Without Reason

The summer before Eleanor Chandler’s senior year in college, she spends an unforgettable week near Beynac-et-Cazenac, a medieval French town in the Perigord region of Southwestern France. As she explores the crumbled ruins of the mighty fortresses, the ancient bastides, and the medieval abbeys, Ellie feels a strange connection to a place so familiar, yet so far removed from her experiences. Two years after returning home to California, still haunted by memories of the Perigord, Ellie gives up teaching and enrolls in McGill University to study archeology. Completing three years of study, she eagerly returns to the area that captured her imagination, this time to complete her doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Jean Oresme, an expert on Medieval life in the region. Without Reason is a gripping tale of a woman who, while looking toward the future, must answer questions about her past. The reader will join Ellie and Charles as they try to solve a mystery in an unforgettable land—the Perigord.