Nell Cropsey and Jim Wilcox: The Chill of Destiny

An absorbing tapestry, this true story brims with romance, murder, and intrigue. The illustrated narrative pulls readers into the complex, dark secrets of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. This bustling town overlooks the breathtaking Pasquotank River but lurches dangerously from political and racial hatreds in the decades after the Civil War. Jim Wilcox, born 1876, reaches manhood in this fractured world. In 1898 he begins courting Nell Cropsey, after she arrives in Elizabeth City from Brooklyn, but the young lovers eventually drift into heavy-laden turmoil and strife. Then the autumn of 1901 brings ruin. Nell disappears from her riverside house one cold November night, and her strange, unnatural story becomes a national sensation. Hysterical accusers point angry fingers at Jim, but has another person covered an unthinkable sin? William E. Dunstan's painstaking sleuthing peels back the façade of Southern gentility to reveal a secret-ridden town teetering on storm and frenzy at the turn of the twentieth century.