Fiction Review

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed Lisa See, author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. There are signed copies of this historical novel available through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/bdfezz26

Here’s the description of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women.

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See’s classic Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

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Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women.

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Enjoy the conversation with Lisa See.

Congratulations to Ann Parker whose mystery, The Secret in the Wall, just won the 2023 Spur Award for Best Traditional Mystery from the Western Writers of America. The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks) is the eighth book in Parker’s Silver Rush mystery series. You can order The Secret in the Wall through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/38u98tt7

Here’s the summary of the award-winning book.

2023 Spur Award Winner * Historical Novel Society Editor’s Pick

“Appealing characters match satisfying puzzles. Historical fans will be delighted.” —Publishers Weekly

Sometimes you can’t keep your gown out of the gutter…

Inez Stannert has reinvented herself—again. Fleeing the comfort and wealth of her East Coast upbringing, she became a saloon owner and card sharp in the rough silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado, always favoring the unconventional path—a difficult road for a woman in the late 1800s.

Then the teenaged daughter of a local prostitute is orphaned by her mother’s murder, and Inez steps up to raise the troubled girl as her own. Inez works hard to keep a respectable, loving home for Antonia, carefully crafting their new life in San Francisco. But risk is a seductive friend, difficult to resist. When a skeleton tumbles from the wall of her latest business investment, the police only seem interested in the bag of Civil War-era gold coins that fell out with it. With her trusty derringer tucked in the folds of her gown, Inez uses her street smarts and sheer will to unearth a secret that someone has already killed to keep buried. The more she digs, the muddier and more dangerous things become.

She enlists the help of Walter de Brujin, a local private investigator with whom she shares some history. Though she wants to trust him, she fears that his knowledge of her past, along with her growing attraction to him, may well blow her veneer of respectability to bits—that is, if her dogged pursuit of the truth doesn’t kill her first.

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Ann Parker is the author of the award-winning Silver Rush historical mystery series set in 1880s, featuring saloon owner Inez Stannert. A science writer by day, Ann lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Women Writing the West.

Riley Sager was back at The Poisoned Pen to talk about his latest book, The Only One Left. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, welcomed him. There are signed copies of The Only One Left available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3PpfJZX

Here’s the summary of The Only One Left.

Bestselling author Riley Sager returns with a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead
 
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

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Riley Sager is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, most recently The Only One Left and The House Across the Lake. A native of Pennsylvania, he now lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Enjoy the conversation with Riley Sager.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently welcomed William Maz to the bookstore. Maz, the author of The Bucharest Dossier, was there to discuss his latest book, The Bucharest Legacy. There are signed copies of The Bucharest Legacy available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/44hSyom

Here is the description of The Bucharest Legacy.

CIA agent Bill Hefflin is back in Bucharest—immersed in a cauldron of spies and crooked politicians

The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. They learn that the mole’s handler is a KGB agent known as Boris. CIA analyst Bill Hefflin recognizes that name—Boris is the code name of Hefflin’s longtime KGB asset. If the defector is correct, Hefflin realizes Boris must be a triple agent, and his supposed mole has been passing false intel to Hefflin and the CIA. What’s more, this makes Hefflin the prime suspect as the KGB mole inside the Agency.

Hefflin is given a chance to prove his innocence by returning to his city of birth, Bucharest, Romania, to find Boris and track down the identity of the mole. It’s been three years since the bloody revolution, and what he finds is a cauldron of spies, crooked politicians, and a country controlled by the underground and the new oligarchs, all of whom want to find Boris. But Hefflin has a secret that no one else knows—Boris has been dead for over a year.

Perfect for fans of John le Carré and Brad Thor

While the novels in the Bill Hefflin Spy Thriller Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:

The Bucharest Dossier
The Bucharest Legacy

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Born in Bucharest, Romania, William Maz emigrated to the U.S. as a child. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Following a residency in anesthesiology at Yale, he practiced medicine, and during that time, he developed a passion for writing fiction. He studied writing at Harvard, The New School, and The Writer’ s Studio in New York City, and he is now writing full time. Maz divides his time between Pennsylvania and New York City. The Bucharest Legacy is his latest novel and the sequel to The Bucharest Dossier.

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Enjoy the conversation with William Maz.

Patrick Millikin from The Poisoned Pen welcomed Luis Alberto Urrea to talk about his latest book, Good Night, Irene. Urrea tells the fictionalized experience of his mother’s experience with the Red Cross as a Donut Dolly in World War II. There are signed copies of Good Night, Irene available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/430DJpg

Here’s the description of Good Night, Irene.

