A review by tfpjr492
The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Charlotte (Charlie) Gates is the managing editor of a New York-based ladies magazine with a targeted audience of affluent women. She has dedicated 12 years of her life to this magazine, and she has worked her way up the management ladder with several well-deserved promotions. 
 
In her personal life she is dealing with some recent misfortunes. Two years ago she divorced her cheating husband(Eric). Now her young son (Keegan) has died. Charlie is struggling to cope with difficult emotions - grief, hurt and anger, as the reader can understand from her internal dialogue at her son’s funeral. 
 
I was angry that he showed up at all. Eric had visited Keegan only once since he . . . moved to Chicago. What right did he have to fatherly grief. . . . that’s MY son.
 
To add to Charlie’s troubles, her employer will restructure  the business - she will lose her job. Her previous editor has an opportunity - write a history of a leading Louisiana family including the unsolved disappearance of a young boy 30 years ago. Meanwhile Charlie has been having dreams of children disappearing, and recently she had a dream of a boy who fits the circumstances of the Louisiana family. Charlie’s life has been turned upside down. The author makes an effective appeal to the reader’s sympathy with Charlie’s internal dialogue below. 
 
Can I help a boy who has  been dead for nearly thirty years? But there is nothing else for me. So why not try?  . . .  Misguided though it may be, I have a purpose now. I’m going to Louisiana.
 
The Louisiana family and the estate manager obstruct her inquiries into the disappearance of the boy. Charlie finds some solace in an unexpected, uncertain romance with the estate landscaper. 
 
Despite her recent setbacks  Charlie perseveres. She is smart, tough and she has a well-developed instinct for using effectively either gentle tact or frank confrontation. Sometimes she displays an endearing trait. Her thought process bumbles along at a somewhat slower pace than the reader’s thought process. This trait is evident when she is sizing up other characters or misjudging appropriate attire. 
 
Charlie is at her best when the story pace quickens, and plot twists surprise both her and the reader. At some points she seems almost reckless. At other times she engages in episodes of self-criticism. Maybe it is a mechanism for dealing with high stress; it does give the reader a reason to think about self-criticism. 

The plot rolls to a  nerve-wracking climax. The whole story brings the reader to a new view of a mother’s love for her child.