Sylvia Shults

During the first half of the 20th century, the Peoria State Hospital was the premiere mental health facility of its day. Dr. George Zeller instituted the eight-hour workday for his staff, removed patient restraints, and made the asylum into a model for the care of the mentally ill....

In the later part of the 19th century, Rhoda Derry spent over 40 years in the Adams County Poor Farm, curled in a fetal position in a box bed. She had clawed her own eyes out. She had beaten her front teeth in. Her legs had atrophied to the point where she could no longer stand on her own, or...

Selena Goode is a practicing solitary Wiccan. She likes her life, quiet as it is. Then Brian Gottschalk comes barreling into it with the force of an Atlantic storm. He works for a ghost-hunting TV show, and he's in Salem to find a story. He's witty, charming...and a total jerk....