Suzette Francis
First Assignment:
Geneva Shaw must reclaim her family’s ancestral land in rural Alabama, and in doing so, confront the buried secrets of her lineage, navigate a hostile legal battle, and reconcile her identity as both heir and outsider in a place that never fully accepted her.
Second Assignment:
Davenport Stockton is a wealthy land developer and heir to one of the South’s most powerful families. Raised to value legacy, control, and appearance above all else, he sees the world as his to dominate through wealth, charm, and calculated force. His public persona is one of refinement and civic pride, but beneath the surface lies a man driven by the fear of losing power, and the fear of being exposed.
His goal is to acquire Murray Farm, absorb it into his expanding empire, and erase the last remnant of the past that threatens his spotless legacy. To him, the land is leverage. A symbol of dominance.
But Geneva Shaw’s return, and her unwavering claim to the farm, threatens to unravel everything he’s built. As old secrets begin to surface, Davenport's grip begins to slip. He reacts not with humility, but with resistance. Yet as cracks appear in his armor, so too does a creeping awareness that perhaps his empire was built on theft and silence.
Davenport is not a villain in the classic sense, but he is dangerous. Because he’s willing to destroy anyone who threatens his carefully curated myth, even if that someone is his own blood.
Third Assignment:
The Southerner
The Inheritance
Blood and Boundary Lines
Murray Farm
God, Guns, and Acreage
Fourth Assignment:
1. Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe (May 13, 2025)
Set in early 20th-century South Carolina, this sweeping family saga follows Eliza Mayfield from her childhood on a Lowcountry estate through the upheavals of war, societal change, and personal loss. As Eliza matures into the family's matriarch, she grapples with preserving the Mayfield legacy amid shifting times. Monroe's evocative prose and rich character development mirror the atmospheric storytelling found in The Southerner, making this novel a compelling read for fans of multigenerational Southern epics.
2. Gothictown by Emily Carpenter (March 25, 2025)
In this modern Southern Gothic tale, disillusioned urbanite Billie relocates to the seemingly idyllic town of Juliana. However, as her sleep deteriorates and her marriage frays, Billie uncovers the town's unsettling secrets and the menacing nature of its elders. Carpenter's novel delves into themes of small-town decay, hidden histories, and the psychological unraveling of its protagonist, resonating with the haunting and introspective elements present in The Southerner.
3. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (April 2025)
Hall's debut novel offers a poignant exploration of a family's fractured history in the rural South. Through lyrical prose, the story examines generational trauma, the weight of secrets, and the quest for redemption, resonating with the emotional depth and Southern Gothic elements characteristic of The Southerner.
4. Fortitude by M. A. Holm (February 2025)
Set against the backdrop of the Spanish-American War, this novel follows Claire O'Farrell, a young woman challenging societal norms in the Jim Crow South. Holm weaves a narrative rich in historical detail and emotional complexity, exploring themes of courage, identity, and the enduring impact of the past on the present.
Fifth Assignment:
The fight for Murray Farm isn’t just about land. It’s about blood, betrayal, and a Southern town’s reckoning with the ghosts it tried to forget.
Sixth Assignment:
The Protagonist’s inner conflict:
After her husband divorces her like a bomb suddenly dropping overhead, Geneva learns that the large farm she inherited in Rutherford County, Alabama has been seized through eminent domain by Davenport Stockton, the wealthiest man in town. Before she has time to heal from the hurt of losing the man she would spend the rest of her life with, she is forced to prepare for battle. With the weight of four generations of ancestors on her shoulders, she is determined to save her family’s farm so that her son can inherit it, a promise she made to her father before he died. Geneva struggles with leaving a thirty-year nursing career, her home in Northern Virginia, and her best friend, Jessica.
Scene that triggers the protagonist:
Exhausted from traveling, Geneva arrives at Murray Farm to find a strange lock on the door, a condemnation notice fluttering in the wind, and a sheriff suddenly appears. Sheriff Tate forces her off the property she inherited. With bitterness boiling over from her divorce and what she views as the theft of her property, she goes to see an attorney the next day. The attorney informs her that eminent domain is a legal maneuver that towns can use to condemn property they determine could be put to better use. Geneva is stunned to learn that most of the black-owned farms that used to be in the Mount Zion section of Rutherford County were taken by this method. Even knowing that a case like this could be expensive and take years to resolve, Geneva is determined to fight.
