The Authors

 

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Poppy Gee is the author of two literary thrillers, Bay of Fires and Vanishing Falls. Both are set in Tasmania, a small island at the bottom of Australia, where she grew up. Vanishing Falls (William Morrow, 2020) is about a woman who disappears from her colonial mansion in a small town deep in the rainforest, and the dangerous and revealing ripple-effect this event has on the townsfolk.

Poppy’s professional background is in newspaper and magazine journalism. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing, and currently lives in Brisbane, Queensland with her husband and three children. Learn more at www.poppygee.com.

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Jacquelyn Mitchard is the author of 24 books of fiction and non-fiction for adults, young adults and children, with more than 3 million copies in 34 languages worldwide. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the inaugural selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club and was adapted for a feature film starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Two other of her novels are being adapted for film. Mitchard’s work has won or been nominated for prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Heartland Prize for Fiction and others and she has taught Fiction and Non-Fiction in several MFA programs.

A longtime newspaper and magazine journalist, she contributes to publications include Parents, the O Magazine, Harpers and Readers Digest. Her short fiction has been anthologized and featured in many high school and college curricula. A native of Chicago, she lives on Cape Cod with her husband and their nine children. Her most recent novel, The Good Son, is out from Mira/HarperCollins. Learn more at jacquelynmitchard.com.

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Authors’ Books

 

My Summer Darlings by May Cobb

Jen Hansen, Kittie Spears, and Cynthia Nichols have been friends since childhood. They are now approaching forty and their lives have changed, but their insular East Texas town has not. They stay sane by drinking wine in the afternoons, dishing about other women in the neighborhood, and bonding over the heartache of their own encroaching middle age and raising ungrateful teens.

Then Will Harding comes to town, moving into one of the neighborhood’s grandest homes. Mysterious and charming, he seems like the answer to each woman’s prayers. He’s a source of fascination for Jen, Kittie, and Cynthia, but none of them are ready for the way Will disrupts their lives.

As Will grows closer with each of the women, their fascination twists into obsession, threatening their friendships and their families. When he abruptly pulls away, each woman scrambles to discover the source of his affection. But what they’ll uncover is far more sinister and deadly than any of them could have ever imagined.

Purchase at an independent bookstore near you.

Purchase online at www.bookshop.org.

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Vanishing Falls by Poppy Gee

Deep within the lush Tasmanian rainforest is the remote town of Vanishing Falls, a place with a storied past. The town’s showpiece, built in the 1800s, is its Calendar House—currently occupied by Jack Lily, a prominent art collector and landowner; his wife, Celia; and their four daughters. The elaborate, eccentrically designed mansion houses one masterpiece and 52 rooms—and Celia Lily isn’t in any of them. She has vanished without a trace.…

Joelle Smithton knows that a few folks in Vanishing Falls believe that she’s simple-minded. It’s true that Joelle’s brain works a little differently—a legacy of shocking childhood trauma. But Joelle sees far more than most people realize, and remembers details that others cast away. For instance, she knows that Celia’s husband, Jack, has connections to unsavory local characters whom he’s desperate to keep hidden. He’s not the only one in town with something to conceal. Even Joelle’s own husband, Brian, a butcher, is acting suspiciously. While the police flounder, unable to find Celia, Joelle is gradually parsing the truth from the gossip she hears and from the simple gestures and statements that can unwittingly reveal so much.

Just as the water from the falls disappears into the ground, gushing away through subterranean creeks, the secrets in Vanishing Falls are pulsing through the town, about to converge. And when they do, Joelle must summon the courage to reveal what really happened to Celia, even if it means exposing her own past…

Purchase at an independent bookstore near you.

Purchase online at www.bookshop.org.

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Dead of Winter by Stephen Mack Jones

Authentico Foods Inc. has been a part of Detroit’s Mexicantown for over thirty years, grown from a home kitchen business to a city-blocklong facility that supplies Mexican tortillas to restaurants throughout the Midwest.

Detroit ex-cop and Mexicantown native August Snow has been invited for a business meeting at Authentico Foods. Its owner, Ronaldo Ochoa, is dying, and is being blackmailed into selling the company to an anonymous entity. Worried about his employees, Ochoa wants August to buy it. August has no interest in running a tortilla empire, but he does want to know who’s threatening his neighborhood. Quickly, his investigation takes a devastating turn and he and his loved ones find themselves ensnared in a dangerous net of ruthless billionaire developers. August Snow must fight not only for his life, but for the soul of Mexicantown itself.

Purchase at an independent bookstore near you.

Purchase online at www.bookshop.org.

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