Publication Date: July 11, 2023
“Beautifully written and satisfyingly creepy, this is one of the most poignant and original ghost stories I’ve ever read.” –Mark Haskell Smith, author of Blown
In a small, secluded town that thrives on gossip and superstition, Dottie offers plenty of both when the scandal breaks about a missing girl, a ghost, and the affair that started it all. Having suffered a history of miscarriages, reclusive Dottie develops a strange motherly interest in her 15-year-old neighbor, Magdalena. Somewhere between fantasy and reality, Dottie finds new life in her relationship with the mysterious girl. But Dottie’s entanglements with Magdalena, a curious centenarian, a compelling stranger, an ex-mobster, and a murder of crows thrusts this once cloistered woman into a frenzy of public scrutiny. To quell the rumors, Dottie puts pen to paper and discovers something as frightening as it is liberating—her voice.
Dottie needs to tell her story that blurs the line between the living and the dead. In doing so, she hopes to set the record straight about a number of events leading up to her at age 43 living with her vegetative state husband in a nursing home.
Author Candi Sary has created an intriguing ghost story with Magdalena. Set in Sam’s Town along the coast of California, the story is full of interesting characters.
Dottie directs the action by focusing her efforts on recalling past events that are certainly out of the norm for the very private, somewhat reclusive woman. Her introduction to Magdalena, a young teen, alters her perception and begins a series of adventures.
Ultimately, the story’s theme focuses on a lonely woman suffering from grief and her journey to find peace. The integration of ghostly figures increases the story’s appeal, making readers want to know what will happen next.
Magdalena unfolds through a woman’s efforts to tell her story, even though it features some hard-to-explain ghostly twists.
Author Candi Sary graduated from the University of California, Irvine. She has been in the finals of several writing competitions including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and the William Faulkner William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Her novel BLACK CROW WHITE LIE (Casperian Books, 2012) won Reader Views Literary Award, a CIBA, and was First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Book Award. It was made into a short film by Chase Michael Wilson. Her new novel MAGDALENA (Regal House Publishing, 2023) also won a CIBA. A mother of two adult children, Sary lives in Southern California with her husband, a dog, a cat and several ducks. She can often be found surfing and paddling boarding in the waters of Newport Beach. She is a proud steward of a Little Free Library. ​
