Soul Painter

Chicago 1890

People jostle their way below the windows of Miriam s warehouse home, never thinking to look up at the woman who stands alone in her quiet rooms, painting their faces. But Miriam s gift as an artist goes beyond a mere recording of what is: Miriam paints their future. Only once was she wrong.

Into her alley, a woman has been coming who doesn’t match the future Miriam once saw for her. The bright girl was supposed to grow into a respected businesswoman. Instead, Ione disappears nightly into the shadows of the alley next to the cathedral with the other prostitutes.

Then one night, while walking through the city fog, Miriam finds Ione broken and beaten in the alley. Miriam is forced to open her home to the stranger whose face she knows so well and open her life to change she never could have foretold.

Together with Miriam’s solicitor and the deacon from the cathedral across the street, Miriam and Ione must combat the evil at work in a city already rife with corruption. Women are missing: some are found floating in the river, some are never seen again. Finally engaged with the world she has so long observed, finally stirred by love and friendship, Miriam realizes the responsibility of her gifting. No longer can she just paint what will be she must now help Ione find the future she is meant to have…and find her own along with it.