The Dying of the Light

July 23, 2018
Goolrick (A Reliable Wife) tells the intriguing and heartbreaking story of American debutante Diana Cooke, whose difficult adult life culminated in her disappearance after her family’s estate, Saratoga, burned to the ground. Diana, a beautiful, tomboyish girl, had caring parents who doted on her, and also reinforced the notion that if Diana didn’t marry someone wealthy, they could lose Saratoga. Diana, just coming into her twenties, meets Captain Copperton, an older gentleman of new money, and the two quickly marry. Known as a charmer, the captain turns out to be a cruel husband. Together, Diana and Copperton have a son, Ashton, who proves to be Diana’s only solace. But after Copperton dies in a horse race, Ashton is sent away, and Diana is left alone with Saratoga, barely able to make ends meet as his fortune is in limbo. Eventually, a grown Ashton returns and begins to set Saratoga on the right course once again, until his devotion to his mother is challenged when she begins a love affair with his closest friend, Gibby. In the end, everyone must overcome their own prejudices to forge a way forward. Filled with glamour and devastating family scheming, this American tragedy swathed in honor, money, and betrayal will please fans of dramatic, sweeping historicals.

This Southern gothic story "begins with a house, and it ends in ashes." Kirby Heyborne delivers the narrative in a voice as straightforward as a newscaster's, recounting even the most disturbing events without judgment. At the same time, he breathes life into the characters through their dialogue, shining a light on a uniquely Southern way of life that is fading away. Diana, the last in a long line of Cookes, carries the weight, hope, and despair of trying to revive and maintain a lost lifestyle. Copperton, an enigma, evolves from a smooth-talking suitor to an abusive husband with cruelty and vulgarity dripping from his voice. Son Ashton's voice overflows with hurt and anger as the family's facade crumbles. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

March 1, 2018

Coming of age after World War I, striking Diana Cooke holds her nose as she marries Captain Copperton, nasty and vulgar but rich enough to assure the future of the Cooke family home, Saratoga. The real trouble starts years later when her son, Ashton, comes home from college. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018
A blue-blooded Southern belle's grandiose life is upended by the desire that consumes her.Goolrick (The Fall of Princes, 2015, etc.) returns to the gothic influences that marked his first two novels, heightened here by an operatic arc that doesn't quite ring true. A modern-day prologue finds a young reporter sifting through the ashes of Saratoga, an enormous Virginia mansion that burned to the ground in 1941, taking lives with it. The novel itself is the story of Diana Cooke, who in 1919 is the debutante of the year, destined for high society. On Diana's burdened shoulders lies the responsibility of saving Saratoga, her family's home, by marrying Capt. Copperton, a vulgar and violent man who fathers Diana's one saving grace, a son named Ashton. After Copperton dies in an accident, Diana retreats to the lonely halls of Saratoga. Her life becomes infinitely more complicated when Ashton returns from college with his handsome roommate, Gibby Cavenaugh, in tow. Ashton commits himself to fixing up Saratoga, bringing in an eccentric librarian, Lucius Walter, and a high-spirited decorator, Rose de Lisle. Gibby, meanwhile, commits himself to fulfilling the pent-up desires of the not-so-modest Diana Cooke Copperton. As they say, drama ensues. There is an accident. A suicide. A fistfight and a near drowning. "Secrets revealed about the true state of things," writes Goolrick. "An accounting. Cards shown." Through it all develops the complex, unconventional triangle between Diana and "the single godlike creature her two men had become in her misted eyes." Goolrick's writing is always lyrical, and even simple lines like "They tried so hard it broke their hearts," or "Love, for him, was archeological, a dig for a treasure he would never find," are bitterly poetic. Yet stripped to its core, the story is soapy, over-the-top, and plunging toward an inevitable finale.A lurid and ultimately tragic tale revolving around a woman willing to burn her life to the ground.

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