The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael: A Novel

A young woman, perceived dead, plots to reinvent herself in a gripping historical gothic about secrets, superstition, and murder by the bestselling author of The Devil and Mrs. Davenport. South Carolina, 1853. Lillian Carmichael, privileged daughter of a disgraced Charleston family, is due to be hanged for the murder of her sister when fate gives her a second chance at life. After a catatonic episode on the long walk to the gallows, Lillian is declared dead and entombed in the family mausoleum.She awakens days later, buried alive, and flees to the Lowcountry marshes to survive on her wits and reinvent herself.All the while, a series of exsanguination murders holds the terrorized city in thrall-as do the superstitions that the vanished Lillian is some craven creature, resurrected and out for blood. Lillian finds sanctuary in a crumbling former plantation and a friend in Kate O’Malley, a charismatic actress adept at fashioning new identities.The two form an intimate and powerful alliance