Mississippi, 1861. White columns, neat ledgers, polite smiles—and a lie big enough to get the Duval family killed. Belle Hallow is their mask: a grand plantation run by a white-passing Black family who use wealth and respectability to hide a covert network moving enslaved people to freedom. When war conscripts Elijah Duval and his two sons into the Confederate ranks, the façade—and the danger—fall to Evelyn Duval. With Isaac, the quiet architect of routes, and Ruth, mistress of kitchen-codes, Evelyn fights off greedy neighbors and watchful deputies while keeping the house “behaving” for the law. Recipes become ciphers. Ledgers split—one for daylight, one for truth. Storm nights and market days turn into corridors no clerk can see. A by-the-book inspector who prefers daylight may be an unlikely shield, but a ruthless local colonel is closing in. As rumors tighten, and news from the front brings a devastating loss, Evelyn risks everything on a bold, daylight exodus—before the last guardrails of law are reassigned and the county’s appetite takes the house. The Last Sunset in Dixie is a tense, heart-forward historical thriller about passing, resistance, and the cost of telling the truth in a county built on a lie. Book One of Masks of Belle Hallow—perfect for readers who love richly drawn characters, moral complexity, and high-stakes cat-and-mouse suspense.