The House on Tradd Street (tradd Street, #1)

Melanie Middleton is a successful Charleston, South Carolina, real estate agent who specializes in selling historic homes despite personally disliking them. She possesses an ability she has spent her life suppressing: She can see and communicate with ghosts, a gift inherited from her mother, Ginette Prioleau. Melanie believes Ginette, whose budding opera career strained her parents' marriage, abandoned her as a child. When Melanie visits 55 Tradd Street, a dilapidated Charleston single house (a narrow residential style with a side piazza, or porch), to discuss listing it with the elderly owner, Nevin Vanderhorst, she encounters a ghost in the overgrown garden: a woman in old-fashioned dress pushing an empty swing. Instead of discussing the listing, Mr. Vanderhorst talks about his late father's bond with Melanie's grandfather, Augustus Middleton, who were law partners. He also shows Melanie a penciled growth chart on the drawing room wall beside the grandfather clock, its markings labeled with the initials MBG, which he explains stands for "my best guy," the nickname his mother Louisa used for him. When Melanie admits she saw the ghost, he is delighted and abruptly ends the visit.

Two days later, Mr. Vanderhorst dies in his sleep. His lawyers reveal he rewrote his will on the day of Melanie's visit, leaving her his entire estate: the house, its furnishings, and a fortune held in trust for restoration. The conditions require Melanie to live in the house for one year before selling it. A sealed letter asks her to uncover the truth about his mother, Louisa, who disappeared when he was eight. Louisa was rumored to have run off with another man, but Nevin never accepted this and hopes Melanie can bring the truth to light. On the piazza, Melanie sees the ghostly woman pushing a laughing boy on the swing and senses a malevolent dark presence from an upstairs window.

Melanie enlists her best friend, Dr. Sophie Wallen, a professor of historic preservation at the College of Charleston, to inspect the house. Sophie recalls vague details about a love triangle connected to the house in the 1930s. Melanie's father, Colonel James Middleton, is named trustee, dismaying her: He has an alcohol addiction that has strained their relationship. Jack Trenholm, a bestselling true-crime author, invites Melanie to dinner and reveals he is researching the 1930 disappearance of Louisa, who vanished the same day as Joseph Longo, a crime figure. Melanie accepts the inheritance and partners with Jack, who will help with the restoration in exchange for access to the house's archives.

Melanie moves in and begins the arduous restoration. The scent of roses signals Louisa's protective ghostly presence, while a putrid odor accompanies a malevolent entity. Jack installs a security alarm and moves into the guest room after a break-in during which nothing is taken but a rug corner is flipped up, as if someone searched beneath the floor. Melanie's father begins attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and takes charge of the garden, preserving Louisa's prized rosebushes. Jack's mother, Amelia Trenholm, reveals that Jack's fiancée, Emily, left him at the altar and that his previous book was publicly debunked, costing him his publishing contract. He needs a new book to resurrect his career. Melanie begins sensing Emily's ghost near Jack: a slim, blond woman who whispers that she never stopped loving him.

Marc Longo, Joseph Longo's grandson, appears at Melanie's office asking about purchasing 55 Tradd Street. Jack warns Melanie that Marc is deeply in debt and likely using her to access the house, but Melanie dismisses this as jealousy and begins dating him. Meanwhile, touching Louisa's photo albums in the attic triggers visions in which Melanie inhabits Louisa's perspective. She finds a clipping of Louisa wearing a large diamond necklace at Nevin's christening and captions describing Louisa's love for her husband, Robert Vanderhorst, and their son. Jack photographs the grandfather clock's unusual, non-original face, and Melanie's father discovers Roman numerals carved into the base of the garden fountain, built the year after Louisa vanished.

Jack reveals his full motives, devastating Melanie. His real interest was never primarily Louisa's disappearance: He discovered evidence suggesting that six flawless diamonds, given to the Confederacy by the sultan of Brunei during the Civil War, were hidden by a Vanderhorst ancestor. This was always the subject of his career-saving book. With the restoration budget exhausted, Melanie feels betrayed, orders Jack out, and retreats to her condo.

After days of isolation, Sophie's Halloween walking tour forces Melanie out. Jack's phone rings with a call from Melanie's father, who sits at a bar with a glass of gin, on the verge of relapse. They rush there and find he has not yet drunk. He confesses that Melanie's mother did not abandon her: After the marriage collapsed, he told Ginette to leave and blocked all her attempts to contact Melanie. He also produces a humidor from Augustus Middleton's effects containing a dried rose from Louisa's namesake hybrid rosebush, a roll of film, and a letter from Robert to Nevin sealed with the phrase Cerca Trova, Italian for "seek and ye shall find."

The film reveals photographs of the fountain, the clock with its original face, and a young mixed-race woman named Susannah Barnsley. Research reveals Susannah was Augustus's mistress, who departed Charleston in September 1930, the month Louisa vanished. Melanie tells Jack the truth about Emily: She had lymphoma and left him to spare him from watching her die. Melanie then returns to the house alone after midnight. An electrical fire breaks out, the smoke alarms fail, and the front door will not open. The malevolent entity pins Melanie to the floor. Louisa's ghost calls the fire department and dials Jack's phone. Jack breaks in and revives Melanie with CPR.

Melanie and Jack fly to Vermont to meet the ninety-year-old Susannah. She tells them Augustus sent her away the night Louisa disappeared and gave her a humidor for safekeeping. She reveals that Marc visited her the day before, seeking the diamonds, but told him nothing. The humidor contains a derringer with two empty barrels, a diamond, and a letter from Robert to his son.

Robert's letter reveals the full truth. Joseph Longo discovered Robert's Prohibition-era bootlegging operation at Magnolia Ridge, the Vanderhorst plantation, and extorted diamonds from the family. When Longo came to the Tradd Street house demanding more and threatened Louisa and Nevin at gunpoint, Robert arrived and distracted him. Louisa ran to shield her son, and Longo's bullet struck her in the heart. Robert killed Longo. Augustus helped hide both bodies and spread the cover story, protecting Nevin from retribution.

Back in Charleston, Melanie cracks the clock cipher using Louisa's pet name for Nevin, "MY BEST GUY," written on the growth chart beside the clock. The decoded message reads: "At midnight, stars shine like diamonds." The fountain's Roman numerals translate to "RIP," confirming Louisa and Joseph are buried beneath it. At midnight, a hidden mechanism in the clock reveals three flawless diamonds. The ghost of Joseph Longo attacks, choking Melanie on the stairs, but Louisa's ghost intervenes and Melanie fights back with the mantra her mother taught her: "I am stronger than you." A storm splits the fountain, and Joseph's dark form is expelled from the house. By morning, "Thank you" appears in a child's handwriting on the growth chart.

Police recover the remains of Louisa and Joseph beneath the fountain. Marc arrives and admits to the break-ins. When he grabs Melanie's arm, Jack punches him. Melanie and Jack see Louisa and young Nevin one final time by the oak tree before mother and son fade, leaving only the scent of roses. Melanie keeps the house, accepts General Lee, the house's small black-and-white dog, as her own, and acknowledges 55 Tradd Street as home. Her father achieves sustained sobriety. Melanie's mother calls to say she is returning to Charleston, warning of danger, but Melanie refuses to engage. The novel closes with Melanie entering the house and gently closing the door behind her, at home for the first time.