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

This “powerful, uplifting, and deeply personal novel” (Kristin Hannah, #1 NYT bestselling author of The Four Winds), at once “a heart-wrenching wartime drama” (Christina Baker Kline, #1 NYT bestselling author of Orphan Train) and “a moving and graceful tribute to heroic women” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), asks the question: What if a friendship forged on the front lines of war defines a life forever?

In the tradition of The Nightingale and Transcription, this is a searing epic based on the magnificent and true story of courageous Red Cross women.

“Urrea’s touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through . . . He is a generous writer, not just in his approach to his craft but in the broader sense of what he feels necessary to capture about life itself.” —Financial TimesIn 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.

After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a courageous American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.

Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea’s “gifts as a storyteller are prodigious” (NPR).

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A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction The Devil’s Highway, now in its thirty-fourth paperback printing, Luis Alberto Urrea is the author of numerous other works of nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, including the national bestsellers The Hummingbird’s Daughter and The House of Broken Angels, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, among many other honors, he lives outside Chicago and teaches at the University of Illinois Chicago.

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If you love a good storyteller, you should watch this event with Luis Alberto Urrea.

It was my honor to act as guest host when Sarah Stewart Taylor recently appeared for a virtual event at The Poisoned Pen. Taylor is the author of four Maggie D’Arcy mysteries, including the most recent, A Stolen Child. Barbara Peters, owner of the bookstore, said they just received the signed copies. You can find A Stolen Child, and the other Maggie D’Arcy novels in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3Xnec8C

Here’s the description of A Stolen Child.

“Taylor presents an appealingly nuanced twist on the traditional police procedural.” –The Washington Post

Sarah Stewart Taylor is known for her atmospheric portrayal of an American detective in Ireland, and her critically acclaimed series returns with A Stolen Child.

After months of training, former Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy is now officially a Garda. She’s finally settling into life in Ireland and so is her teenage daughter, Lilly. Maggie may not be a detective yet, but she’s happy with her community policing assignment in Dublin’s Portobello neighborhood.

When she and her partner find former model and reality tv star Jade Elliot murdered—days after responding to a possible domestic violence disturbance at her apartment—they also discover Jade’s toddler daughter missing. Shorthanded thanks to an investigation into a gangland murder in the neighborhood, Maggie’s friend, Detective Inspector Roly Byrne, brings her onto his team to help find the missing child. But when a key discovery is made, the case only becomes more confusing—and more dangerous. Amidst a nationwide manhunt, Maggie and her colleagues must look deep into Jade’s life—both personal and professional—to find a ruthless killer.

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SARAH STEWART TAYLOR is the author of the Sweeney St. George series and the Maggie D’arcy series. Taylor grew up on Long Island in New York and was educated at Middlebury College in Vermont and Trinity College in Dublin. She lived in Dublin, Ireland in the mid-90s and she now lives with her family on a farm in Vermont where they raise sheep and grow blueberries.

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Here’s the video of the event with Sarah Stewart Taylor. I apologize that my section is so dark, but you really want to listen to Sarah anyways.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed two authors for a virtual event. I.S. Berry’s debut is The Peacock and the Sparrow. Joseph Kanon was in publishing before he started as an author. This time, though, he’s serving as guest host. You might still be able to get a signed copy of The Peacock and the Sparrow through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3JpPEWM

Here’s the summary of The Peacock and the Sparrow.

During the Arab Spring, an American spy’s final mission goes dangerously awry in this explosive and “remarkable debut” (Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author) from a former CIA officer that is perfect for fans of John LeCarre, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Alan Furst.

Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain off the coast of Saudi Arabia for his final tour, he’s anxious to dispense with his mission—uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency against the monarchy. But then he meets Almaisa, a beautiful and enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask.

When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict and his growing romance with Almaisa upended. In an instant, he’s caught in the crosshairs of a revolution. Drawing on all his skills as a spymaster, he must navigate a bloody uprising, win Almaisa’s love, and uncover the murky border where Bahrain’s secrets end and America’s begin.

“A breathless tour-de-force, the perfect spy tale” (Ian Caldwell, author of The Fifth Gospel) and dripping with authenticity, The Peacock and the Sparrow is a timely story of the elusiveness of truth, the power of love and belief, and the universal desire to be part of a cause greater than oneself.

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I.S. Berry spent six years as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in wartime Baghdad and elsewhere. She has lived and worked throughout Europe and the Middle East, including two years in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Haverford College. Raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC, she lives in Virginia with her husband and son.

