Mysteries | LadyDelaney

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AMERICAN SHADOWLANDS:

selections from the case files of a secretive society*

From an Amazon #1 New Release, to cracking a 100-year old murder on Atlas Obscura, Lady Delaney’s case files are various.

Many of them are also unsolved. That's where you come in.

“I had come in answer to an advertisement for lady’s companion. I did not know the lady, but our compatibility was assured by the fact that she had money, and I had none. The address given in our brief correspondence situated the old woman somewhere between Belle Reve’s wealthiest residential district—the Fleurondissement, and its prison. As the sun set over Belle Reve, my shadow passed across the dowager’s gate and I looked upon her great wreck of a mansion for the first time.”

“The Greeks believed the earth to be girded by a great river, from whose waters sprang forth gods. From the Nile, gleaming Egyptian cat gods stretched paws to claim riverbank sands. From the Amazon, burnished and feathered gods mounted many-stepped temples to survey their kingdoms. From the Mississippi, a race of pinstriped and linened gods clawed their way from river mud, setting themselves to sweat and rule over the town of Belle Reve. In the towers of its stately mansions, the gods of Belle Reve anointed themselves grander still with titles like Mayor, Councilman, and Tax Collector. Theirs was a kingdom of flickering streetlights and upheaved sidewalks, bountiful in tempests, joyful music, grift, and street parades. Theirs was an ungovernable people, poor but happy, paying the gods what they could get away with, and dancing.

But I had not come to Belle Reve to meet its gods.”

“Down from the streetcar steps a lady. That’s me. Tumbles, more like, as the streetcar has only just nearly stopped when it starts up again with a clang and a snap of its accordion doors. And there stands the lady, stands I, clutching my suitcase in one hand and a scrap of paper in the other: the one battered from swift retreats and narrow escapes, the other softened by folding and refolding. You’ll mark no visible oddments of my limb or plumage (thank you very much), and together we watch the streetcar recede down the Avenue, dispersing the other players to their respective stages, stages we will cross in good time, beneath trees whose age is not counted in rings but in Carnival beads.”

January 1920, or thereabouts

“It began with a whizz, pop, and a bang, the streetcar chugging to life, and seeding the avenue with tramps, musicians, and painters. It puttered from one end to the other, bringing life and disorder, scattering cats, racoons and society ladies. The drunkard assumes his position beside the tavern. Those who are inclined pick up tamborines. Some put on masks, or fur, or the sequined scales of a serpent. Beneath the rattling streetcar, the swamp ground belches forth talking trees and houses with too many rooms to count. In its wake, a calliope toots joyfully as servants, clowns, courtesans, villains, wizards, and shopkeeps smudge their faces and shake the dust from their costumes, waiting in the wings.”

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Do you believe in GHOSTS?

Receive a CASE FILE, solve a MYSTERY

The Haunted Dollhouse

Adieu Grimm Gables

Letters From Dead People

Prowl the STREETS, find a TREASURE

NOLA Halloween Hunt 2024

NOLA Tiny Tombs

NOLA Halloween Hunt 2017

Grab a SEAT, read a STORY

Investigate the origins of a
New Orleans ghost story

Could a pair of dismembered flappers be the source of this famous legend?

Read Lady's exposé on Atlas Obscura to decide for yourself.

Do you prefer the BACKROADS?

Take a TRIP with LADY

Greek Gods, Ghost Towns, and a Coke Bottle Sky: Crossing America in Four Too-Swift Days

New Orleans: Halloween & Voodoo at the Angel-Xiques Mansion

Once upon a time,
Lady Delaney lost a suitcase.

When it turned up in the unclaimed luggage room of the New Orleans train station, its contents became an exhibit at Antenna Gallery.

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Lady Delaney introduces
KHABY LAME
to the ghosts of New Orleans.

Watch the full episode HERE.

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FIELD SKETCHES by Lady Delaney

Get the DIY book,
a #1 New Release
on Amazon in 2017

THE WEEDS

Lady Delaney & Banko Box Announce Their Debut Dollhouse Kit

Solve a Mystery

Read a Story

Scribblings

Find a Treasure

Take a Trip

The Book

The Lady Recommends

Field Sketches

Atlas Obscura X Lady Delaney

Khaby Lame X Lady Delaney

Planning a visit to New Orleans? Looking for a great book?

AMERICAN SHADOWLANDS:

Do you believe in GHOSTS?

Receive a CASE FILE, solve a MYSTERY

Prowl the STREETS, find a TREASURE

Grab a SEAT, read a STORY

certain bohemian elements

Garden District Garou

The Midnight Carriage

Investigate the origins of a
New Orleans ghost story

Do you prefer the BACKROADS?

Take a TRIP with LADY

Greek Gods, Ghost Towns, and a Coke Bottle Sky: Crossing America in Four Too-Swift Days

New Orleans: Halloween & Voodoo at the Angel-Xiques Mansion

Louisville: Ghosts of the Old Seelbach

Once upon a time,
Lady Delaney lost a suitcase.

Lady Delaney introduces
KHABY LAME
to the ghosts of New Orleans.

FIELD SKETCHES by Lady Delaney

Get the DIY book,
a #1 New Release
on Amazon in 2017

THE WEEDS

certain bohemian elements

Garden District Garou

The Midnight Carriage

The Old Scrapbook

Lady Delaney & Banko Box Announce Their Debut Dollhouse Kit

Flowergrams Return for Valentine's Day

Santa Watch 2023

The Woman Who Changed Her Men For Cats

Rip Van Delaney

The cats recommend...

COMING SOON-ish

AMERICAN SHADOWLANDS:

​

Do you believe in GHOSTS?

Receive a CASE FILE, solve a MYSTERY

Prowl the STREETS, find a TREASURE

Grab a SEAT, read a STORY

Investigate the origins of a New Orleans ghost story

Do you prefer the BACKROADS?

Take a TRIP with LADY

Once upon a time, Lady Delaney lost a suitcase.

Lady Delaney introduces KHABY LAME to the ghosts of New Orleans.

FIELD SKETCHES by Lady Delaney

Get the DIY book, a #1 New Release on Amazon in 2017

THE WEEDS

The cats recommend...

COMING SOON-ish

Investigate the origins of a
New Orleans ghost story

Once upon a time,
Lady Delaney lost a suitcase.

Lady Delaney introduces
KHABY LAME
to the ghosts of New Orleans.

Get the DIY book,
a #1 New Release
on Amazon in 2017