Title: Garden of Shadows
First published: 1987
Description: Dollanger Series #5

Garden of Shadows is the "prequel" to V.C. Andrews' phenomenally popular Dollanganger series that began with Flowers in the Attic and continued with Petals on the Wind, If there Be Thorns, and Seeds of Yesterday.

In Garden of Shadows we travel back in time to meet Malcom Foxworth when he was young, dashing, filled with ambition. On a trip to Connecticut he meets Olivia Winfield. Tall, stern, bookish, Olivia has resigned herself to being an old maid--until the handsome Malcom Foxworth proposes. Suddenly she has a new chance at a happy life. But soon after she arrives at Foxworth Hall, shadows begin to gather and Malcom's dark side emerges.

Malcom's father returns, accompanied by a child bride, and Malcom becomes obsessed with the pretty, vibrant young woman. Children are born: three boys and one special, beautiful girl. One of these children will hold the key to the shocking secret that will taint the Foxworths forever--a secret known only to the older generation, a secret that will reveal, at last, why Malcom Foxworth and his wife become evil.

Once again, V.C. Andrews spins an enthralling tale of a tangled web of family emotions.
Subjects: series:dollanganger, car accidents, stroke, heart attack, avalanche, breast cancer, marital rape, dysfunctional families, incest, child abuse, Family secrets, Wife abuse, Fiction, Horror tales, families, horror fiction, mothers and daughters, revenge, Fiction, horror, Dollanger family (fictitious characters), fiction, Children's fiction, Horror stories, Marriage, fiction, Girls, fiction, Large type books, Fiction, family life, general, Inceste, Romans, nouvelles, Familles, collectionid:vcadg
Places: Connecticut, New London, Foxworth Hall, Charlottesville, Virginia, Swan Room, Europe, Harvard University, Gladstone, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
People: Olivia Winfield, Malcolm Foxworth, Corinne Foxworth, Malcom Neal Foxworth Jr., Joel Joseph Foxworth, Garland Foxworth, Alicia Foxworth, Chris Dollanganger, Cathy Dollanganger, Cory Dollanganger, Carrie Dollanganger, John Amos, Christopher Foxworth
Time periods: 1920s, Great Depression