A new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of Black-Eyed Susans.

“A compelling family mystery that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended.”—Margaret Maron, New York Times bestselling author of Three Day Town “Dear Tommie: Have you ever wondered about who you are?” The letter that turns Tommie McCloud’s world upside down arrives from a stranger only days after her father’s death. The woman who wrote it claims that Tommie is her daughter—and that she was kidnapped as a baby thirty-one years ago. Tommie wants to believe it’s all a hoax, but suddenly a girl who grew up on a Texas ranch finds herself linked to a horrific past: the slaughter of a family in Chicago, the murder of an Oklahoma beauty queen, and the kidnapping of a little girl named Adriana. Tommie races along a twisting, nightmarish path while an unseen stalker is determined to keep old secrets locked inside the dementia-battered brain of the woman who Tommie always thought was her real mother. With everything she has ever believed in question, and no one she can trust, Tommie must discover the truth about the girl who vanished—and the very real threats that still remain. “[Julia Heaberlin’s] voice is pitch perfect, and her story of one woman’s fierce struggle to reconcile her past with her present is gripping and powerful. An outstanding debut.”—Carla Buckley, author of Invisible

Rendered famous as the only survivor of a serial killer twenty years earlier, Tessa discovers clues that the wrong person was convicted and that the true killer is preparing to finish what he started.

A Texas map marked with three red dots like drops of blood. A serial killer who claims to have dementia. A mysterious young woman who wants answers. What could go wrong? FINALIST FOR THE ITW THRILLER AWARD • “Fast and furious . . . You’ll never see what’s coming.”—The Washington Post Years ago, her sister Rachel vanished. Now she is almost certain the man who took Rachel sits in the passenger seat beside her. He claims to have dementia and no memory of murdering girls across Texas in a string of places where he shot eerie pictures. To find the truth, she proposes a dangerous idea: a ten-day road trip with a possible serial killer to examine cold cases linked to his haunting photographs. Is he a liar or a broken old man? Is he a pathological con artist—or is she? You won’t see the final, terrifying twist spinning your way until the very last mile. Praise for Paper Ghosts “Paper Ghosts is a riveting summer read that shows Texas in a powerfully intimate light.” —The Austin Chronicle “[An] artful and elegiac psychological thriller . . . riveting.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[Paper Ghosts] elevates the often tawdry genre of the serial killer novel to a work of art.”—Sunday Express (UK) “Texas has yet again bred a major American noir writer.”—D Magazine “[Heaberlin has] developed a distinctive literary voice, one that is on full display in Paper Ghosts.”—Houston Chronicle “Entertainingly unnerving.”—The Dallas Morning News “Strong characterisation, haunting images, a wonderful sense of place, and some dark comedy make this travelogue-cum-psychological thriller well worth the read.”—The Guardian

In the tradition of Lisa Unger’s Beautiful Lies and Nancy Pickard’s The Scent of Rain and Lightning comes a twisting, riveting novel of shifting trust and shattered lives. Lie Still delves deep into the heart of an opulent Southern town, where gossip is currency and secrets kill. When Emily Page and her husband move from Manhattan to the wealthy enclave of Clairmont, Texas, she hopes she can finally escape her haunted past—and outrun the nameless stalker who has been taunting her for years. Pregnant with her first child, Emily just wants to start over. But as she is drawn into a nest of secretive Texas women—and into the unnerving company of their queen, Caroline Warwick—Emily finds that acceptance is a very dangerous game. It isn’t long before Caroline mysteriously disappears and Emily is facing a rash of anonymous threats. Are they linked to the missing Caroline? Or to Emily’s terrifying encounter in college, years earlier? As the dark truth about Caroline emerges, Emily realizes that some secrets are impossible to hide—and that whoever came for Caroline is now coming for her. Praise for Lie Still “In this engrossing novel of suspense . . . [Heaberlin] expertly spins out a tale of lies and deceit that will keep the reader guessing.”—Publishers Weekly “Heaberlin’s depiction of one tight-knit Texas community is both culturally savvy and politically astute. . . . A carefully wrapped package of Texas soap opera, social and political exposé, and well-paced thriller.”—Booklist “Heaberlin combines a culturally pertinent suspense story (the plot revolves around the main character’s struggles with the repercussions of an unreported date rape) with satirical observations about Texas’ moneyed suburban elite.”—The New York Times “Lie Still mixes serious discussion about ‘the last frontier in crime’ with a twisty-turny mystery plot and a cast of eccentric characters.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Reading a book by Julia Heaberlin is like hearing your best friend tell you a particularly thorny story, filled with secrets and intrigue and human hopes and failures. Lie Still is a book you want to curl up with for a good long while but, more important, Julia Heaberlin is an author you want to get to know.”—Jenny Milchman “Julia Heaberlin weaves an intricate tapestry of secrets and suspense, lies and betrayals that kept me reading late into the night. Lie Still is a thriller par excellence and a page-turner, true—but it’s also a moving story of one woman’s unlikely path toward healing, and another’s lifelong search for redemption. I challenge you to visit Claremont, Texas—where nothing is quite as it seems and no one is quite who they claim—and leave unchanged.”—Emily Colin “Julia Heaberlin deceives the reader in the most deliciously chilling way in Lie Still: With gorgeous prose and sterling character work, she takes us on a deeply felt and wonderfully composed thrill ride. Layer after layer of secrets, longing, and deception is peeled away and we begin to dread the twisted kernel at the heart, never guessing what Heaberlin has in store for us.”—Sophie Littlefield, bestselling author of Garden of Stones

"Go read Andy Davidson’s lush nightmare, The Boatman’s Daughter. It put an arrow through my head and heart.” —Paul Tremblay, author of Growing Things "Ample bloodshed is offset by beautiful prose . . . A stunning supernatural Southern Gothic." —Kirkus (starred) Ever since her father was killed when she was just a child, Miranda Crabtree has kept her head down and her eyes up, ferrying contraband for a mad preacher and his declining band of followers to make ends meet and to protect an old witch and a secret child from harm. But dark forces are at work in the bayou, both human and supernatural, conspiring to disrupt the rhythms of Miranda’s peculiar and precarious life. And when the preacher makes an unthinkable demand, it sets Miranda on a desperate, dangerous path, forcing her to consider what she is willing to sacrifice to keep her loved ones safe. With the heady mythmaking of Neil Gaiman and the heartrending pacing of Joe Hill, Andy Davidson spins a thrilling tale of love and duty, of loss and discovery. The Boatman's Daughter is a gorgeous, horrifying novel, a journey into the dark corners of human nature, drawing our worst fears and temptations out into the light.

After killing her attacker, Seelie must prove in court and in the hallways of her high school that she acted in self-defense.