Debut Novel

THE FRENCH DESCENDANT

A Southern Mystery coming soon!

It’s a great southern sin to share private family facts and make them your public pain. That’s the kind of thing that can get you killed.

In August of 1935, Louisiana’s most notorious politician, Huey Long, stood before the US Senate and publicly accused Congressman Numa Montet of being part of a plot to kill him. One month later, Huey Long was assassinated.

Past and present collide when nearly 90 years later, news of a possible tell-all letter about the legendary assassination plot suddenly turns up. It’s believed the accused Congressman may have written the mysterious letter and left it behind for his Cajun French descendants. Numa’s granddaughter Tory, a damaged but determined Investigative Reporter is sent to Louisiana to find it.

Tory must decide whether the pursuit of truth outweighs the importance of family, but also whether her own life is worth risking for a tell-all letter that may or may not exist.

After hosting a post-pandemic media party in Atlanta, Tory is arrested for DUI. Unaware of her addiction struggles, Tory’s bosses assign her to Louisiana after getting a “tip” about the possible tell-all letter. Afraid her DUI might be discovered; she believes she has no choice but to accept her story assignment and go to Louisiana to find that letter.

Arriving in the Bayou, she joins her Cajun relatives for a night out and meets an alluring photographer who turns up later at Tory’s haunted hotel. She’s intrigued, conflicted, and in denial. He tempts her with sex and the boozy lifestyle she desperately needs to leave behind.

As Tory’s probe of the past deepens, her concerned Cajun clan fears her investigation could ruin the family name. Tory risks life, love, and family to hunt down the letter which could unlock new clues to the lingering mystery around the infamous plot and the 1935 assassination of Louisiana’s most colorful and corrupt politician.

This novel not only explores political history, but also thematically explores relationships, family legacy, love, and addiction.