“Nila lay there with the moonlight cascading through her open window casting ominous shadows about the room. The tendrils of those shadows reached out from the dark and tugged at her aching heart.”

“Brannagh Maloney had lived with disappearances all her life. They were as familiar to her as the changing of the Fundy tides. People who disappeared left cast-off shadows of themselves, murky tremblings that slunk out of corners on drizzly autumn afternoons. They lurked offstage, silent or sighing or reaching out to run a finger across her arm. They were the curtains fluttering in the window on a breezeless morning, the musty scent that arose when opening an abandoned cellar door. LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU (Kunati Books)”

“They stared out their window at night enough to know where the darkest shadows lay, and it was to the darkest shadows they kept.”

“She stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely lights and shadows. A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all around it. And then --Oh Joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.”

“The tinkle of a wind chime stirred from over a window. Purple and white phlox cascaded cheerfully over the top of a nearby stone wall. Sunlight sifted through the weave of her straw hat, casting freckles of light on her nose and cheeks that shifted, out of focus, as she walked.”

“The shadows outside tamed none of him. No, they cast him as stronger and more dangerous than ever before. He was bigger. Hungrier. Predatory.He said nothing as he crawled through the window, but his dark, flashing eyes and body stalking toward her spoke volumes.”