Book excerpt: In the mysterious dark South, strange old ladies, killers, hucksters, deceivers, and the unhinged lurk in the shadows where they are forced to confront inexplicable forces they do not understand. After a couple books a room in the famous Hotel Le Grande in New Orleans, one of them disappears, leaving the other to follow a bizarre trail to a sealed room where a gruesome murder took place some fifty years earlier. Uncle Poot, who has always been strange and eccentric, transforms after a board hits him on the head. Now he is a harbinger of death who sees entirely too much. A great swamp in Louisiana holds secretssome beautiful, some sinister. But when two boys enter a forbidden, treacherous portion of the swamp, they face a crisis of conscience when they discover a serial killers treasure. Aunt Lootie, already known for her oddities, believes fireflies signify a bad omen. No one believes heruntil her predictions begin to come true. Dark South shares a collection of mysterious tales that offers an unforgettable look into the minds of the odd people who inhabit a world that appears to be what it is not.