Garden of Shadows — Virginia Coffman

WELCOME, DEATH

As Maureen Durrell stood hanging over the railing of the big steamer she suddenly spied a huge arbor of scarlet hibiscus overshadowed by a sign reading: WELCOME TO ST. CLOUD -- A FREE PORT ISLAND. The beauty of the exotic Caribbean unknown filled her with awe and curiosity about her new job.

She was to be the English teacher at The Galway House, an old mansion converted into a school for girls -- and a house that enveloped a world of evil.

The school, surrounded by thick jungle growth, seemed alive and suffocating, and the old volcano that darkened the whole island put a strange fear in Maureen's heart. Her associates proved to be oddly distant. Young Dr. LaMotte suggested that she leave immediately, and Philip Galway, head of the school, had no time to see her.

Maureen began to feel alone; hired to fill a vacancy left by a dead woman, perhaps the only one who could have explained the eerie occurrences and whispers of evil that she heard everywhere. As the magic of this voodoo island slowly began to haunt her, she realized that she shouldn't have come, and that this adventure could be her last…