At the onset of the Revolutionary War, grandiose rice plantations line the coastal rivers of the southern colonies, and in this world of marshes and mansions, traditional practices such as ritual recipes, basket weaving, storytelling and hoodoo medicine quietly thrive among the communities of the enslaved laborers.
When rebels burn out the Hardin Plantation for Hardin's loyalty to the British Crown, Johab, a feared and respected root doctor, is gravely injured and separated from his wife and son. While fleeing inland, he is taken in by a band of the Muscogee people, who carry Johab to their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, heal his nearly fatal wounds and teach him a few guarded secrets.
Dream walking, hexes, root work and spirits of the dead guide Johab as he searches for his family and tries to survive a confrontation with a desperate and dangerous landowner, August Toombs.
The Duel, is a historical fiction full of magical realism that walks the line between literary and mainstream/commercial fiction. The story and characters in this 75,000 word novel are inseparable from the southern settings including the salt marshes of the sea islands, the cobblestone streets of Charles Town and Savannah and the flowering rhododendron covered hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Johab is a respected and feared root doctor in the Golden Isles of the colonial south where majestic rice plantations line the coastal rivers and the world of hoodoo medicine quietly thrives among the low country slave communities. At the onset of the Revolutionary War, Johab is gravely injured and separated from his wife and son when rebels burn out the loyalist Hardin Plantation. While fleeing inland, Johab is rescued by a band of Muscogee Indians who take Johab to their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, heal his injuries and teach him a few guarded secrets.
Dream walking, hexes, spirits of the dead and root work guide Johab in finding his family and protecting them from a desperate and dangerous new master, August Toombs. As a hurricane pounds the sea island plantation, Master Toombs faces his brother in a duel to the death over a shared love. Johab uses a gift given to him by a Creek medicine man to shift the outcome of the duel and expose the truth about a newborn's paternity, a secret love affair, and a plot to take over Toombs Plantation.
