A stylish Mid-Century set that asks a shocking question: Can an eleven-year-old boy really be a cold blooded killer?
AN UNTHINKABLE THING
by Nicole Lundrigan
Viking Canada, Spring 2022
The residents of affluent Upper Washbourne certainly believed so when they charged and then tried young Thomas Ware for triple murder in 1958. All is not as it seems behind the hedgerow surrounding the lavish Henneberry estate where Tommie Ware’s mother, Esther, works as the live-in housekeeper. When Tommie is unexpectedly transplanted into this unfamiliar and rarefied world, he is left on his own to navigate the grounds, the massive house, and the twisted family inside. There’s the delusional pill-popping mother, Muriel, who takes a strange shine to Thomas; her husband, a respected dentist who may have known Tommie’s recently deceased aunt; and their entitled son, Martin, who reveals a dark and dangerous side as he cruelly torments the old widow who lives next door. High class comes with high stakes, and as Tommie is dragged deeper into the Henneberrys’ dysfunction, he can’t help but wonder: what does someone good and brave have to do to stop such people?
Alternating with Tommie’s vivid tale of that summer is the story of his murder trial, told entirely through newspaper and radio coverage, forensic reports, trial transcripts, and witness testimonies. The result is a masterful, mesmerizing dual-narrative that is sure to keep readers on the edges of their seats and guessing until the very last page.
Nicole Lundrigan grew up in Newfoundland, and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of seven published novels including her most recent, Hideaway (Viking/PRHC, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel conveyed by the Crime Writers of Canada and which was included on many best-of/must-read lists in 2019 including Globe & Mail, Chatelaine, Bustle, Toronto Star, Loan Stars, NOW, Post Media, and the CBC. Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door, called Hideaway « Authentic, disturbing and unbearably tense, [it] will leave you reeling.” In its starred review of Nicole’s earlier novel The Substitute (House of Anansi Press, 2017), Booklist noted Lundrigan’s writing, “is both elegant and darkly humorous, delivering bareknuckle social commentary that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn, Karin Fossum, and Laura Lippman.”
Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mother dies giving birth to her second set of twins. Austin, the second oldest of seven kids, has no choice but to take up the two babies and raise them along with her brothers and sister, since her father is paralyzed by the tragedy. The Fosters don’t have much but thankfully, Austin is a capable girl who knows how to keep everyone fed and clothed and mostly out trouble. She also knows how to do things most girls her age don’t like how to cultivate a bountiful crop of tobacco, plow a straight line, wrangle snakes when needed, and how to manage her father and his erratic behavior. How Austin finds what she doesn’t know she needs and manages to save her poor farming family, fall in love, and help her beloved father overcome his mental health struggles, makes UNDER THE MAGNOLIAS the kind of read that breaks your heart then heals it in the best possible way.
Fan favorite Nicole Baart explores the irresistible question 
Ever since twelve-year-old Igor’s dad witnessed and reported a terrible crime, his family has been on the run from the Lizard Man, a foreboding figure bent on retribution. They’ve lived in so many places, with so many identities, ready to bug-out at a moment’s notice, Igor can’t even remember his real name. He’s been homeschooled since they’ve been on the run, but now that he’s twelve, he longs to go to school and make friends. When the witness protection program finds his family yet another new place to live, Igor rebels and his father reluctantly lets him go to school, admonishing him to always come straight home. But as Igor finds a place for himself and makes friends, it gets harder and harder to keep secrets from them. Chafing under his father’s rules, Igor rebels and looks for answers. But when the Lizard Man comes knocking, he’s after Igor, not his dad, and he also ensnares Igor’s new friends. In Deadman’s Castle, nothing is quite what it seems, and danger is lurking around every corner. How they escape and end the cycle of fear and flight makes for a page-turner sure to grab young readers with a taste for mystery and adventure.