Secondary Conflict:
After the hearing is delayed for a year, Geneva and her son, Zane, work to turn Murray Farm into a profitable enterprise that serves the community, but along the way, there are death threats against them, vandalism, and a conflict of interest—-she is falling in love with Davenport Stockton’s attorney and her son is captivated by his granddaughter. In a place and time that presents more danger than Geneva and her son are prepared for, she makes the tough decision to continue the struggle and keep her promise to her father.
Assignment 7: Setting
When Geneva returned to Rutherford County, it was not the weathered patchwork of red clay roads and tractor tracks she remembered. The rough-edged, slow-moving farm town of her childhood had been paved over, glossed, and reshaped into something nearly unrecognizable. Where the old grainery once stood, its silos creaking in the wind like rusted statues, there now rose Whispering Pines, a pristine subdivision with manicured lawns and streetlamps that glowed like pearls at dusk.
At the county’s center, what used to be thousands of acres of cotton and forgotten machinery had been razed to make room for Stockton Place, the most exclusive gated community in three counties. It sprawled like a fortress of ambition, all brick and stone and wrought-iron fencing like wealth wearing a smug smile.
And Mount Zion, where blight and boarded windows had once whispered of generational poverty, a glossy new shopping mall now shimmered with fluorescent light. Beside it, the fresh-planted trees of Belle Meadow lined the sidewalks of yet another new development, each house nearly identical—bright, polished, soulless. But beneath the veneer, Geneva could still feel the bones of the past. What used to be black-owned farmland had been swallowed whole, the erasure humming beneath every welcome mat, with only a few holdouts remaining.
The condition of the house Geneva inherited on Murray Farm, built long before the Civil War ever began, stood like a relic from a museum. Two stories of weathered red brick and stubborn endurance, its Georgian bones etched into the Alabama earth. A wide veranda stretched across the back, sagging slightly at the edges, as though weary from carrying so much memory. Below, a cellar carved into the clay still held the cool breath of generations gone. A crooked stone path, half-swallowed by weeds and time, led to what once had been a thriving garden, now a tangle of honeysuckle and neglect. Beyond that, the land opened like a breath held too long: acres of soybeans and corn pushing skyward, bordered by woods so thick they whispered secrets. In spring, the scent of magnolia blossoms rode the breeze like perfume; in summer, the trees stood like soldiers, guarding against the blistering heat. A little farther on, the peach orchard drooped with the weight of its past, its trees shedding overripe fruit that sank into the soil like offerings. And through it all wound a silver-threaded creek, cool and glistening, catching the sunlight as if to remind whoever still watched: the land remembers everything.
Geneva meets with her attorney, Lydia Thomas, at her office perched on the twenty-third floor of a sleek glass tower in downtown Birmingham, overlooking the city skyline like a queen surveying her dominion. The space was minimalist but intentional—brushed brass fixtures, abstract Black Southern art on the walls, and a curated shelf of legal texts and biographies, each spine uncreased and gleaming under soft, recessed lighting. Lydia’s desk, Italian walnut with clean lines, was cleared of all but a silver pen holder and a slim MacBook.
While Geneva met with Alexander Walters, she couldn’t help but contrast Lydia’s office with his. A converted antebellum house just off the courthouse square, its wraparound porch shaded by dogwoods and humming with the low buzz of cicadas. Inside, the air smelled of cedar, old paper, and pipe tobacco long since retired. His office was cluttered but lived-in: case files in leaning towers, yellow legal pads half-filled and fraying at the corners, a green banker’s lamp casting a low glow over his battered oak desk. The centerpiece, however, was mounted proudly behind him: a massive largemouth bass, caught in 1986 and preserved with more love than most family heirlooms.
After the appellate judge granted her the opportunity to live at Murray Farm until after the hearing, Geneva agreed to meet with Davenport in order to retrieve the house keys. The Stockton house sat atop a low, manicured hill like a crown half-tilted on a fading monarch. Built in 1944, the year Davenport was born, the estate was a sprawling testament to wealth that refused to whisper. Its brick façade, once a deep crimson, had faded to a softer, rosier hue, as though time had tried to humble it but failed.
