I consider Laura Benedict to be the heir(ess)-apparent to Shirley Jackson. While her voice is uniquely original, she taps into that vein of terror that ripples beneath ordinary lives --- the knowledge that one’s life and circumstance, no matter how seemingly perfect, can turn irrevocably tragic in a heartbeat, and for reasons far more diabolical (and supernatural) than those of unfortunate circumstance. She also has a knack for bringing the obscure regional legends of Appalachia and the rural south to updated settings, making them all the more relevant and horrific for modern sensibilities. 

Lately, Benedict has been creating a canon around a Virginia locale known as Bliss House, which combines Southern gothic with traditional ghost tales. CHARLOTTE’S STORY, the second full-length novel in the series, is a deceptively simple title for a book that delivers terror, romance, suspense and drama at a resolute pace.

"CHARLOTTE’S STORY...is a deceptively simple title for a book that delivers terror, romance, suspense and drama at a resolute pace.... Hopefully, Benedict will be revealing more secrets of the ironically named homestead for several more volumes to come."

The “Charlotte” of the tale is Charlotte Bliss, who on the surface has everything. Charlotte is the stereotypical southern housewife of the late 1950s, living in the beautiful home known as “Bliss House” with her husband, “Press” Bliss, and their two young children. However, the enviable exterior of the house all but barely conceals a family history that is markedly less than desirable. The dark forces that have held sway over the house will not be denied for long. When four deaths, one after another, occur, it seems as if fate has taken a turn for the worse for Charlotte. It’s tragic, for sure, but chalked up to nothing more than the randomness of unfortunate events. Charlotte is practically out of her mind with grief and isolates herself in the house --- the one thing she should not do.

As a distraction from her constant and all-encompassing sorrow, Charlotte begins going through photographs and other documents that had been left behind by her mother-in-law, who had her own unfortunate history with Bliss House. She is startled by what she discovers. The sorrow brought upon her in the house is by no means unique; it seems to have been deliberately delivered as opposed to tragically so. Matters become worse when Charlotte’s interpretation of what she has learned and her reaction to it are dismissed as hysteria, in what amounts to a betrayal by those closest to her who should be supporting her. Rendered all but powerless by the laws and --- even worse --- by the social mores of the times and place, Charlotte must find and utilize heretofore untapped emotional reserves if she is to save herself and her family, even as she reaches her lowest point.

Benedict once again demonstrates that she has few peers in the ability to wring high-wire suspense from subtle inference while peeling back the veneer of the everyday world to reveal the deceptively quiet dangers that lurk, unseen and denied, within uneasy reach. Anyone who has spent time in a house with age in its so-called “good bones” will be able to relate to the Bliss House series. Hopefully, Benedict will be revealing more secrets of the ironically named homestead for several more volumes to come.