The Restorer (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

• Amelia Gray: aka The Graveyard Queen. Undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, a master’s in Archeology from Chapel Hill, worked two years in the State Archeologist’s office before opening her own cemetery restoration business. In her spare time, this 27 year old runs a blog called Digging Graves, where taphophiles—lovers of cemeteries—and other like-minded folks can exchange photographs, restoration techniques and, yes, even the occasional ghost story.
• John Devlin: A haunted police detective who contacts Amelia to assist in a murder.
• Camille Ashby: An administrator at Emerson University and Amelia's current employer.
• Macon Dawes: Medical student that lives in the second floor apartment in Amelia's house.
• Lynrose: Amelia's aunt who lives in Charleston.
• Etta Gray: Amelia's adoptive mother.
• Regina Sparks: Charleston County coroner
• Tom Gerrity: Private detective and former policeman who is persona non grata with the local police department. He is known as the Prophet because his hunches turn out to be true.
• Temple Lee: State archaeologist and Amelia's former employer.
• Ethan Shaw: Forensic anthropologist
• Daniel Meakin: One of South Carolina's distinguished historians who employed at Emerson University.
• Mariama Devlin: John's deceased wife who continues, with his deceased daughter, to haunt John as a ghost.
• Essie: Root doctor and Mariama's grandmother
• Rhapsody: Mariama's cousin and Essie's granddaugher. She was sent to bring Amelia to Essie.
• Rupert Shaw: Ghost hunter and the director of the Charleston Institute for Parapsychology Studies.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Nestled against the side of a hill and protected by the outstretched arms of the live oaks, it was shady and beautiful, the most serene place I could imagine. It had been closed to the public for years, and sometimes as I wandered alone—and often lonely—through the lush fern beds and long curtains of silvery moss, I pretended the crumbling angels were wood nymphs and fairies and I their ruler, queen of my very own graveyard kingdom.”

  Amelia Gray

• “I had no intention of talking to the press about the grisly discovery in Oak Grove Cemetery. All I wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed and put this night behind me. But a tidy ending was not meant to be. Everything in my world was about to change forever. Including my father’s rules.”

  Amelia Gray

• “And I was attracted to him. I could admit that now, though I would never admit it to Papa. Devlin’s secretive eyes and brooding demeanor were powerful libations to a closet romantic like me. In spite of his modern trappings, he had an old-world air about him. An intoxicating fusion of Byron, Brontë and Poe with a modern twist. And like the fictional creations of the aforementioned, he had a deadly weakness. He was a haunted man.”

  Amelia Gray about John Devlin

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• Dusk is a dangerous time for people like me. An in-between time just as the seashore and the edge of a forest are in-between places. The Celts had a name for these landscapes—caol’ ait. Thin places where the barrier between our world and the next is but a gossamer veil.

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• One can tell the morals of a culture by the way they treat their dead.

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• “Because what the dead want more than anything is to be a part of our world again. They’re like parasites, drawn to our energy, feeding off our warmth.

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• I was a Southern girl raised by a Southern mother. Duty and obligation were as deeply ingrained into my psyche as the need to please.

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• The graves here were old and decorated in Gullah tradition: clocks set to the time of death, battered lamps to light the way to the afterlife, broken pottery—pitchers, bowls, cups, tureens—to break the chain of death.

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• Shadow beings are…well, shadowlike and are often accompanied by a malevolent sensation that leads some researchers to speculate they may be demonic in nature.”

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• There was something so primal and hungry about the way he stared down at her…the way their bodies unconsciously strained toward one another as if nothing—not time, not distance, not even death—could ever keep them apart.

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• Whole sections of the cemetery were covered in white sand to protect against the bakulu, restless spirits that lingered in our world to interfere with the living.

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• taphophiles and ghost hunters. But for all my accomplishments and fleeting notoriety, there

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• The midnight stars weep upon her silent grave, Dead but dreaming, this child we could not save.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Oak Grove Cemetery: An abandoned cemetery at the edge of Emerson University.
• Rosehill Cemetery: Amelia's childhood playground.
• Rutledge Avenue: The Charleston street on which Amelia lives.
• Rapture: A fusion cuisine restaurant on Meeting Street that Amelia considers a safe haven.

Organizations edit see section history

• The Order of the Coffin and the Claw: A secret society that operates within Emerson University with a mission similar to Yale's Skull and Bones Society. It's membership includes many of South Carolina's power elite.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Taphophile: A lover of tombstones and cemeteries
• Egregore: An occult concept representing a "thoughtform" or "collective group mind"
• Hypnagogia: Waking sleep
• Pareidolia: A condition in which the brain interprets random patterns of light and shadow as more familiar forms
• Grave dousisng: The use of a Y-shaped rod or pendulum to use to divine the location of a grave.
• The Others: Another realm of ghosts which are colder, stronger, and hungrier than any other spectral presence.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Bound; Ties that bind: Shackles are used as a motif because every single character is attached to a literal or symbolic ball and chain, be it the protagonist bound by her father’s rules or the love interest haunted by his dead family or even the villain perpetually chained to evil. How they strive to free themselves is an integral part of the plot.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Abandoned, and followed by The Kingdom.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Amanda Stevens (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• RITA Award Finalist (2012: Paranormal Romance)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3619.T4788 R47 2011
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Adult themes

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Romance › Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost
• Books › Literature & Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• The Graveyard Queen

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Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

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