For fans of Kara Thomas and Cruel Summer, a gripping new YA novel about a girl who revels in all things macabre. . . until a chilling murder hits closer to home.
AFTER DARK WITH ROXIE CLARK
by Brooke Lauren Davis
Bloomsbury, October 2022
(via Writers House)
Whistler, Indiana has suffered more than its fair share of misfortunes—everything from sudden drownings to poisoning conspiracies to unsolved disappearances. And almost every bad thing can be traced back to the Clark family. Some people even believe they are cursed. But instead of cowering from her family’s past, Roxie Clark is fascinated by it. Combining her flare for performance with her obsession with all things horror, she’s woven her ancestors’ history into a lucrative ghost tour that has quickly become infamous all over the state.
But six months ago, a shocking tragedy rattled Roxie’s world when Colin Riley—her sister Skylar’s boyfriend—was found stabbed to death in a cornfield. Skylar is distraught, and Roxie is desperate to help her find answers and closure. Instead, Skylar becomes fixated on finding the killer. As the two young women dig into the mystery, Roxie realizes that everyone in town may hiding something. . . and maybe some secrets are best left untold. Brooke Lauren Davis offers another thought-provoking and eerily satisfying tale.
Brooke Lauren Davis grew up in rural Southern Ohio. Now she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she divides her time between working as an indie bookseller and dreaming up more stories about small towns with big secrets. Her debut novel The Hollow Inside was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
Seventeen-year-old Phoenix has spent much of her life drifting from town to town with her mom Nina, using their charms to swindle and steal to get by. Now they’ve made it to their ultimate destination, Nina’s hometown of Jasper Hollow. The plan: bring down Ellis Bowman, the man who ruined Nina’s life. When Phoenix gets caught spying on Ellis, she spins a convincing story that inadvertently gives her full access to the Bowman family. As she digs deeper into their secrets (and begins to fall for daughter Melody), she finds herself entrenched in the tale of a death and a disappearance that doesn’t entirely line up with what Mom has told her. But there’s even more to this story Phoenix doesn’t know. Who, if anyone, is telling the whole truth about what happened? Debut author Brooke Lauren Davis explores the murkiness of right and wrong, of choices and consequences, of heroes and villains, in an eerily compelling and thought-provoking small-town saga.