By Blood Possessed [Paperback]

Elena Santangelo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2006

Agatha Award Nominee Pat Montella, sick of her office job and looking for any shortcut to early retirement, receives a mysterious summons from a lawyer. A complete stranger--ninety-one-year-old Miss Maggie Shelby of Bell Run, Virginia--intends to bequeath her 200 acre estate to Pat. The catch is, Pat must spend a week there first with Miss Maggie, a retired history teacher who seems determined to make Pat her next star pupil. The past does indeed come alive for Pat, but in ways neither she nor Miss Maggie expect: phantom aromas of Union army chow, sounds of soldiers felling trees...and nightmarish visions of horrific battles. But while Pat delves into the saga of Bell Run and the family who gave their lives to protect it more than a century earlier, she finds, stalking her through the bewitching Virginia woodlands, a much more terrifying present-day murderer...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Pat Montella receives a letter notifying her that she may be the heir to a large estate called Bell Run near Fredricksburg, Virginia, she's sure her ship has finally come in. Trapped in a boring day job as a business consultant in southern Pennsylvania, she's more than willing to overlook the strange circumstances surrounding her inheritance, including her 91-year-old benefactor Miss Magnolia Shelby's requirement that Pat stay at the old family home during the first week of May. After Pat arrives and learns that Shelby is a legendary history teacher, the request doesn't seem so odd. Pat is the only surviving member of Gabriel Bell's prosperous Confederate family. A stickler for historical justice, Shelby has decided to leave the property to its rightful owner. It's no secret that Bell Run is a developer's dream, however, and local real-estate shark Flora Shifflett wastes no time in making her services available. And Shifflett isn't the only one after the property; a notorious busybody wants the manor house restored for her beloved Historical Society; a rebellious teenager wants the land preserved to safeguard the local environment. As these competing demands plod along a desperately predictable course, the Bell family's dark past slowly comes to light. Before long, ghosts, voodoo dolls and death threats are headed Pat's way. Things take a serious turn when someone shoots at Pat with a rifle and her only rival for the inheritance turns up at the bottom of the nearby river. First-novelist Santangelo writes an atmospheric, entertaining tale, and has created an appealing heroine in Pat Montella. She's often only a hair shy of imitating Nancy Drew here, though, and never quite pulls off the Southern accent so central to the book.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-Thirty years ago, Magnolia Shelby wrote out her will and bequeathed her beautiful Civil War-era estate, Bell Run, to a complete stranger related to the family that owned the land before the Shelbys. Now 91, Maggie feels it is time to meet her beneficiary and to introduce her to her heritage. Pat Montella, a quiet, unassuming office worker from Pennsylvania, is unaware of her distant connection to the Bell family. She travels to Virginia to meet Maggie and as the two of them explore the grounds and neighborhood, Pat becomes aware of voices and out-of-date details. She experiences blackouts and "sees" back to early May 1864 when the Confederate army was preparing for a battle on the property. The Bell family is buried there but no one knows the circumstances of their deaths. Interspersed throughout the story are diary entries from that time in which a family member describes the tragedies befalling them. While puzzling over these events and their meaning, Pat becomes the victim of attacks against her and Bell Run. She is afraid to trust the local people she meets and doesn't know who is trying to scare her away from her inheritance. These historical and contemporary elements blend into a very satisfying and suspenseful story.
Penny Stevens, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Bella Rosa Books (January 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933523042
• ISBN-13: 978-1933523040
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,641,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ELENA SANTANGELO pens the Possessed Mystery series, including Agatha Award finalist BY BLOOD POSSESSED. The series features laid-off office clerk turned ghostbuster, Pat Montella, and her 91 year-old sidekick, Miss Maggie. These novels combine murder, ghosts, history, and a protagonist brought up on Italian cooking and superstitions. Latest in the series is FEAR ITSELF, in which a ghost from the Great Depression helps Pat solve a present day murder in her hometown.

Elena's Twins Mystery Series begins with the Kindle-exclusive novel TWO-FACED, which introduces Gen Ziegler, forensic psychologist, and her mirror-image twin, Sara. The series continues most recently with DOUBLE CROSS, where the sisters become stranded in a West Texas town, surrounded by secrets, outlaws, danger, and murder.

DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS is Elena's armchair companion to Christie's more than one hundred and fifty short stories. DAME AGATHA'S SHORTS won the 2009 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction and is an Anthony Award and Macavity Award finalist.

Sixteen of Elena's short stories have been published in the United States and Japan and most are available on Kindle. She co-edited the short story anthology, DEATH KNELL IV.

She has chronicled the 1945 journal of her uncle, Joseph Chicco, which you can read at 1945chicco.blogspot.com.

Visit Elena's website at www.elenasantangelo.com and read her writing blog at elenasantangelo.blogspot.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BY BLOOD POSSESSED...Good To The Last Drop!, August 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: By Blood Possessed (Hardcover)

Wisecracking Patricia "Pat" Montella is in a dead-end job and in a nowhere life when out-of-the-blue this Pennsylvania native is notified that a stranger is considering bequeathing property in Virginia to her.

The stranger is retired school teacher, Civil War historian and present owner, Magnolia "Miss Maggie" Shelby. Her one stipulation is that Pat spend one week in May at Bell Run, the estate in question, to learn about the land, the Bell Family and ultimately about Pat, herself.

Laying claim to Bell Run is no easy task for Pat Montella. Not only is there a long-lost descendant of the Bell clan competing for the family homestead, but there are also land developers itching to get their hands on this prime real estate property. Threats, murder and eerie happenings move the plot to a predictable but very satisfying climax, with plenty of suspense to spare.

This book is a real find. Not only do you fall in love with Pat Montella in the first chapter as she humorously fantasizes the demise of her obnoxious boss in a barrage of rifle fire, but you can really empathize with a petite but broad-hipped, short woman in white slacks crawling through Virginia woodland.

Elena Santangelo has created very real characters that are warm, funny, flawed and tragic. She has blended character with the passage of time into an engrossing and atmospheric plot that toggles between presend day Virginia and the ravaged Virginia of the Civil War. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knocked my socks off!, January 3, 2001

By 

Maria Y. Lima "Chickwriter" (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By Blood Possessed (Mass Market Paperback)

I should know better than to start a mystery novel before bedtime. Especially one as gripping and well-written as BY BLOOD POSSESSED. After several sleepless hours, completely engrossed in the novel, I realized that Elena Santangelo is definitely a force to be reckoned with. And no, I did not get to sleep until I finished the book.

This, her first mystery novel, not only delivers one of the best stories I've read, but skillfully weaves both the historical "back" story with the contemporary primary storyline with seamless integration, combining them into a finished, polished tale that will hold its own among the best of the genre. Santangelo bears watching - she may just sneak up and snatch an award or two. Brava!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now for something completely different, November 3, 1999

By 

Karen Hyman (Cherry Hill, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By Blood Possessed (Hardcover)

I don't like historical mysteries. I don't like mysteries about time travel. I don't like flash backs and forwards. I'm not a Civil War buff. But I LOVED By Blood Possessed by Elena Santangelo. If you like the aforementioned items, you might love this book even more.

The main protagonist is from the Philadelphia area and, while she's surprised to discover Civil War era Virginia ancestors, she's well aware of her Philly Italian heritage from the Montella's, Giamo's etc.

Pat is refreshingly real. She hates her job. Her life is going nowhere. Her description of the outcome of her five dating relationships (only two getting beyond date #1) is worth the price of the book.

This is a story short on terrifying suspense, yet I couldn't put it down. I think there's a big future for Pat.