Wonderfully atmospheric, with vivid characters, and a dose of superstition and folklore, this novel stands out.

THE WITCH’S ORCHARD
by Archer Sullivan
Minotaur Books, Summer 2025

Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to a small mountain town, not unlike the one where she grew up.

Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their small town. One was returned, but the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire Annie to see if she can find any new leads—anything that might help give him closure to the event that tore his family apart. Annie knows that a case this old might be a fool’s errand, but the bills are piling up and she can’t turn down a job—not even one that dredges up her own painful past.

In the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Annie begins to track the truth, navigating a decade’s worth of secrets, folklore of witches and crows, and a whole town that prefers to forget. But while the case may have been buried, echoes of the past linger. And Annie’s arrival stirs someone into action.

Archer Sullivan is a ninth generation Appalachian. She’s moved thirty-seven times and has lived everywhere from Monticello, Kentucky to Manhattan, New York and from Black Mountain, North Carolina to Beverly Hills, California. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, Rock and a Hard Place and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024.