The Abandoned Heart

A Bliss House Novel

Laura Benedict

Three women. A cursed house. Generations of lives at stake. The third novel in the acclaimed Bliss House series reveals the secret that started it all.

There is no bliss to be found in Bliss House.

In Old Gate, Virginia, stands a grand house built by Randolph Bliss, a charming New York carpetbagger who, in 1878, shook off dire warnings to build his home elsewhere. For the ground beneath Bliss House is tainted with the kind of tragedy that curses generations, seeping through the foundation and sowing madness in its wake. His first and second wives, and his young Japanese mistress, Kiku, bear witness to Randolph’s growing insanity with stories of his cruel manipulations and their desperate struggles to find happiness for themselves and their children.

Their desire to live and love and even take revenge also fills the house, triumphing even over death. Spanning half a century, The Abandoned Heart is the prequel to Charlotte’s Story and Bliss House, forming a trilogy of southern Gothic novels in which one haunted house begets haunted lives that echo over centuries. A haunting so powerful that even Bliss House’s destruction cannot kill it.

Laura Benedict is the author of several novels of dark suspense, including Isabella Moon and Devil's Oven. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine as well as numerous anthologies, and she originated and edited the Surreal South short fiction anthology series. She lives with her family in the southernmost region of a Midwestern state.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"One of the most impressive novels that I have read in 2016. Benedict has written as fine an interlocking tale of guilt, revenge and ill deeds as I have read this year, one that slips and sides across genre lines, obliterating them in its passage." Bookreporter

"A fervent fan of the first two installments in Benedict's trilogy, Bliss House and Charlotte's Story, will find much pleasure in this final volume, which delves into the dark roots of the evil in remote Old Gate." Publishers Weekly

"An impressively sprawling ghost story." Criminal Element

"At last, the background of Bliss House is revealed." Booklist