The Oracle Files: Escape

by Masheri Chappelle

Overview

In 1839, Elizabeth Beeson, passes for white. She has psychic abilities to see ghosts and the darkest secrets of the living. She uses her gift to fight for love and justice as she navigates through a raging storm of deceit, slave bounty hunters, and attacks from an angry ghost named Malachai. When a betrayal sends her running into New York's dangerous FIVE POINTS, she emerges with a gypsy's mystical secret to free herself. Now she must make a difficult decision. Should she give up her Negro roots to gain her freedom, or use the mystical secret to save her people, who already distrust and despise her because of the color of her skin?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781733280600
Publisher:	My Portalstar
Publication date:	01/23/2023
Series:	The Oracle Files
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	414
Sales rank:	813,126
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

Masheri Chappelle is the New Hampshire Writers' Project Chair and author of The Oracle Files Series, and The Descendant. A Smith Scholar graduate of Smith College, she received her B.A. for theater and writing. She is a Data Analyst by day, and a novelist, playwright, and intuitive consultant by night. She utilizes her profound intuitive and mystical experiences in the telling of her stories and plays.

Table of Contents

Emotionally gripping and richly atmospheric, Masheri Chappelle's novel crosses both genres and cultures. An awakening for the reader that is equally historical and mystical, with characters who linger far beyond the final pages. This book will haunt you, and that's a very good thing.

Brunonia Barry - NY Times Best-selling author of "The Lace Reader" and "The Fifth Petal."

Chappelle, the author of The Descendant, delivers a historical novel with a paranormal flair.

Kirkus Review

Editorial Reviews

2020-08-23
The first in a new historical paranormal series in which a girl is haunted by ghosts from generations past.

It’s 1849, and freed slave Elizabeth Beeson has lost much. Her lover is no longer in her life, having taken their baby and run away to Canada to escape the slavers. The light-skinned Elizabeth can and does “pass” as a young white woman, and lives with a kind Quaker man, who adopted her out of slavery. She knows that her lover and son would never have been truly safe and free with her—in part, because she’s haunted by the spirit of Malachai, a foe from a past life. The spirits that follow her haven’t always been evil. Some have guided her during difficult times in her life, but others seem to cause her nothing but pain and despair. But Elizabeth is a hearty woman, and she still manages to surround herself with love and light—including her loving relationship with her adoptive father, Jonathan Beeson. But now Elizabeth isn’t the only one with powers; a woman that she knows named Emma has tapped into Malachai’s evil magic. With love on her side, Elizabeth must defeat the evil that’s haunted her for ages. Chappelle, the author of The Descendant (2009), delivers a historical novel with a paranormal flair. The story would have been powerful enough without the use of haunting spirits, with the inclusion of Elizabeth’s fear of her past getting out, her family’s fractured nature, and the abolitionist movement that surrounds her. But with the addition of Malachai’s dark force and Elizabeth’s mother's curse, the story takes on an even more compelling tone. The book can feel disjointed as it jumps from one character to another and occasionally takes on the perspectives of the spirits themselves. For some readers, this may add to the overall magic of the story, but for others, it may make this read feel cluttered.

An intriguing, if slightly uneven, supernatural tale.

Kirkus Reviews