NOW A LIFETIME TV MOVIE STARRING JOHN STAMOS From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Midwives, and Skeletons at the Feast comes a novel of shattered faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature of sacrifice. "There," says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels. Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him. But then the State's Attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew. Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”

When Eden discovers he possesses forbidden magic, keeping his affair with the crown prince a secret becomes the least of his worries. Eden has always obeyed the laws of Rolaria. He spends his days teaching children how to read in order to distract him from his mother's bizarre disappearance. She worked in the castle before suddenly vanishing, and when Eden mistakenly receives an invitation to the Royal Ball, he goes to feel closer to her. That same night, Prince Jared must find a bride. But after an unexpected encounter between Eden and the prince, a relationship begins. After a night with the prince, Eden explores the castle on his own. Lost in the corridors, he stumbles upon a hidden room and finds his mother's journal, whose pages reveal a lineage of outlawed magic. He soon realizes the castle walls not only hide his romance with Jared but secrets about his mother's disappearance. In order to unravel the mystery and understand his awakening abilities, Eden must risk exposing his relationship and thwarting Jared's chances to rule Rolaria. The closer Eden gets to the truth, the closer he finds himself facing the same fate as his mother.

Neil Gaiman's Coraline meets Stranger Things in a dark and twisted story about a sleepy town with a dark secret--and the three kids brave enough to uncover it. Twelve-year-old Eleanor has just moved to Eden Eld to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother was killed in a fire. Her birthday, which falls on Halloween, is just around the corner, and she hopes that this year will be a fresh start at a new life. But then one morning, an ancient grandfather clock counting down thirteen hours appears outside of her bedroom. And then she spots a large black dog with glowing red eyes prowling the grounds of her school. A book of fairytales she's never heard of almost willingly drops in front of her, as if asking to be read. Something is wrong in the town of Eden Eld. Eleanor and her new classmates, Pip and Otto, are the only ones who see these "wrong things," and they also all happen to share a Halloween birthday. Bonded by these odd similarities, the trio uncovers a centuries-old pact the town has with a mysterious figure known as Mr. January: every thirteen years, three thirteen-year-olds disappear, sacrificed in exchange for the town's unending good fortune. This Halloween, Mr. January is back to collect his payment and Eleanor, Pip, and Otto are to be his next offering...unless they can break the curse before the clock strikes thirteen.

NOW A LIFETIME TV MOVIE STARRING JOHN STAMOS From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Midwives, and Skeletons at the Feast comes a novel of shattered faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature of sacrifice. "There," says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels. Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him. But then the State's Attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew. Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”

When Eden discovers he possesses forbidden magic, keeping his affair with the crown prince a secret becomes the least of his worries. Eden has always obeyed the laws of Rolaria. He spends his days teaching children how to read in order to distract him from his mother's bizarre disappearance. She worked in the castle before suddenly vanishing, and when Eden mistakenly receives an invitation to the Royal Ball, he goes to feel closer to her. That same night, Prince Jared must find a bride. But after an unexpected encounter between Eden and the prince, a relationship begins. After a night with the prince, Eden explores the castle on his own. Lost in the corridors, he stumbles upon a hidden room and finds his mother's journal, whose pages reveal a lineage of outlawed magic. He soon realizes the castle walls not only hide his romance with Jared but secrets about his mother's disappearance. In order to unravel the mystery and understand his awakening abilities, Eden must risk exposing his relationship and thwarting Jared's chances to rule Rolaria. The closer Eden gets to the truth, the closer he finds himself facing the same fate as his mother.

'There,' says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, when she come up out of the water after her baptism. Just a few short hours later, Alice is dead, shot by her abusive husband who turned the gun on himself soon after. Tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, Reverend Drew feels his faith in God slipping away as he tries to unearth the truth behind Alice's death. Only new arrival Heather Laurent -- the enigmatic author of wildly successful books about angels -- seems able to save him from slipping into the depths of despair. Heather has her own story. She survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice's daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen. But then the state's attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself . . . and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew. Related through the eyes of four different narrators, Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again, Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems.

The Secrets of Eden's Dam by K. L. Dempsey might be his finest and most personal novel to date. It's everything you'd expect from the author of The Unholy Vengeance and The Vanishing Pharmacist-richly developed characters that allow the reader to be entertained by a mixture of suspense, action, and education of medical issues. The novel begins with Doctor Graham Harding returning to his hometown of Eden's Dam. Once a thriving location where the governor of the state would make special trips to purchase the town's twelve different German sausages along with its outstanding pastries, it was now just another of the many ghost towns that made up North Dakota with their local mysteries and oddities. Today Graham looked across the flowing Sheyenne River at the house that still stood, where his best friend's sister Victoria Hanson had been murdered. He had walked inside that house now for the last twenty years, visualizing her last moments as she had fought for her life against a man who had left but a single clue, a man's expensive cologne with its fragrance on her body and clothes. Harding had made a joint promise with his best friend that they would find the killer and bring him to justice. Now his friend, now dead, leaves the promise still unfilled in the hands of Graham. With the redemptive power that comes from determination, Graham intends to keep his promise. Eden's Dam is a story about promises made and promises kept with a blend of love and tenderness mixed in.