On the Edge with Cynthia

Marla Samson, a sixteen-year old ballet student, wins a scholarship for summer master classes at the Blamont Castle in France, where she immediately runs into a frightening entanglement of intrigue and controversy. Last year's dancers are puzzled by her resemblance to Cynthia, a student of the previous year, who was killed when a car she and her dancing partner, Yori, were traveling in plunged over a cliff at Devil's Curve. Some believe they were forced off the road. While lost in the castle, Marla ends up in Cynthia's room and is strangely drawn to her, as if she is being united with a lost twin sister, as if that sister is pleading for help. She believes she sees the dead girl's shadow floating down a castle corridor, dancing at the fountain, darting into the woods. The mystery becomes Marla's obsession, especially when she faces life-threatening harassment. Was Cynthia's death an accident or murder? The three faces of the moon goddess (Artemis, Goddess of the Forest, Hecate, Goddess of the Underworld, and Cynthia, Goddess of Moon-madness) form a mythic backdrop for this young-adult Gothic, ON THE EDGE WITH CYNTHIA.