Before the Tracks Were Laid

Beneath the Clay: A Southern Gothic Trilogy of Legacy, Loss, and the Land

De: Leia Kay

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Before the Tracks Were Laid
A Southern Gothic Peachtree Plantation Trilogy of Secrets, Survival, and Inheritance

Before the house was inherited
Before the killings began
Before the truth clawed its way to the surface
There were the women

In this haunting collection of three interconnected novellas, Before the Tracks Were Laid unearths the forgotten voices and brutal legacies of a Southern family bound by land, silence, and blood. Set across generations on the cursed grounds of Peachtree, Georgia, these prequels reveal the unspoken history behind the Cheney estate and the women who dared to defy it

In Before the Tracks Were Laid, young Natalie arrives from the North and begins to suspect that her charming Southern cousin is hiding more than cruelty behind his smile

In What Lucy Carried, an enslaved girl finds quiet power through ritual and memory, tasked with protecting a fragile child from a growing darkness no one else will name

And in He Inherits It All, the land itself bears witness as a pregnant bride steps onto cursed soil and the past begins to claw its way forward

A chilling blend of historical fiction, suspense, and Southern folklore, Before the Tracks Were Laid is a slow-burning portrait of inherited trauma and buried truth where every scar has a story and every story has a cost

Perfect for fans of Toni Morrison, Kate Morton, and Where the Crawdads Sing

Southern Gothic Through and Through

Definitely the best AI-narrated audiobook I've listened to. That wasn't only because it actually seemed to be proofed with no major errors, but the slight, appropriate Southern accent was a nice touch. While I wish the author had bothered to find an actual voice actor, who could have done a lot more with this, I could forget I was listening to a simulation.

Most of all, the writing is outstanding. This is dripping with atmosphere and place. It's genuinely creepy and perfect for October listening. It feels incomplete, but then it's a prequel. Kay is a very talented writer!