Abby Charles Worth’s life was marked by tragedy when her father killed her mother and shot himself to death in front of her when she was a child growing up in the Caribbean islands. Raised by her domineering grandmother Amani to take her place in the family’s hugely successful businesses, Abby instead moved to Chicago to pursue her talent for painting. This was at the urging of Manette, her nanny, whose daughter Nandi was Abby’s best friend growing up. Abby, who married the handsome but poor David a year ago, has remained away ever since while her depression and nightmares have been curbed thanks to medication and art therapy.

 

Now Abby has come home for Manette’s funeral – to take part in the Nine-Night celebration, a traditional Caribbean ritual to free the spirits of the dead, to beg Amani’s forgiveness – even though she lies in a prolonged coma – and to face up to her submerged inner demons. In returning to the islands, Abby risks reigniting the profound hold the islands’ evil superstitions have over her – beginning with the monstrous Soucou, a terrifying witch of lethal power who appears as an old woman by day and sheds her skin by night to become a bewitching but blood-covered temptress seeking human victims to drain of their “life elixir.”