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Joseph Kanon calls I.S. Berry’s debut “extraordinary”. Enjoy the virtual event.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the winners for the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards. Check the list, and then check the Webstore for the titles. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• WINNER: The Devil Takes You Home, Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland)

• The Fervor, Alma Katsu (Putnam)
• Reluctant Immortals, Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga)
• Daphne, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
• Sundial, Catriona Ward (Nightfire)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• WINNER: Beulah, Christi Nogle (Cemetery Gates)

• Jackal, Erin Adams (Bantam)
• The Hacienda, Isabel Cañas (Berkley)
• Black Tide, KC Jones (Nightfire)
• All the White Spaces, Ally Wilkes (Emily Bestler/Atria)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• WINNER: The Triangle, Robert P. Ottone (Raven Tale)

• What We Harvest, Ann Fraistat (Delacorte)
• The Weight of Blood, Tiffany D. Jackson (Katherine Tegen)
• These Fleeting Shadows, Kate Alice Marshall (Viking)
• Gallant, V.E. Schwab (Greenwillow)
• Burn Down, Rise Up, Vincent Tirado (Sourcebooks Fire)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• WINNER: The Wehrwolf, Alma Katsu (Amazon Original)

• And in Her Smile, the World, Rebecca J. Allred & Gordon B. White (Trepidatio)
• “Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell”, Christa Carmen (Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror)
• Below, Laurel Hightower (Ghoulish)
• Three Days in the Pink Tower, EV Knight (Creature)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• WINNER: “Fracture”, Mercedes M. Yardley (Mother: Tales of Love and Terror)

• “Nona Doesn’t Dance”, Aaron Dries (Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts)
• “Poppy’s Poppy”, Douglas Gwilym (Penumbrice)
• “The Only Thing Different Will Be the Body”, J. A. W. McCarthy (A Woman Built by Man)
• “A Song for Barnaby Jones”, Anna Taborska (Zagava)
• “The Star”, Anna Taborska (Great British Horror 7: Major Arcane)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• WINNER: Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)

• We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating)
• Hell Hath No Sorrow Like a Woman Haunted, RJ Joseph (The Seventh Terrace)
• Spontaneous Human Combustion, Richard Thomas (Keylight)
• The Black Maybe, Attila Veres (Valancourt)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• WINNER: Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Nightfire)

• Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology, Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers, eds. (Dark Matter Ink)
• Mother: Tales of Love and Terror, Christi Nogle & Willow Becker, eds. (Weird Little Words)
• Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, Lindy Ryan, ed. (Black Spot)
• Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology of Women in Horror, Sara Tantlinger, ed. (Strangehouse)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• WINNER: Writing in the Dark: The Workbook, Tim Waggoner (Guide Dog)

• Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, Melanie R. Anderson & Lisa Kröger (Quirk)
• Weird Fiction: A Genre Study, Michael Cisco (Palgrave)
• A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of American’s Ghosts, Leanna Renee Hieber & Andrea Janes (Citadel)
• Writing Poetry in the Dark, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• WINNER: “I Don’t Read Horror (& Other Weird Tales)”, Lee Murray (Interstellar Flight 10/22)

• “This is Not a Poem”, Cynthia Pelayo (Writing Poetry in the Dark)
• “African American Horror Authors and Their Craft: The Evolution of Horror Fiction from African Folklore”, L. Marie Wood (Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students)
• “The H Word: The Horror of Hair”, L. Marie Wood (Nightmare 7/22)
• “A Clown in the Living Room: The Sinister Clown on Television”, Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (The Many Lives of Scary Clowns: Essays on Pennywise, Twisty, the Joker, Krusty and More)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• WINNER: Crime Scene, Cynthia Pelayo (Raw Dog Screaming)

• Sifting the Ashes, Michael Bailey & Marge Simon (Crystal Lake)
• Girls from the County, Donna Lynch (Raw Dog Screaming)
• The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry, Sumiko Saulson (self-published)
• The Gravity of Existence, Christina Sng (Interstellar Flight)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• WINNER: Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary, James Aquilone, ed. (Moonstone)

• Eat the Rich, Sarah Gailey, art by Pius Bak (Boom!)
• Kraken Inferno: The Last Hunt, Alessandro Manzetti, art by Stefano Cardoselli (Independent Legions)
• Something is Killing the Children Vol 4, James IV Tynion, art by Werther Dell’Edera (Boom!)
• The Me You Love in the Dark, Skottie Young, art by Jorge Corona (Image Comics)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• WINNER (TIE): The Black Phone, Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill (Blumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway, Universal Pictures)
• WINNER (TIE): Stranger Things: “s4e1: Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”, The Duffer Brothers (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre, Netflix, Upside Down Pictures)

• The Pale Blue Eye, Scott Cooper (Cross Creek Pictures, Grisbi Productions, Streamline Global Group)
• Men, Alex Garland (DNA Films)
• Pearl, Mia Goth & Ti West (A24, Bron Creative, Little Lamb, New Zealand Film Commission)

As previously announced, Elizabeth Massie, Nuzo Onoh, and John Saul received the Lifetime Achievement Award; Undertow Publications won the Specialty Press Award; Meghan Arcuri received the Richard Laymon President’s Award; Karen Lansdale received the Silver Hammer Award; and David Jeffery received the Mentor of the Year Award.

