Scent of Darkness

"In her best-selling debut, Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire, Margot Berwin brought us to the rain forests of Mexico to a land of shamans, spirit animals, and snake charmers in the search for nine rare and valuable plants. Now, with her hotly anticipated second novel, Berwin takes us somewhere darker- deep into the bayous of Louisiana, to a world of fortune-tellers, soothsayers, and potent elixirs. Scent of Darkness is a magical, seductive story about the power of scent, and about what happens when a perfume renders a young woman irresistible. vangeline grows up understanding the extraordinary effects of fragrance. Her grandmother Louise is a gifted aromata, a master of scent-making and perfume. When Eva was a girl, Louise carefully explained that lavender under her pillow would make her dream of the man she would marry; eucalyptus would make her taller; almandine, fatter; and jasmine, Louise promised, would wrap her life in a mystery. When Eva is eighteen, Louise leaves her the ultimate gift a scent created just for her. The small perfume vial is accompanied by a note in Louise's slanted script- Do not remove the stopper, Evangeline, unless yo