Out of Her Shadow

A Novel

Something more troubling than an unhappy marriage calls Rebecca out into a rainy night with no shoes, no plans, and four young children in tow. She arrives unexpectedly at her childhood home, a haunted nineteenth-century mansion. She knocks on the door of her past and sets a year of extraordinary events into motion.

Melanie muses that self-reflection is not for the faint of heart. To find grace one must explore all facets of human nature, however dark. She brings temperance, humor and compassion to her relationships and to her work as a psychotherapist. When her place of employment, the Southeast Counseling Center, is destabilized by malevolent leadership, Melanies psyche is strained by shadows almost too deep to fathom.

After the birth of her second child, Pamela gives up all hope of regaining her lost youth. A numbing mist fills her emptiness as days bleed into years, and she takes on motherhood with impeccable care. But a sleeping ghost is roused when her adolescent son is treated for depression. With a mothers empathy, Pamela faces her own demons, and in the process her passion is rekindled. With wind in her sails and fifty pounds lighter, she is on a mission to serve children, but her prospects for a new career are complicated by torn loyalties.

Set in the mental health system against the vibrant backdrop of Vermont, Out of Her Shadow celebrates the feminine connection and its triumph over dark spells. Layers of despair and betrayal are eased by the love and laughter shared between sisters and their outrageous capacity to trump the law without breaking it.