Beauty in the Blood, Charlotte Carter
Beauty in the Blood, Charlotte Carter
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Beauty in the Blood

Author: Charlotte Carter

Narrator: Marie-Francoise Theodore

Unabridged: 8 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/11/2025


Synopsis

A curse rolls out over centuries, murky and unknowable as swamp waters, shaping and destroying lives.

“Carter delivers. . . . [A] fusion of detective fiction and horror that is impossible to look away from.” —The New York Times Book Review

Sarah Toomey is a successful young black lawyer, lovely but straitlaced– and afraid that she is losing her mind. Since the death of her mother, a force she can neither understand nor control is manipulating her memory and driving her to unexplained acts of violence and destruction. At the same time, Sarah is swept up in a highly charged relationship with a work colleague that portends a danger of its own. As she moves through her privileged life in New York, Sarah comes to learn how her past—her haunted history—is intertwined with America’s.

Yvonne Howard was born into the working class. Now, after years as a prison guard, she has reinvented herself. Her passion for cooking has landed her a position at a trendy soul food restaurant, and she is looking forward to a glamorous career. Then an ex-inmate named Bitty appears, demanding Yvonne’s help investigating her brother’s shocking death. Before long, Bitty too is dead, and Yvonne is pulled back into a world of ugly violence. Smart but unschooled, Yvonne finds herself in the unlikely role of detective: it is she who must unravel the dark and blood-soaked history that not only doomed Bitty and her brother, but also determined beautiful Sarah Toomey’s fate.

About The Author

CHARLOTTE CARTER is the acclaimed author of the Nanette Hayes mystery series. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of American and British anthologies. Charlotte Carter has lived in the American Midwest, North Africa, and France. She currently resides in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by The Bookish Elf on February 20, 2025

Charlotte Carter's latest novel, Beauty in the Blood, is a masterfully crafted supernatural thriller that weaves together multiple timelines and perspectives to tell a story of generational trauma, racial violence, and a centuries-old curse that refuses to die. The novel marks Carter's triumphant re......more

Goodreads review by Books Amongst Friends on March 01, 2025

Wow, what a story. First off, I’m so glad I had both the e-book and the audiobook. The audio is incredible, but if you’re only listening, you really need to pay close attention. This book isn’t just a dual timeline—it spans multiple time periods, some historical, with shifting locations within each.......more

Goodreads review by Genevieve on February 15, 2025

Would have been a five, except for the clichéd ending. (I listened to this. Narration was very good.) This was an uncomfortable read (a description often reserved for subjects that make white people squirm, and ok, fair, the history of slavery should make anyone uncomfortable, but that's only part of......more

Goodreads review by L on February 27, 2025

Wow! Pick up this book when you have a day (or more) you can devote totally to reading, because you won't be able to put it down. You can get the book description from goodreads or Amazon. Know that there are plenty of murders here, gruesome murders, with a lot of blood. There is also beauty and love......more

Goodreads review by Dawn-Lorraine on March 30, 2025

A thriller with some definite horror elements. There is a lot going on here, jumping from past to present and among different characters, with a lot to think about throughout. The general plot is relatively straightforward, but there are unanswered questions that don't get clarity until near the end......more


Quotes

“Carter delivers, though the book is markedly different from her earlier novels. Yes, there’s a mystery to solve … But Carter is after larger narrative game here, linking the violent death to America’s original sin of slavery, and a generations-spanning curse dooming women to act out the worst kind of revenge fantasies. The result is a fusion of detective fiction and horror that is impossible to look away from.”
The New York Times Book Review

“Beauty in the Blood begins in the last year of the Civil War, as blacks flee ruined plantations, murderous Confederates, and treacherous Unionists. It takes us to New York in the year 2000, where successful black women find their lives threatened with a violence that implicates them in America’s harshest racial crimes. None of us is exempt from history’s torments, and none of those torments is simple. This is a riveting and wise novel.”
—Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System