Celia: A Haunting Mystery

Rating:
Summary: A different kind of ghost story
Review: Cheryl Thompson is a successful young business owner working in New York. She is returning to North Carolina to take care of some necessary paperwork left after inheriting her grandmothers home. One the drive down she is a bit startled to glance in her review mirror and see her Aunt Celia staring back at her. Celia had been dead for many years, the victim of a terrible car accident when Cheryl was a small child
The story continues as Cheryl arrives at the house, faced with her hostile Aunt Gladys. Gladys is unsure of her future in the house. Cheryl quickly allays her fears but soon faces her own as Celia continues to turn up again and again often accompanied by the strong smell of lilacs.

What is Celia trying to tell Cheryl? Gladys refuses to help, a wealthy family in town seems unusually hostile and Cheryl's only friend in the case is a handsome young attorney, Arthur Blevins.

This book was a combination small town girl makes good, ghost story, romance and uncovering the family secrets.

The plot was well executed and kept this reader guessing to the very end. The characters were both appealing and appalling- but there must be a villain to have a good mystery.

Rating:
Summary: A truly great read
Review: Sharon Cullars is a veteran of fifteen year's worth of writing; much of which, including her poetry and short stories, has been published in literary e-zines. She is also the editor of the e-zine ELAN, which focuses on issues for African-American women.

Celia is a Southern tale, set in North Carolina. Cheryl Thompson has driven from New York, where she runs a successful investment firm, to her home town after her grandmother, M'dear, has passed away. She begins seeing her Aunt Celia's ghost, who was murdered in 1967, everywhere she looks. Celia is obvious trying to tell her something, and her other aunt, Gladys, isn't telling. Cheryl meets Arthur Blevins, the young attorney with a gorgeous smile and winning personality, and together they try to piece together a mystery that is thirty-five years old:

"He didn't know what to make of all these haunting incidents, but despite his initial doubt, he believed her about Celia's appearances. And given the facts, he suspected that some foul play had been done. And yet, knowing this, he wished that this business would just go away so that Cheryl wouldn't feel compelled to put herself at risk. The Grahams were not some local yokels. They had enough power in this state to have things taken care of quietly."

Cullars weaves a chillingly sensitive tale about how the racism of the Old South is still played out, only in more subtle and even more evil ways. She weaves circles of touching love stories, both requited and unrequited, and the horrible murder of a young woman about to break out of her cultural bonds. Celia is an extremely sensitive tale, with nuances and layers of textures. Cheryl is a New-Age woman, struggling to help her dead and living aunts find peace after their family is cruelly singled out by a prominent political family for a perceived wrong going back generations. Cullars shows the reader that being African-American, and particularly female, is still a dangerous journey. Unfortunately, race relations still have a long way to go. It is a daily battle for those who are born into it, and Cullars' tale does an excellent job of enlightening those of us who have never had to live the nightmare. She also entertains us with a fabulous whodunit with characters who are vivid and wonderful, and a plot to match. A truly great read.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: A Gripping Mystery!
Review: Title:  A Gripping Mystery!

Celia: A Haunting Mystery by S. L. Cullars opens in North Carolina, where we find Cheryl, a successful New York brokerage firm owner, settling her recently deceased grandmother's estate. After meeting with the handsome, debonair attorney and executor of the will, Arthur Blevins, she unexpectedly discovers the family home is left to her instead of its current occupant, Aunt Gladys. This single act causes Aunt Gladys quite a bit of consternation as she is fearful that Cheryl will sell the house and leave her homeless. Cheryl quickly dismisses this fear and the two women quickly realize that they share similar experiences - sightings of Celia, Gladys's late sister. Celia's apparition, which begins appearing more frequently at inopportune times in heightening states of anguish, sparks Cheryl's interest into Celia's accidental death nearly 30 years before.

Cheryl's investigation takes her to the esteemed Graham estate to confront a man who belongs to a very powerful and conniving family who has members in the North Carolina Senate and Supreme Court. She eventually learns that their families share a sordid, painful, tangled history that many would rather keep buried at all cost. After several close encounters with death, Cheryl, with help from both aunts and Arthur, brings the long-buried truth to the surface and reveals forbidden romances, deep family secrets, racially inspired misgivings, hidden pregnancies, and murders by some unlikely, unexpected culprits. Cullars also sprinkles in a fateful romance between Cheryl and Arthur.

Despite a somewhat slow start, the book quickened its pace and turned into an attention-grabber! It evolves into a gripping novel filled with strong dialogue, a touch of the surreal, solid character development, and vivid descriptions. It is an engaging and suspenseful story-recommended for mystery lovers.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, Nubian Circle Book Club
March 16, 2003