A haunting, beautifully written novel set in early-nineteenth-century Louisiana: the tale of a slave girl's journey--emotional and physical--from captivity to freedom.

Rick Riordan is the multi-award-winning author of the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and the national bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for children.

For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary's Hall honored him with the school's first Master Teacher Award.

His adult fiction has won the top three national awards in the mystery genre -- the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. He has presented workshops for such organizations as the International Reading Association, the California Association of Independent Schools, the National Council for Teachers of English, the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute and the Texas Library Association. His short fiction has appeared in Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In 2003, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

His Percy Jackson series features a twelve-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers he is the modern-day son of a Greek god. The novels draw on Riordan's experience teaching Greek mythology and his interaction with students who have learning differences. The novel was a New York Times Notable Book for 2005 and has been optioned for feature film to Twentieth Century Fox.

Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and two sons.