Product Description

Jessie Mercer has it all—fame, fortune, and a best-selling novel being made into a major motion picture starring the alluring Taylor Andrews. When disturbing, real-life events begin mimicking the movie's plot, Jessie and Taylor find themselves drawn into a cosmic web of passion, treachery, and deception that began centuries ago! As the terror mounts, Jessie realizes she is the target and must go back—all the way back to Salem, where answers to the mystery unfold—before the evil from the past destroys her!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1719328 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"A POTENT witches' brew of romantic mystery. A NAIL-BITING tale of how love can last through the ages." -- InsightOut Book Club (February 2002)

"Alex's ability to tell a good mystery was as good as any Sue Grafton book ... interesting twists and turns." -- AGLP Newsletter, Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists ( April 2002)

"Back to Salem is one of the most engrossing, imaginative, suspenseful and revealing novels written in the last fifty years!" -- Richard Fuller, Metaphysical Reviews, Summer 2002

"Back to Salem is the perfect combination of metaphysics, mystery, love and adventure." -- Murder on the Woo Woo Express, Summer 2002

"Page-turner of a mystery. SPELLBINDING. Perhaps the recall of a past life doesn't release someone from its influence." -- Venture Inward, Magazine of the A.R.E./The Edgar Cayce Foundation (March/April 2002)

GENDER-BENDING THRILLER. Marcoux is AN EXCEPTIONAL NEW TALENT that definitely should be read in this lifetime. -- Paul J. Willis, Executive Director, Lambda Literary

REFRESHING, FULL OF UNEXPECTED TWISTS . . . guaranteed to keep you guessing until the very end. FILLED WITH INTRIGUE AND SECRET PASSIONS. -- Sherry L. Stinson, Editor, OutLook Press

About the Author
Alex Marcoux won a Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Pen Award for her first novel, Facades. She is currently working on the sequel to BACK TO SALEM, another paranormal mystery featuring Jessie Mercer. BACK TO SALEM is a Lamda Literary Award finalist for Best Lesbian Mystery.

Customer Reviews

The past holds the key
I couldn't put "Back To Salem" down until I finished reading it! It's a romantic mystery with lots of plot twists and turns. Past lives in Salem, during the witch trials, hold the key to breaking the cycle of evil for Taylor and Jessie. A cliff hanger of a story until the very end! ...

A Rare Treat
I was expecting the typical lesbian mystery when I bought Back to Salem. Instead, I found a rare treat - a very creative and original story! Although complex in character and plot, the author pulls it off and keeps the pages turning. This one re-established my faith in lesbian fiction. I would recommend this one to anyone (straight or gay), unless you're looking for sex every chapter. Very intimate, romantic, tastefully done, and of course a great whodunit!

Others have done it better
After reading Alex Marcoux's Facades, I was really looking forward to her new book. But Back to Salem doesn't live up to the promise of Facades. Marcoux's plot is exciting with lots of twists and most of her characters are realistic. But I just didn't buy some of the elements of Back to Salem. I don't have to like all the characters in any book (disliking a villain, is part of the fun); but, as reviewer MJ Lowe mentioned, I was bothered by Taylor's "I'm not gay, I just love Jessie" thing. In Facades, Marcoux was willing to deal with tough issues about being a closeted lesbian as well as abuse issues. I can't understand why nobody confronts Taylor about it.

Generally, I think Salem does work better as a mystery than as a fantasy. The mystical elements aren't very well done. The "Salem connection" was okay, but I think the Isis connection doesn't fit historically in Salem. If Marcoux meant to imply a third reincarnation cycle, it didn't come across.

Frankly, the reincarnation theme has been done much better, with lesbian characters, by the likes of Laura Adams with the first of her Tunnel of Light novels, Sleight of Hand (the second of this series, Seeds of Fire is due out summer 2002). Or for that matter by Sarah Dreher with her Stoner McTavish mystery series which manages to be much more charming with Stoner as the "closet" psychic wondering through time, incarnations, and realities. None of these are "formula" novels with predetermined sex scenes either.