Blackwater Series by Michael McDowell, Nathan Ballingrud

The mysterious saga of the Caskey family begins in Blackwater I: The Flood, as a devastating flood brings a strange and beautiful visitor to the small, sleepy lumber town of Perdido, Alabama. Elinor Dammert's arrival will forever change the town and the wealthy and powerful Caskey family. James, who dotes on Elinor like a second daughter... Sister, who pines for Elinor’s strength and independence... Oscar, who loves Elinor and determines to build a life with her.. moreThe mysterious saga of the Caskey family begins in Blackwater I: The Flood, as a devastating flood brings a strange and beautiful visitor to the small, sleepy lumber town of Perdido, Alabama. Elinor Dammert's arrival will forever change the town and the wealthy and powerful Caskey family. James, who dotes on Elinor like a second daughter... Sister, who pines for Elinor’s strength and independence... Oscar, who loves Elinor and determines to build a life with her... And matriarch Mary-Love, perhaps the only person in Perdido with an inkling of Elinor’s true power and purpose. For Elinor is more than she appears, and she brings to Perdido—and to the Caskeys—a deadly, inexplicable otherness from which no one can ever be safe. less

Elinor Dammert abandoned her first-born child in a bargain with Mary-Love Caskey of Perdido, Alabama, and set in motion a series of strange familial entanglements. Her goals: power, money, her way.In her way, she would begin to suck power from the weaknesses of the family she had entered through marriage. Her power would be felt again and again even if it meant murder - or a horifying ancient ritual death. Elinor Dammert must win.

The Depression came hard to most people in Perdido, Alabama, but the town's first family weathered the storm under the guidane of the indomitable Mary-Love Caskey and the increasing influence of her daughter-in-law, Elinor.Strange and malevolent were the ways of Elinor to those who stood in her way. Those she loved would prosper. Those she disliked would die hideously. No court could call it murder because her manner was not human.

Wartime in Perdido jolted the sleepy little Alabama town as new people entered the community. Outsiders would invade the comfort of the wealthy Caskeys and take their daughters.This, though, was the part of the master plan of Elinor Caskey, who would see the fasmily flourish amidst the deatruction and death she administered in a fashion more awesome than the war itself.

Under Elinor's guidance, the Caskey family prospered after the war, not knowing that a dark infernal force was growing in their midst. And Frances, Elinor's favorite daughter, never understood her strange yearning for the Perdido River....until the day her babies were born.Elinor presided over the secret birth, the triumph of her life. And the blood red water of the Perdido continued to claim its own- both human and demons - some in grisly death, some in exquisite surrender.

As the Caskey family and their town of Perdido rode the crest of prosperity in the 60s, matriarch Elinor had good reason to be proud of her domain. But slowly, silently, unimaginable horrors were creeping into their midst.At the height of revelry, at the peak of chaos, in the fearful silence of blackest night, preternatural horror pounced upon the Caskeys. But still Elinor reigned, until her solemn vow of death came true - in the final horror.Rain concludes the epic six-part novel Blackwater.

Blackwater is the saga of a small town, Perdido, Alabama, and Elinor Dammert, the stranger who arrives there under mysterious circumstances on Easter Sunday, 1919. On the surface, Elinor is gracious, charming, anxious to belong in Perdido, and eager to marry Oscar Caskey, the eldest son of Perdido’s first family. But her beautiful exterior hides a shocking secret... moreBlackwater is the saga of a small town, Perdido, Alabama, and Elinor Dammert, the stranger who arrives there under mysterious circumstances on Easter Sunday, 1919. On the surface, Elinor is gracious, charming, anxious to belong in Perdido, and eager to marry Oscar Caskey, the eldest son of Perdido’s first family. But her beautiful exterior hides a shocking secret. Beneath the waters of the Perdido River, she turns into something terrifying, a creature whispered about in stories that have chilled the residents of Perdido for generations. Some of those who observe her rituals in the river will never be seen again ... Originally published as a series of six volumes in 1983, Blackwater is the crowning achievement of Michael McDowell, author of the Southern Gothic classics Cold Moon Over Babylon and The Elementals and screenwriter of Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. This first-ever one-volume edition, with a new introduction by Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud, marks Blackwater’s first appearance in print in three decades and will allow a new generation of readers to discover this modern horror classic. less