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Story Description:
Berkley
Trade|February 5, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-425-25969-6
Life can turn on a
dime. It’s a common cliché, and I’d
heard it often enough. People die or
move away. Investments go south. Affairs end. Loved ones betray us…Stuff
happens.
Daisy McCrae’s
life is in tatters. She’s lost her job,
broken up with her boyfriend, and has been reduced to living in the attic above
her family’s store, the Union Street Bakery, while learning the business. Unfortunately, the bakery is in serious
hardship. Making things worse is the
constant feeling of not being a “real” McCrae since she was adopted as a child
and has a less-than-perfect relationship with her two sisters.
Then a
long-standing elderly customer passes away, and for some reason bequeaths Daisy
a journal dating back to the 1850’s, written by a slave girl named Susie. As she reads, Daisy learns more about her
family, and her own heritage, than she ever dreamed. Haunted by dreams of the young Susie, who
beckons Daisy to “find her”, she is compelled to look further into the past of
the town and her family.
What she finds are
the answers she has longed for her entire life, and a chance to begin again with
the courage, and desire she thought she lost for good.
My Review:
The Union Street
Bakery has been owned by a McCrae since 1852.
First was, Shaun McCrae, an Irishman who lost his wife in the potato
famine in 1842. He found work in a slave
auction house but over time lost his taste for trading human flesh. For a few years, no record of Shaun surfaced
but then in 1851, the City of Alexandria records mentioned that Shaun McCrae
was the new proprietor of the McCrae Bakery, later to be known as the Union
Street Bakery. His specialty was sea
biscuits or ship’s bread, a hardy cracker that fed sailors who labored on the
barges, schooners, and other ships docked in Alexandria’s thriving harbor. In 1865, Shaun married his second wife, Sally
Good, and they passed the business to their eldest son, and he did the same
when he retired. Ever since, a McCrae
has operated the business. And now Daisy
herself has returned to the city to what so many of her family did before her:
bake bread.
Daisy’s birth
mother abandoned her outside the Union Street Bakery when she was just 3 years
old. As she sat eating a cookie her
mother told her to “Be a good girl. I will be back soon.” It was Sheila McCrae who had 2 daughters of
her own at ages 5 and 3 who took her in after an extensive police search and a
few rounds with social workers. The
McCrae family legally adopted Daisy.
A long-time
99-year-old customer of the bakery, Mabel Woodrow, was searching through her
old wooden trunk for a journal that had been packed away in newspaper dating
back to 1922. When she finally located
it she could barely contain her excitement.
Underneath the newspaper it was wrapped in blue calico fabric. Her own grandmother had given it to her and
told her to put it away someplace safe until the time was right. Mabel passed away and left strict
instructions with her nurse of 40 years to make sure that Daisy McCrae received
the journal. The following morning the
nurse appeared at the bakery and handed over the ancient journal to Daisy
explaining that Mabel had left the strictest of instructions that she receive
this journal. Of course, Daisy, had no
idea why but accepted it with a grateful heart.
Inside, Daisy
found the words written by a slave girl named, Susie, written over 150 years
ago and she had no idea what this journal was going to end up meaning to her.
The next morning,
Daisy awoke at 3:30 to get ready to head downstairs to the basement to begin
the process of baking bread, buns, cookies, cakes and pies for the 7:00am
opening. However, this morning, her
attic room had very distinct chills and cool breezes as she moved about the
room. Then suddenly she saw him – the hair
on the back of her neck tingled. She had
a sense that someone was lurking there in the shadows staring at her. The sensation burrowed down to her bones. She stood for several seconds, her heart
thumped and then at the edge of darkness she saw the outline of a man. His hair was combed back and accentuated dark
and expressive eyes. His partial grin
revealed crooked, small teeth. His dark
suit appeared hand tailored as did his shirt and vest. He shook his head, she shook hers and said: “Do
I know you?” He stared as if assessing
her and she sensed she came up short in his book. “What’s this about?” she asked. He eased toward her, assessing. “This is about the journal?” Daisy
inquired. He nodded. “I didn’t read it last night, I was too tired
and annoyed. I suppose you’re here to
tell me not to read it.” The man’s
expression darkened and the shadows around them thickened. The walls undulated ad moaned and suddenly
the air in the room smelled of rotting eggs.
Fear dug into
Daisy’s gut and triggered a set of worries she never had considered. She’d never been afraid of any bump or squeak
in the night in the attic room, but now she was. “Just leave”, she said. For seconds, maybe minutes, they stood
staring at each other and in the next instant he was gone. Daisy’s heart thumped and her breathing
quickened. She felt confined and
afraid. Several books piled high on the
table tumbled to the floor, making her jump.
This presence wanted her to leave.
And that ticked her off. She told
the ghost to leave, to get the hell out of her room. Seconds ticked as watching eyes stared at her. “Beat it”, she said. The air thickened and then in a blink
cleared. Whatever it was had gone. She’d never felt unwelcomed in this house but
she did now.
What on earth was
she going to find in this journal about a slave girl and what did it have to do
with her that she now had ghosts visiting her?
This was a
well-written and extremely interesting story that kept me turning page after
page and provided me with both chills and thrills. I never expected what Daisy was soon to find
out. The
Union Street Bakery is highly recommendable.
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