When children claim to have imaginary friends, it's normally harmless play, but in Shroud Of Beckoning: Part One of the Ice Water Mansion Series, they're actually demonic and angelic apparitions that are battling over the child's soul. Blending the supernatural world with the essence of daily life, Woody transports readers back to the spring of 1964 to begin her tale of good vs. evil. Within a dysfunctional family in California, four-year-old Carla lives with her older sister, parents, and a secret friend. Clad in black, this precocious apparition poses as a friendly playmate. However, Schatten is no ordinary companion-he's pure evil and feeds off human souls. When Carla cries and seethes, his outward features rejuvenate. In turn, when she laughs and finds love, he ages into a hideous form that terrorizes her. Deceiving her into believing she's his only friend, he actually knows her sister, mother, and others, but unlike them, Carla is bait to help find a boy's soul, Tony, who his adversaries stole from him years before. Adding a new addition to the family, Carla's mother gives birth to a son who Carla instantly loves. Unfortunately, this pushes Schatten to plot the baby's demise, resulting in Officer Jarred Blanton arriving to investigate. Blanton, a well-loved man with a good family, is everything Schatten despises and must destroy to keep his plans on track, but in doing so, he alters his own plans and creates a chain of events that intertwines Blanton's life with Carla's. As Carla and Blanton embark on a horrific path to save their very souls, Woody chronicles their dark stories while everything and everyone they love is slowly destroyed because Schatten will never stop until their souls are his and Tony is found.