the decadent world of Belle Époque Paris. Yves Fey’s debut novel tells a haunting tale of aspiring artist Theodora Faraday and Detective Michel Devaux as they find themselves at odds over the disappearance and murder of neighborhood children. “I want readers to have their surrounding world dissolve,” says Ms. Fey. “I hope they’ll be swept back to that golden, exhilarating era and find beauty and terror embraced there.”

Yves Fey has an MFA in Creative Writing from Eugene Oregon, and a BA in Pictorial Arts from UCLA. She has read, written, and created art from childhood. A chocolate connoisseur, she’s won prizes for her desserts. Her current fascination is creating perfumes. She’s traveled to many countries in Europe and lived for two years in Indonesia. She currently lives in the San Francisco area with her husband and three cats. Writing as Gayle Feyrer and Taylor Chase, she previously published unusually dark and mysterious historical romances.

Website: www.YvesFey.com
www.BearCatPress.com

Synopsis of FLOATS THE DARK SHADOW:

Young American painter Theodora Faraday struggles to become an artist in Belle Époque Paris. She’s tasted the champagne of success, illustrating poems for the Revenants, a group of poets led by her adored cousin, Averill. When children she knows vanish mysteriously, Theo confronts Inspecteur Michel Devaux who suspects the Revenants are involved. Theo refuses to believe the killer could be a friend—could be the man she loves. Classic detection and occult revelation lead Michel and Theo through the dark underbelly of Paris, from catacombs to asylums, to the obscene ritual of a Black Mass. Following the maze of clues they discover the murderer believes he is the reincarnation of the most evil serial killer in the history of France—Gilles de Rais. Once Joan of Arc’s lieutenant, after her death he plunged into an orgy of evil. The Church burned him at the stake for heresy, sorcery, and the depraved murder of hundreds of peasant children. Whether deranged mind or demonic passion incite him, the killer must be found before he strikes again.