The Gates of Evangeline

Praise

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015

“In this spooky thriller, everyone’s a suspect, and the plot twists will keep you guessing.”
—People Magazine 

“[H]aunting, heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful…Young handles the spectral elements with restraint as her tremendously sympathetic heroine seeks to build a new life after death.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] dreamy, Southern gothic mystery…Young’s novel is powerful and captivating.” —New Orleans Magazine

“[T]he hothouse atmosphere of Evangeline and the tortuous and tangled motives of its denizens make for an enjoyable puzzle box of a mystery. An eerie but inviting debut.” —Kirkus Reviews

“In Hester Young’s haunted Louisiana, the ghostly labyrinth of the past opens its great doors to deliver up a lush gothic thriller. The Gates of Evangeline is a darkly marvelous debut, a classic whodunnit stitched with otherworldly chills.”
—Jedediah Berry, author of the Hammett-prize winning The Manual of Detection

“What a delicious book! Gripping and atmospheric—with a heart-stopping twist—The Gates of Evangeline is an imaginative blend of southern gothic, family epic and spooky whodunit. Trust me: you won’t just read Hester Young’s debut, you will absorb this gorgeous novel using all ‘six’ senses.” 
—Jillian Medoff, bestselling author of I Couldn’t Love You More and Hunger Point

“Hester Young’s The Gates of Evangeline is not just a riveting story about the search for a long missing child. It’s also a powerful and haunting examination of a mother’s grief and her long road to recovery. Hester Young’s protagonist, Charlotte “Charlie” Cates, is tough and vulnerable, wounded and fearless, and I simply could not stop reading this thrilling, beautifully written Southern Gothic mystery. I can’t wait for the next entry in this captivating new series.”
 —David Bell, author of Cemetery Girl and Somebody I Used to Know

“Young’s The Gates of Evangeline is a stunning debut novel. A lyrical, haunting, heart-wrenching work of suspense with echoes of du Maurier, Hitchcock, and King.”
—Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins

“Step through The Gates of Evangeline with Charlotte Cates, a grief-stricken Northerner tasked with uncovering a Southern dynasty’s dark secrets. Hair-raising and heart-rending, Hester Young’s first novel is one of buried shame, children taken too soon, and, ultimately, of immense true love that binds across the mortal divide.”
—Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times best-selling author of Bittersweet

“The Gates of Evangeline is a wonderfully evocative, chilling mystery layered with themes of love, faith and devotion that is sure to haunt readers’ dreams long after they’ve turned the last page.”
—Shelf Awareness, Maximum Shelf feature title

“…a thrilling Southern Gothic mystery. Full of family secrets, betrayals and unexpected romances, it pulls readers along on a dark, twisted ride through the Louisiana swamp.”
—BookPage 

‘This sweeping, hypnotic debut is from a young American with a fresh voice and a taste for the lush, Gothic world of the American Deep South… The incestuous atmosphere is beautifully evoked.. Eerie and haunting, the novel is as addictive as mint juleps served by the servants in white gloves on the veranda… and just as creepy’
—Daily Mail

“The Gates of Evangeline is gripping, with a tremendous sense of place…Hester Young has created a carefully crafted and fantastic literary debut. Read it, but don’t expect to be able to put it down.”
—Frost Magazine

“Readers of The Gates of Evangeline may want to strap on their metaphorical life jackets for the wild and exhilarating ride that is this startling debut novel by Hester Young…Dreamy, steamy, scary, sometimes deliberately confusing and always thoroughly entertaining, The Gates of Evangeline is an unusual and delightful Southern gothic-meets-romance-meets-thriller concoction.”
—Ft. Worth Star-Telegram