Kate Alice Marshall & What Lies in the Woods

Kate Alice Marshall’s debut adult crime thriller, What Lies in the Woods, is The Poisoned Pen’s January Crime Collector’s Book of the Month. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, recently welcomed Marshall to the bookstore to discuss What Lies in the Woods. There are signed copies of the book available in the Web Store. https://tinyurl.com/ms3zfh3a

Here’s the description of What Lies in the Woods.

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Kate Alice Marshall’s What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies – and having the courage to face the past.

“Clever and deliciously dark.” —Alice Feeney, bestselling author of Rock Paper Scissors
“Shines an incisive light on the secrets of a small-town community…Great writing and boldly drawn characters bring a terrifying tale to all-too-vivid life.” Kirkus, starred review

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

What Lies In the Woods is a gorgeous fever dream of a novel about the dangers lurking in the hearts and imaginations of little girls. Kate Alice Marshall deftly charts a winding path through her creepy woods, doubling back and changing course to build a labyrinth of secrets and lies in which I was delighted to lose myself for hours. Hands down, it’s the best thriller I’ve read in a long, long time.”—Chandler Baker, bestselling author of The Husbands


Kate Alice Marshall is the author of the young adult novels I Am Still Alive, Rules for Vanishing, and Our Last Echoes, as well as the Secrets of Eden Eld middle grade series. She lives outside of Seattle, where she spends her time playing board games, tending a chaotic vegetable garden, and wrangling dogs and children.


Enjoy the conversation from The Poisoned Pen.

Poisoned Pen Staff Best of 2022

There may be more to come…

Barbara Peters

Hardcover books

Isabel Cañas, The Hacienda

Agatha Christie. Marple

William Christie. The Double Agent

JH Gelernter. Captain Grey’s Gambit

Katy Hays. The Cloisters

Grace D. Li. Portrait of a Thief

Hallett, Janice. The Appeal

Ellery Lloyd. The Club

Nita Prose. The Maid

Jason Rekulak. Hidden Pictures

AC Rosen. Lavender House

AND reference work

Martin Edwards. The Life of Crime

Paperback Originals

Poppy Alexander. The Littlest Library

Tom Benjamin. The Hunting Season

Beth Cowan-Erskine. Loch Down Abbey

KJ Dell’Antonia. In Her Boots

Jane Shemlit. The Patient

Patrick Millikin

Michael Connelly. Desert Star.

S.A. Cosby. Razorblade Tears

Ramona Emerson. Shutter

Loren Estleman. Paperback Jack

Dan Fesperman. Winter Work

Sara Gran. The Book of the Most Precious Substance

Gabino Iglesias. The Devil Takes You Home

Deon Meyer. The Dark Flood

Gary Phillips. One-Shot Harry.

Boston Teran. Crippled Jack

John Vercher. After the Lights Go Out.

Karen Shaver

When You Are Mine, by Michael Robotham

Where the Wandering Ends, by Yvette Manessis Corporon

The Enigma of Room 622, by Joel Dicker

The Zero Night by Brian Freeman

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

John Charles

Katie Hays. The Cloisters

Ann Claire. Dead and Gondola.

Taj McCoy. Savvy Sheldon Feels Good

Nita Prose. The Maid

Timothy Janovsky. Never Been Kissed.

Lev AC Rosen. Lavender House

Jacqueline Firkins. Marlowe Banks, Redesigned

Ali Brady. The Beach Trap.

Patrick King

Blitz by Daniel O’Malley

Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Dance Among the Flames by Tori Eldridge

We are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Nona the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir

Still Waters by Viveca Sten

Box 88 by Charles Cumming

Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

Sharon Leonard

Anthony Doerr. Cloud Cuckoo Land

Catherine Adel West. Saving Ruby King

Jason Mott. Hell of a Book

Karen Joy Fowler. Booth

Hanya Yanagihara. To Paradise

Hernan Diaz. Trust

Gabrielle Zevin. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow