The Last Sunset in Dixie

By Eric M

Mississippi, 1861. White columns, neat ledgers, polite smiles-and a lie big enough to get the Duval family killed. Belle Hallow is their mask: a grand plantation run by a white-passing Black family who use wealth and respectability to hide a covert network moving enslaved people to freedom.

When war conscripts Elijah Duval and his two sons into the Confederate ranks, the fa ade-and the danger-fall to Evelyn Duval. With Isaac, the quiet architect of routes, and Ruth, mistress of kitchen-codes, Evelyn fights off greedy neighbors and watchful deputies while keeping the house "behaving" for the law. Recipes become ciphers. Ledgers split-one for daylight, one for truth. Storm nights and market days turn into corridors no clerk can see.

A by-the-book inspector who prefers daylight may be an unlikely shield, but a ruthless local colonel is closing in. As rumors tighten, and news from the front brings a devastating loss, Evelyn risks everything on a bold, daylight exodus-before the last guardrails of law are reassigned and the county's appetite takes the house.

The Last Sunset in Dixie is a tense, heart-forward historical thriller about passing, resistance, and the cost of telling the truth in a county built on a lie. Book One of Masks of Belle Hallow-perfect for readers who love richly drawn characters, moral complexity, and high-stakes cat-and-mouse suspense.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FMNFYFSP
• ISBN13: 9798298107952
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"