The Cage Maker

A cache of secret documents unfolds a fascinating tale of fin de siècle New Orleans in this timeslip Southern gothic novel inspired by true events. When Trish, a contemporary blogger, inherits an antique birdcage, she discovers a secret compartment full of letters, journals, and newspaper clippings. As she peruses the documents, Trish finds herself irresistibly drawn into the history of her family—a tale that is, as one letter puts it, “part love story and part horror and madness.” In 1906 Dr. René Le Monnier is ready to retire as the coroner and physician of the New Orleans insane asylum. Still mourning his wife’s death, the Civil War veteran wants nothing more than to write his account of the Battle of Shiloh. But when a sixteen-year-old girl, Carmelite Kurucar, enlists his aid in saving her brother from a death sentence, the good doctor must reckon with old ghosts—including the case of a patient he may have tragically neglected. Le Monnier’s efforts lead him to Bertrand Saloy, one of the richest men in New Orleans; to the Le Monnier mansion, which still haunts him; and down a dark family lineage “cursed” by a succession of wealth. Amid the mysteries and suspenseful intrigue, a French birdcage maker’s obsessive love for Madame Saloy emerges at the heart of the story.

Persian slaves who fight for their lives in gladiator arenas rarely rise to be anyone’s champion. But the wounded Nabonidus is soon wooed by two women—a priestess at the Temple of Artemis and a humble follower of Yeshua, Daphne. Soon he must learn the truth about himself—is he a missing Persian prince or simply an unwanted orphan? The arena claims whatever soul may venture there, and Demetrius, a silversmith, joins forces with a giant German giant gladiator, Selsus, to confront the followers of the Way. Meanwhile, Caleb, Suzanna, Titius, and Abigail fight through their own life-threatening challenges to join the apostle John and Nabonidus in time. Soon the arena will be packed with chanting patrons. Who will still remain standing when the final blood is spilt? Jack A. Taylor weaves his readers through a maze of Ephesian mysticism and terror as Roman and pagan powers combine to destroy the infant movement of the Way before it takes its first steps out of its birthplace.