Marvin Levine
.jpeg)
Lowcountry Author
New release - The Ghosts of Wellington Manor
Now available on Amazon in print, ebook, and Kindle Unlimited
Evil took root in Wellington Manor generations ago. Now, a stranger’s arrival will stir the dead — and expose the living.
​
When Denise accepts an invitation to her new boyfriend’s family’s annual pre-Christmas dinner in their South Carolina ancestral plantation home, she has no idea the home’s spectral inhabitants will awaken — and fixate on her. What begins as a holiday gathering soon unravels into chaos as the family’s fractured dynamics come to light.
​
The drama follows the family to Brookgreen Gardens’ dazzling holiday light show — and to a murder that transforms dysfunction into full-blown horror. Caught in the aftermath, Denise becomes a key figure in the investigation. But she’s not alone. The ghosts who haunt Wellington Manor have been waiting for this reckoning — and hold the secrets needed to uncover the truth.
Behind the scenes of The Ghosts of Wellington Manor
After finishing The Lost Fleet, I knew I wanted to return to the themes of a murder mystery and a wealthy, powerful but highly dysfunctional family. In 2024 I had the opportunity to do a book club meeting with the folks from the Litchfield Plantation subdivision. I was so enamored with the home and its history, I decided to use a place like that for the setting of the next book. Like the Litchfield Plantation, Wellington Manor is a former rice plantation set on the Waccamaw River, this time just south of Pawleys Island.
​
When choosing the family, I wanted to exhibit a good deal of diversity, not so different than many other real-life families – this one maybe a little more so. I embraced the idea of my protagonist, Denise, a young Black law student, as the new girlfriend of the Wellington’s younger son Will. Throw into that mix a powerful corrupt patriarch, a no-nonsense dominant matriarch, a gay lawyer older daughter, a redneck trash older son, and a Yankee son-in-law and you have the making of some real volatility. The fact that Denise is the county sheriff’s daughter (my recurring sheriff Leroy Keating), hidden from the family at first, creates great tension in the family dynamics.
​
Since the book is coming out in the fall (as will all my future books) I wanted this one to have a Christmas setting. This then tied into bringing Brookgreen Gardens’ Nights of a Thousand Candles light show into the story. Spectacular in its own right, I tried to keep the details as close to the real event as possible. Readers familiar with the show will identify with many of the descriptions, as well as a few places where I varied. What the show doesn’t have (thankfully) is a murder right in the middle of it. But in the book, somebody is going down.
​
One of my favorite scenes in the book is the dinner that devolves into chaos. I got the inspiration for this scene from the Netflix series The Perfect Couple. In that particular dinner scene, secrets and accusations are tossed around like hand grenades. I tried to match the intensity of it in my story.
​
And then there are the ghosts. Two former slaves with their own story to (eventually) tell. I started with no ghosts, just a straight murder mystery. Then I added the ghosts to give the novel an added angle. But somehow the ghosts worked their way deeper into the plot. By the time I was halfway through writing, the ghosts deserved to be in the title as well as part of the central plot. It’s my first venture into magical realism since Clairvoyance Rain and I embraced it wholeheartedly. There’s a great legacy of ghosts and haunted houses throughout the Lowcountry. Here’s one more.
​
More than anything else, I want my writing to connect with the reader on an emotional level. I want you to feel the joy, the fear, the anxiety, the anger, the astonishment, and the sorrow as they unfold in a suspenseful thrilling plot. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Raves & Reviews
Article in Pawleys Island local newspaper the Coastal Observer
_JPG.jpg)
Thank you Susan Bryant of Sasee magazine for taking the time to read Culligan's Way and giving me such a wonderful review. Sasee is distributed monthly all along the Carolina coast from Wilmington to Charleston with a circulation of 25,000
Kirkus Review
In this psychological novel, a woman is tormented by a deeply troubled—and perhaps murderous—high school friend. Beth Littleton and Shannon McKay are less friends in high school than bitter rivals for the affections of Ben Steeger, Beth’s boyfriend. In a freak accident, Ben is struck by lightning on Litchfield Beach in South Carolina. He dies as a result, though not before he confesses his love for Beth to Shannon, an admission she greets with “hot fury.” Levine packs the energetic novel with a generous helping of suspense and intrigue, and the plot never lags, not for a second. In addition, Beth turns out to be a sympathetic protagonist. A lively crime tale.
Midwest Book Review
“Where do you think you’ll be when you die?”
A Trail of Vengeance opens with a discussion between high school sweethearts who embark on a conversation about last wishes. These come frightening, suddenly true when Ben dies in what appears to be an accident.
Or, is it murder? And why did Beth's friend Shannon vanish in the midst of this event?
Fast forward seventeen years, when Shannon returns with a new name, identity, and a thirst for revenge which results in more bodies piling up.
The atmospheric South Carolina Low Country is a backdrop for these events as Beth uncovers new truths about not just the past, but her husband Jake. She comes to realize that her choices and relationships are part of a complex situation of ongoing deception and angst.
Marvin Levine not only places his characters in solid scenarios of intrigue and discovery, but takes the time to describe the Low Country culture and build the psychological profiles of Beth and everyone around her: "Beth drifted off and wondered what exactly comfort was — did she ever really have it? Could she ever find it again?"
These moments create a strong mystery that evolves on both a personal and an intrigue level to grab reader interest, weaving a story of revenge into that of a woman struggling to maintain equilibrium while overcoming past crises.
As her lifelong relationship with Shannon McKay is revealed, readers come to realize that Beth's involvement in this dangerous game embraces a traumatic association with an evil that emerges from the past to affect everyday affairs.
Readers who embark on Beth's journey towards realization and redemption will find much to enjoy about her processes of discovery, from her analysis of her marriage to Jake to her growing understanding of the special form of malevolence that Shannon represents.
The result is an engaging story of love and monsters that unfolds many surprising twists and turns before Beth's shaken world rights itself in a satisfyingly definitive conclusion.
Mystery libraries and those appealing to women's fiction readers will find A Trail of Vengeance spins a fine yarn not just of vengeance, but evolving truths and interpretations of them.
Other reviews
Keep checking this page for media mentions and updates
Other reviews
Keep checking this page for media mentions and updates