Book excerpt: Four thirty something women who were childhood friends, reunited by an old promise in the decayed little swamp town of their birth, a weekend filled with obsession, deception, untold secrets, love, hatred and murder hidden behind a dark curtain of Spanish moss. In the distance the moon is rising a virulent orange, sliced through with lines of red, as if leaking blood . . . a bad moon, a warning, an omen -- vigilant, jealous guardian of voodoo rituals and the legends of werewolves . . . .