When a child is discovered living with Bonobo apes in the jungles of the Congo, no one knows her secrets.
Published April 2009 in Hardcover
Paperback published in March 2009
By ARK Enterprises Press
The Secret of the Mothers
Delilah's mother escapes from a German compound in Africa by killing the scientist responsible for her state of pregnancy. Ten years later, Delilah becomes a ward of the Brighton Foundation where she is first introduced to human behavior by a religious fanatic; later she is transferred from that facility and learns and confronts the evils of the foundation's head and her secrets of human experimentation and genetic manipulation emerge.
The question remains: Who is Delilah Cross?
Excerpt
The man was deeply asleep, far down in that dark place where life reaches its lowest ebb, the place sometimes called "the little death", the place most of us visit almost every night- -or wish we could- -without truly knowing the nature of the place we seek or what we seek there. His return to awareness was slow; he resisted, first incorporating the sounds disturbing him into dream scenarios that seemed to last for minutes . . . or perhaps only seconds in that place where time sets its own rules and flows in its own directions. He tried to ignore them, explain them away as something other than what they were, but by then he was awake, his mind fully engaged in identifying the sounds.
When the long, quavering wail came again, he grunted in disgust. It's her, he thought, his irritation at being roused slowly escalating into anger. He sat up on the edge of the bed, clumsily fighting the dangling folds of the mosquito net. Grunting, he finally managed to find the opening and shoved it to one side. He felt it rip as he did so, and irritatedly pawed at his gummy eyelids before reaching to snap on the bedside light. His body felt old, heavy, slow to respond as he shoved his feet into slippers, picked up the heavy-duty rectangular flashlight sitting on the nightstand, and left the bedroom.
He cursed loudly when he stumbled over the kitchen stool as he reached for the pull chain on the dangling kitchen light. He didn't need this shit, he thought. It was probably nothing more than a bad dream, but he didn't dare take a chance that it wasn't. Opening the door at the back of the kitchen, he turned on the dim overhead light in the long, narrow hall that ran the rear width of the building, and ended in a small bathroom.
"Just shut up," he yelled, as the anguished wail came again, louder now that he was closer. "God damn it! I'm coming!"
Professional Reviews
Review of Delilah Cross by Adelle Bradford
Delilah Cross is an important and engagingly written novel. The characters are sketched carefully and the plot unfolds with a combination of eventfulness and subtle rhythm. There is no marked peripeteia but that which constitutes the prologue, perhaps the most provocative passage in the entire book. The reader makes sense of the secret long before the other major characters, yet it is still worth watching them work together to get their answers.
On the whole, I believe this is a highly publishable manuscript that would appeal to a wider range of readers. It is precisely the kind of book that could conceivably make Oprah’s book club list and should therefore catch the eye of a publisher who can take the risk. I think there is also tremendous potential for a screenplay. I regret that I am not of much help on the first count but I would very much like to attempt to assist you with the latter.
Please contact me at your convenience to discuss the matter further, if you would like. I would like to close by acknowledging the depth of what you’ve offered here.
Dr. Emily Plec, Associate Professor
Communication Studies
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