The eleven members of the Bradley family are clannishly close and solidly unified. At least they are until the oldest son, Thomas, breathes the name of Texas. When the family, in 1822, leaves the mountains of Kentucky for the wildness of what is northern Mexico, the matriarch, Elizabeth, climbs aboard the wagon nurturing a seething anger toward her son and her husband, Edward. In stonefaced silence, she feeds her bitterness mile after plodding mile. It takes her sister-in-law, Polly Boone Bradley, to make Elizabeth appreciate what she has rather than grieve for what she is losing. In time, as she sees her nine children thrive, Elizabeth comes to accept the raw new country, but it will be tragedy that finally gives her the heart of a Texan. When Letty, the headstrong seventh Bradley child, falls in love with her brother's partner, Brax Hall, and marries him, it seems a perfect union. And so it is in spite of Brax's older brother, Warren. Rich, educated and politically influential, Warren is also narcissistically self-absorbed. He allows nothing, nor anyone, to stand in the way of what he wants. A chain of events, triggered by Warren, forces Letty to leave her beloved family, and Texas, in order to protect her son. For seven years, she must call the Louisiana bayou country home, but, just as trouble forced her out of Texas, trouble gives her no choice but to return. Her fear begins as soon as she crosses the Sabine River, and it grows with each mile the wagon bumps east along the La Bahia Road.

Growing up near the Sabine, journalist Wes Ferguson, like most East Texans, steered clear of its murky, debris-filled waters, where alligators lived in the backwater sloughs and an occasional body was pulled from some out-of-the-way crossing. The Sabine held a reputation as a haunt for a handful of hunters and loggers, more than a few water moccasins, swarms of mosquitoes, and the occasional black bear lumbering through swamp oak and cypress knees. But when Ferguson set out to do a series of newspaper stories on the upper portion of the river, he and photographer Jacob Croft Botter were entranced by the river’s subtle beauty and the solitude they found there. They came to admire the self-described “river rats” who hunted, fished, and swapped stories along the muddy water—plain folk who love the Sabine as much as Hill Country vacationers love the clear waters of the Guadalupe. Determined to travel the rest of the river, Ferguson and Botter loaded their gear and launched into the stretch of river that charts the line between the states and ends at the Gulf of Mexico. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

The eleven members of the Bradley family are clannishly close and solidly unified. At least they are until the oldest son, Thomas, breathes the name of Texas. When the family, in 1822, leaves the mountains of Kentucky for the wildness of what is northern Mexico, the matriarch, Elizabeth, climbs aboard the wagon nurturing a seething anger toward her son and her husband, Edward. In stonefaced silence, she feeds her bitterness mile after plodding mile. It takes her sister-in-law, Polly Boone Bradley, to make Elizabeth appreciate what she has rather than grieve for what she is losing. In time, as she sees her nine children thrive, Elizabeth comes to accept the raw new country, but it will be tragedy that finally gives her the heart of a Texan. When Letty, the headstrong seventh Bradley child, falls in love with her brother's partner, Brax Hall, and marries him, it seems a perfect union. And so it is in spite of Brax's older brother, Warren. Rich, educated and politically influential, Warren is also narcissistically self-absorbed. He allows nothing, nor anyone, to stand in the way of what he wants. A chain of events, triggered by Warren, forces Letty to leave her beloved family, and Texas, in order to protect her son. For seven years, she must call the Louisiana bayou country home, but, just as trouble forced her out of Texas, trouble gives her no choice but to return. Her fear begins as soon as she crosses the Sabine River, and it grows with each mile the wagon bumps east along the La Bahia Road.

Sabine Dubois has left one nightmare for another… Quitting her stressful job with the head office and retreating to her family’s branch of the business was supposed to take away from her stress. Instead, on her first night back on the job, reaping souls and taking names, she’s faced with a client whose soul won’t tear from his body. Her ledger clearly says, reap Kyle Riley. But he’s not dead. He’s not alive, but he’s not dead. And now she’s got a body with a very talkative, very angry spirit in her SUV headed to the parish where her Voodoo priestess aunt lives. Her aunt takes one look at the body and Kyle’s grouchy, glowering spirit and pronounces him under a curse. One that it’s up to them to break. But as they hunt for the cure, she grows fond of the surly man-ghost who she realizes may or may not have been targeted by the very agency that sent her to collect his soul.