DOG ROSE DIRT de Jen Williams

A standalone, chilling thriller about a woman who discovers her late mother had been secretly corresponding with a serial killer for decades.

DOG ROSE DIRT
by Jen Williams
HarperCollinsUK , Publication 2021

When prodigal daughter Heather Evans returns to her family home, it’s for an unhappy reason: her mother Colleen has killed herself, and Heather must pick up the pieces. Sorting through her mother’s belongings Heather makes an alarming discovery – stacks and stacks of carefully preserved letters from the notorious serial killer Michael Reave. The Red Wolf, as the press dubbed him, has been in prison for over twenty years, serving a life sentence for the gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women across the country, although he has always protested his innocence. The police have had no reason to listen, yet Heather isn’t the only one to suddenly have cause to re-examine the Red Wolf murders – the body of a young woman has been found, dismembered and placed inside a tree, the corpse planted with flowers. Just as the Red Wolf once did. What did Heather’s mother know? Why did she kill herself? And with the monstrous Red Wolf safely locked inside a maximum security prison, who is stalking young women now? Teaming up with DI Ben Parker, Heather hopes to get some answers for herself and for the newest victims of this depraved murderer. Yet to do that, she must speak to Michael Reave herself, and expose herself to truths she may not be ready to face. Something dark is walking in the woods, and it knows her all too well.
Ideal for those who read BLACK EYED SUSANS or THE CHALK MAN, as well as fans of Mindhunter and the Ted Bundy tapes.
Jen Williams is an award-winning, very well-reviewed fantasy writer, but this is her debut thriller.

A haunting world of secrets and obsessions

GHOSTS OF THE MISSING
by Kathleen Donohoe
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt February 2020

In the vein of The Lovely Bones and The Little Friend, Ghosts of the Missing follows the mysterious disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl during a town parade and the reverberations of this tragedy throughout the town.
On Saturday, October 28, 1995, a girl vanished. She was not a child particularly prized in town…When questioned by reporters, those who’d known Rowan described her as ‘quiet’ and ‘loner’ and ‘shy’ and even ‘awkward.’ Words for pity.
Culleton, New York has a long history—of writers, of artists, and of unsolved mysteries. It’s where Adair grew up before she moved to Brooklyn to try to make it as an artist. But after years away from her hometown and little to show for it, Adair decides to return. She moves back in to Moye House, the old mansion, and current writer’s retreat, imbued with her family’s legacy. Ciaran is a writer staying at Moye House in the hopes of finally solving the mystery of what happened to Rowan Kinnane—his sister, and Adair’s childhood best friend. As the two begin investigating, secrets long buried rise to the surface, complicating their sense of themselves and their understanding of what happened on that fateful day.
With her “knack for capturing heartbreaking moments with a gripping simplicity” (Village Voice), Kathleen Donohoe lures us into and shows just how far people will go in order to find the truth.

Kathleen Donohoe’s stories and essays have appeared in The Recorder, New York Stories, and Washington Square Review. She serves on the Board of Irish American Writers & Artists. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.

THE MEMORY THIEF de Lauren Mansy

A heart-pounding YA fantasy

THE MEMORY THIEF
by Lauren Mansy
HarperCollins, October 2019

In the city of Craewick, talents are bought and sold, and memory reigns over everything. Madame, the power-obsessed ruler of the city, has cultivated a society in which memories are currency, citizens are divided by ability, and Gifted individuals can take memories from others through touch as they please. Seventeen-year-old Etta Lark is desperate to live outside of the corrupt culture, but grapples with the guilt of an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city’s asylum. When Madame threatens to put her mother up for Auction, a Craewick tradition in which a “worthless” person’s memories are sold to the highest bidder before she is killed, Etta will do whatever it takes to save her. Even if it means rejoining the Shadows, the rebel group trading in the black market of memories, who she swore off in the wake of the accident years earlier. To prove her allegiance to the Shadows and rescue her mother, Etta must pull off the greatest heist of her life – steal a memorized map of the Maze, a formidable prison created by the bloodthirsty ruler of a neighboring realm. So she sets out on a journey in which she faces startling attacks, unexpected romance, and, above all, her own past in order to set things right in her world.

Lauren Mansy has built a career from working with young people, and her debut novel has already attracted a devoted legion of fans

LONER de Georgina Young

An irresistible new voice alive to the choices and confusions of youth, and the messiness of learning how to adult

LONER
by Georgina Young
Text Publishing, 2020

LONER moves beyond the expected boundaries of young adult fiction. It is an intimate, comic novel about learning how to be, and how to not be, a person in this world. It is about finding and creating yourself—as many times as it takes. Lona spends her days developing photographs in the dark room of the art school she dropped out of. She spends her nights DJ-ing the roller disco at Planet Skate. She is in inexplicable, debilitating love with a bespectacled, Doctor Who-obsessed former classmate. She is in comfortable, platonic love with her best friend, Tabitha. When Lona’s grandfather moves into her home, she finds herself bonding with him as she watches his health decline. When she is promoted to manager of checkout three in her supermarket job, she argues for a demotion to trolley-girl. When she meets a bass-playing, cello-shredding, charming-as-all-hell suitor, she is thrown by somehow finding herself in a romantic relationship with another human being. Lona doesn’t know what she wants, but she knows what she doesn’t want—well, some of the time.

Georgina was born in 1995 and lives in Melbourne. She has been published in a number of anthologies and literary magazines..

NAT ENOUGH de Maria Scrivan

A hilarious new illustrated middle grade series about self-confidence and hidden talents

NAT ENOUGH
by Maria Scrivan
Scholastic / Graphix, 2020

In the spirit of The Dork Diaries and the work of Raina Telgemeier comes a hilarious new illustrated middle grade series about self-confidence and hidden talents.
Natalie has never felt that she’s enough—athletic enough, stylish enough, or talented enough. And on the first day of middle school, Natalie discovers that things are worse than she thought—now she’s not even cool enough for her best friend, Lily! As Natalie tries to get her best friend back, she learns more about her true self and natural talents. If Natalie can focus on who she is rather than who she isn’t, then she just might realize she’s more than enough, just the way she is. Written and illustrated in the form of Nat’s sketchbook, NAT ENOUGH is a story about the power of self-love and acceptance, told with warmth and humor.
Maria Scrivan’s cartoons have been published in magazines, newspapers, books, and on national television.