Some things never die. Wherever there is a hill big enough
to conquer, there will always be someone vying to be king
of the hill. Robert Lee "Boo" Taylor should know for it
seems as if he's fought some kind of battle for as long as
he can remember while living as a boy in Sweetpatch Island,
South Carolina. Returning for his father's funeral brings
him back to the land of his childhood, as well as the
mysteries, the ghosts and the boogeymen he once thought
were long gone. Even with its modern golf courses, hotels
and marinas, Sweetpatch is still a place where superstition
and tradition walk hand in hand like young lovers from
different sides of the track.
At the age of 13, Boo witnessed the brutal slaying of a
young child. As the adopted son of the only white physician
around, he was supposed to be akin to royalty. His mother
certainly believed so, leaving him to fend for himself. It
was Laylee Colebriar, the not so typical housekeeper of the
Taylors, who became his surrogate mother. "She was made of
cinnamon and molasses, burnt wood, rusted bedsprings, pine
soap, cypress hides. Her dress was the rag she used to mop
the floors." And her magic went many generations back,
magic she used to protect Boo and his chosen companions,
such as Gossie, his first and only true love.
There are dark powers still wandering this land, powerful
trouble that Boo seems destined to stir up, no matter which
path he chooses. Shadows best left undisturbed awaken, love
once lost returns and answers to questions better left
unasked are answered. From the ever consuming fires of
bigotry that burn down church and school, to the Beast and
his witchy widowed bride, the curse lives on. Is there any
hope that the island's curse and its historic ghosts can be
put to rest for good?
Gothic with a drawling sense of Southern style, this
haunting and lyrical literary treasure lingers like an old
moving memory long after the story is put down. Mr. Fad has
created a masterpiece of epic proportions, one destined to
become a classic for years to come. A vast array of
colorful characters move the reader forward through pages
filled with legends and lore. His characters live and
breathe, love and hate, and are tortured by ghosts from
within and without. Emotions and visual imagery move the
plot forward, while the mystery itself is doled out in
fragments here and there like bait to a hungry fish. As
soon as one mystery is solved, another piece is dangled
just within reach. The prose itself is a compelling enough
reason to give this book a read. And yet, it is a story
full of nuance, begging to be read again and again; sharing
new treasures with each literary wave coming to shore. Even
though it has a staggering 656 page count, I couldn't put
it down from beginning to end.
After twenty years of self-imposed exile, Boo Taylor finds
he must return to Sweetpatch Island, South Carolina,
following his fathers mysterious death. Upon his return,
he is shocked to discover that the small, marshy barrier
island he left behind is now covered with golf courses and
swarming with tourists. It seems that everything he ran
away from the violence, the hatred, the betrayal have all
but vanished. But the island s ghosts are not so easily
dispelled. King of Nod layers time and secrets in an
intricate pattern of half-truths and glimpses of
redemption that slowly dissect the riddle of the island s
past and its inexorable connection to Boos own fate.
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