John Charles from The Poisoned Pen recently welcomed Maxym M. Martineau for a live event at the bookstore. Martineau’s latest fantasy/romance is Shadows of the Lost. There are a few signed copies still available through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/ymh6fezh

Here is the description of Shadows of the Lost.

Once I was a Charmer, and the magical beasts of this world loved me. Now I’m something else. Something darker.

A spicy, beautifully angsty enemies-to-lovers LGBTQIA+ fantasy romance.

As a member of the Charmers Council, Gaige is able to form lasting bonds with the magical beasts of his world. At least, he used to be a Charmer…until he died and was brought back as one of the immortal assassins of Cruor. Now he’s far more dangerous.

…and something beyond the shadows lies in wait, hungry to claim him for its own.

As leader of the assassins, all Kost can do is watch as Gaige struggles with his new life day by day. He wants nothing more than to ease Gaige’s suffering—yet how can he when they both know he’s the one responsible? There is nothing left but bitter memories and hopeless longing between them. Yet when Gaige is lost to the shadow realm, Kost is the only one with any chance of bringing him back: if they can learn to trust (and perhaps love) each other again.

Intense, compelling, and impossible to put down, Shadows of the Lost is perfect for readers looking for:

• epic New Adult fantasy series with a bit of spice
• a unique premise, delicious angst, and a plot to die for
• high fantasy with paranormal and romance elements

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Maxym M. Martineau is an article and social media writer by day and a fantasy romance author by night. When she’s not getting heated over broken hearts, she enjoys playing video games, sipping a well-made margarita, competing in just about any sport, and of course, reading. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Arizona State University and lives with her husband and fur babies in Arizona. Connect with her at MaxymMartineau.com or through Twitter and Instagram @maxymmckay.

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Martineau’s conversation about her process to publishing is quite interesting. Check it out.

Barbara Peters welcomed Polly Stewart, author of The Good Ones, for a virtual event. Megan Miranda also appeared to interview Stewart. You can order a signed copy of The Good Ones through the Webstore. https://tinyurl.com/4wyz9zv9

Here’s the description of The Good Ones.

“Polly Stewart’s The Good Ones is a fantastic achievement. A classic Southern Gothic tale told through the prism of modern-day sensibilities. Not to be missed.”—S. A. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of Razorblade Tears

“A riveting, unflinching exploration of adolescent female friendships, small-town pressures to conform, and the true crime lover’s tendency to conflate empathy and voyeurism, The Good Ones drew me in from the first lines and still hasn’t released me, days after finishing.”—Katie Gutierrez, nationally bestselling author of More Than You’ll Ever Know

An engrossing work of literary suspense that illuminates the push and pull of female friendship and the costs of being good when the rules for women begin to chafe.

The last time Nicola Bennett saw Lauren Ballard she was scraping a key along the side of a new cherry-red Chevy Silverado. That was the night before her friend mysteriously vanished from her home, leaving a bloodstained washcloth and signs of a struggle—as well as her grieving husband and young daughter—behind.

Now, nearly twenty years later, Nicola, newly unemployed and still haunted by the disappearance of her childhood friend, is returning to her Appalachian hometown. For Nicola, Tyndall County has remained frozen in time. Everywhere she turns she’s reminded of Lauren. Yet shockingly, her former friends and neighbors have all moved on. Drawn to stories of missing girls, Nicola obsessively searches the internet, hoping to discover a clue to Lauren’s ultimate fate.

Driven by a desperate need to know what happened to her friend, Nicola takes a job in her hometown, determined to uncover any bit of information, any small clue, that can help. Deep down she knows the answers are tucked in the hollows and valleys of this small Blue Ridge county. As secrets come to light and the truth begins to unravel, will Nicola finally find release and break free of the past—or lose herself completely to unanswered questions from her adolescence?

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Polly Stewart grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, where she still lives. She graduated from Hollins University and has an MFA in fiction and a PhD in British literature from Washington University in St. Louis. Her short fiction has appeared in literary collections and journals, including Best New American Voices, The Best American Mystery Stories, Epoch, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, Crime Reads, and Poets & Writers, among other publications.

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Enjoy the conversation.