A Walking Shadow by Elizabeth Ireland
Her quest for the
truth causes her to descend into the Underworld, the den of inequity
below the streets of Chicago. What Lillian finds soon embroils her in
a battle between her passion for performing and control over her own
body as it all plays out in a supernatural game of good and evil.
THE BACKSTAGE
MYSTERY SERIES
Tagline: Life
upon the wicked stage can be deadly.
Set against
the backdrop of the Gilded Age, the Backstage Mystery Series stars
Lillian Nolan, an unconventional member of Chicago’s upper class
who dreams of a career of fortune and fame in the theater. Talented
and ambitious, she possesses a hidden skill which she is extremely
reluctant to use—the ability to communicate with those who have
died and now live in the world of “The Beyond.”
The series
chronicles her adventures in which she continually becomes enmeshed
in solving mysteries which often require her accessing the realm of
the paranormal. Filled with an incredible cast of characters—factual,
fictional, and sometimes non-physical—who either help or hinder her
quest for the truth, the stories take place during a a period
considered to be the golden age of both acting and spiritualism in
America.
4. In 1871 novice actress Lillian Nolan, protagonist and reluctant sleuth, meets her nemesis, Mary Cosgrove:
I turned to see what I still consider the physical embodiment of an angel. A cloud of blonde hair, a small, but neat figure that was immaculately dressed. With her deep, green eyes and a smile that was both warm and welcoming, there was almost a fairy quality about her. She was young, but older than I—perhaps by two or three years—but she seemed far more confident and sure of herself.
I took her hand in mine and shook it. It was small and delicate, like the rest of her, but held unexpected strength.
“Rose—uh, Lillian Nolan.”
Grandmother insisted that I honor Father’s wishes on this point and take a stage name. It wasn’t that my own was so mundane, which, of course it was—but she felt very strongly that I should avoid any more damage to the family sensitivities. By that I knew she meant not embarrass them any further. Grandmother argued that if I didn’t want to rub salt in the wound of Father’s pride, I really needed to have another name. We pondered this for some time until we decided on her mother’s name, Lillian (which was also Grandmother’s middle name), and Grandmother’s maiden name, Nolan. Lillian Nolan. I liked it. I could see it on hand bills and marquees. It had certain theatricality to it.
I used it now to introduce myself to Mary Cosgrove but it didn’t come off my tongue as easily as I thought that it would. Mary seemed to disregard my hesitation over my own name and smiled at me. I could not help but be drawn into the warmth of that smile.
She
has been a quarter-finalist and a semi-finalist for the Don and
Gee Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting sponsored by the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Two of her screenplays have been
optioned, but remain unproduced. Her nonfiction work, Women
of Vision: Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives, was
published in 2008. Her work has also been published in a collection
of paranormal short stories, Paramourtal: Tales of Undying Love
and Loving the Undead. She lives in metro Atlanta with her
ever-patient husband, and two quirky dachshunds.
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