by Stuart Jaffe
As she left, no one said another word. Max stood by the door long after her car had vanished from sight. He knew he had made a frightening deal — but it was better than no deal at all.
Clapping his hands together in one sharp hit, he turned around, picked up an empty box and started packing. Sandra kissed his cheek and joined in.
Afterword
Thanks for reading Southern Gothic. I hope you enjoyed it as much as, if not more than, the previous books in the series.
One of my great pleasures in writing the Max Porter books is finding all the little odd bits of history to incorporate into the story. This book had quite a few. Among the big ones — the missing shipment of Civil War gold actually happened. People still go along the tracks where Company Shops once existed, hoping to find a coin or two that nobody else has scampered away with. The murder of Chicken Stephens is also true. If you want to know more about him and the chaos of the Reconstruction, check out Murder in the Courthouse by Jim Wise. Finally, and biggest of all, the life of O. Henry was as colorful as depicted here — more so, probably. He did live an aimless life, he was indicted for embezzlement, he did run off to Honduras, and he did return for his wife, resulting in his incarceration.
Many of the locations and buildings are real such as the O. Henry hotel, the New Garden Friends School, and the big roundhouse in Spencer. Cal Baxter and Baxter House, however, are entirely my creations, as is the short story O. Henry dedicated to Cal.
Don't miss Max's next case!
Old Tragedies, New Horrors
Max and Sandra Porter have encountered many frightening things in North Carolina -- witches, curses, covens, and evil families to name a few -- encounters that left them broke and broken. Now, just as Max and Sandra are getting their lives back together, they meet a pregnant woman convinced her house is trying to possess her baby.
But this is no ordinary haunted house.
Every avenue they investigate leads Max to the same daunting conclusion -- there is no ghost doing the haunting. Yet something supernatural clearly is involved. Along with his trusty partner, the ghost of a 1940s detective named Drummond, Max will use all his skills and the aid of those he cares about to uncover the truth. But a long-hidden truth is a dangerous thing. For Max and Sandra, it might even be deadly.
CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED!
Acknowledgements
It has been written endless times that no book is created alone. It's quite true. This time around I give my deep thanks to Jeff Dekal, for delivering on a wonderful cover; Mom and Dan, for visiting and then asking that I take you around Winston-Salem on a Max Porter tour (some of the locations in this volume came from that day); all of my social media followers for constantly keeping me driven; to my wife and son, the best motivators of all; and of course to you, my readers. Without you, these stories don't amount to much more than my ramblings. Thanks.
About the Author
Stuart Jaffe is the author of The Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries, The Malja Chronicles, the Gillian Boone novels, The Bluesman series, Real Magic, After The Crash, and much more. His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. He is the co-host of The Eclectic Review - a weekly podcast about science, art, and well, everything. For those who keep count, the latest animal listing is as follows: one dog, four cats, one albino corn snake, one Brazilian black tarantula, three aquatic turtles, seventeen chickens, and a horse. Thankfully, the chickens and the horse do not live inside the house.
Stuart can be easily found online at these sites:
Website
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Copyright
Southern Gothic is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
SOUTHERN GOTHIC
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2015 by Stuart Jaffe
Cover art by Jeff Dekal
First Edition: January, 2015
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Afterword
Copyright