Since it’s first settlement Southern Ontario has been a community of emigrants, many escaping poverty, violence or the law. These “gothic” shadows flow behind their family stories and resulted in a genre called Southern Ontario Gothic. The Black Brides, couples romance and suspense in a complex plot built around life in the rural town of Fergus in 1961. This is a tightly knit community where everyone knows everyone else and their life story. Everyone that is, except the immigrant principal of the local high school, a tight-lipped man with few friends and an unknown past. When a German exchange student draws him out of his shell, people notice. Just how innocent was their relationship the townsfolk wonder when her part-time employer is murdered and she disappears

Reviews

Maggie Petru totally delivers on her latest novel, The Black Brides. Dr. Elsa Muer is a strong force to be reckoned with,·especially when it comes to a kidnapping and meeting up with significant others·from her past. A complex plot with just enough backstory for the reader. Always the Brides are hovering in the background. Intriguing and well worth the read.

C. Cook

The Black Brides is an engaging Gothic-styled story that bridges Bavaria with rural Southern Ontario and back again. Secondary characters include a canine family and ghosts that if not friendly are at least dutiful. A captivating read.

Brian Connelly

The Black Brides gives readers a reminder of how nations and families can be torn apart by love and war, and how they can triumph in the end. Mix that with compelling characters and some mystical ghosts and you’re in for a good read.

Lyanne Matcham

Dr. Elsa Muer, widow of the last Graf of Endlehausen, has heard of the Black Brides ever since she arrived in her husband’s schloss at the end of WWII. The Brides supposedly walk when the Graf is in danger. Nice story, but legends, like German nobility, are irrelevant in Bavaria in 1961. That is until Elsa starts seeing the ghosts and discovers that her supposedly dead husband is really alive and heading up the high school in her home town of Fergus, Ontario where her daughter has gone as an exchange student. Before she has that mystery sorted, her daughter disappears and Elsa must go home to unravel the plot against her husband and their children.

Fergus High School