And Mary could not know that in the truth she longed to reveal lay the sinister beginnings of her own destruction. Paul had grandiose ambitions that no one would deny. Eager to share the secret she guarded for so long, Mary was thwarted by Paul's growing obsessions and bewildered by the sudden, brutal outbursts of his temper.storms that barely hinted at the secret violence of his past. But it came to her in the passionate attentions of Paul Anderson, an intense younger man who penetrated her reserve and brought her to sensual fulfillment she had known only as a bride. Yet she dreamed of announcing to the world that it was she, Mary Quinn Eliot, who deserved the fame, the respect, the adulation. Writing books that were 'found' after Randal's death, she assured her financial future. Mary was now the famous widow, free at last of care and worry, ensconced in a wonderful new house of her very own. Then suddenly, tragically, Randal's car crashed on an icy winter road. She had children to raise, a husband to protect, bills to pay.and she believed, no way to escape. Let other, more selfish women cut and run.

For better or for worse, in sickness and in health.Mary lived by those vows. But for twenty years it was Mary, sweet long-suffering Mary, whose burning, secret gift kept the family together. The acclaim, the crowds, university tenure, rumors of a Pulitzer.all the honors fell to Randal, whose mental breakdowns only added to his literary aura. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently-and the secret of that voice is one of the book's most intriguing mysteries.In the dark of night, throughout Nebraska's blinding winters and in the suffocating heat of its summers, Mary Eliot wrote the novels that made her husband famous. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. This is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Lilith's story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion-between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans.

Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they-and she-will come to both revere and fear. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century.

'An undeniable success.' - 'The New York Times Book Review' 'The Book of Night Women' is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling.

The book of night women review