New Orleans, 1920. A contested will. A disputed inheritance. And a secret that should have remained buried. Attorney Alan Moraux believes he has been retained for a routine probate dispute. His client stands to inherit the estate of her late uncle—until a second will emerges, threatening to strip her of everything. But there is something unusual about the opposition. As Moraux investigates the rival claim, the case leads him beyond the practice of law and into the darker corners of New Orleans history. With help from the learned and eccentric Professor Bradley, he discovers that the battle over the estate may have little to do with money. Someone wants the property itself—and may have wanted it for generations. Old records reveal disturbing connections. Secret societies emerge from the city's past. Strange symbols begin to acquire meaning. And behind the respectable façades of New Orleans society, Moraux catches glimpses of the Lodge of the Veiled Crown, an ancient and elusive order whose interests reach far beyond the disposition of one dead man's estate. Then the inexplicable begins intruding upon Moraux's own life. Dreams refuse to remain dreams. Books seem to move of their own accord. The dead do not rest as comfortably as they should. And what began as a lawyer's search for the truth becomes an encounter with something that has waited patiently beneath generations of history. To win his client's inheritance, Moraux must uncover why so many people are willing to lie, threaten, and kill for it. But some legacies are more dangerous to inherit than to lose. Set amid the gaslight, courtrooms, mansions, cemeteries, and hidden histories of 1920 New Orleans, The Contested Legacy is a slow-burning Gothic mystery of law, occult conspiracy, supernatural dread, and the terrible persistence of the past.
