| A Promise to Catie Contributor(s): Holt, Judd (Author) |
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ISBN: 0929398416 ISBN-13: 9780929398419 Publisher: University of North Texas Press OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 1992 Annotation: Right after he moves with his family to an old farmstead in the country, Billy Griffin, Jr. begins to experience a series of inexplicable events, beginning with the nighttime appearance of a woman at his bedroom window. Never one to believe in ghosts, he seeks alternative explanations for the lurking shadows, disappearing objects, and wafting scents. The strangest mystery of all is that his sister Beth, bitten by a rattlesnake and unable to go for help, is rescued by an ambulance that no one has called. Billy is not afraid of whatever is causing the events until one night he is chased by two huge, silent dogs which only turn away from him in answer to a shrill whistle he has never heard before. Soon after, he discovers the dogs' owner in an isolated cabin far from everyone else; it is Hebronetta Sikes, an old conjure woman who convinces Billy that he is dealing with a "real live ghost". He learns from his neighbor Mrs. Isbell that a girl named Catie Waldrop had once lived in the farmhouse where Billy now lives, and that she died soon after moving to California. Billy's fear turns first to fascination, then friendship and then, amazingly, to love. The relationship between flesh-and-blood Billy and ephemeral Catie is both humorous and poignant, and changes Billy's life forever. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 92009905 |
| Physical Information: 0.94" H x 5.72" W x 8.85" (1.11 lbs) 242 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Southwest U.S. - Geographic Orientation - Texas |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: You've read ghost stories, but not like this one. When Billy Griffin moves from Dallas to the small town of Oakpoint, Texas in 1955, he thinks life will be simpler in the country. Instead, his life is turned upside-down by a series of inexplicable events. He has been living in the old ranch house only a few weeks when the silhouette of a woman appears in his bedroom window. Objects disappear from his desk. His sister Beth is bitten by a rattlesnake, then miraculously and mysteriously saved. Billy must call upon an old conjure woman, Hebronetta Sikes, to make sense of the events, but to do so he must get past her fierce companions, a Doberman and a German Shepherd. What he does, who he meets, and what he learns will surprise you. Folklore, race relations, and small town life form the background of this unusual first novel. |