Fractured Oak

 It’s hard to catch a killer when the only witness is a tree.

In 1853, after Catherine Miller is murdered for daring to become a doctor in a field full of men, a molecular fusion between human decay and natural rebirth transforms her into a Northern Red Oak. One hundred and seventy years later, she remains a mute but sentient tree, rooted near a secluded Northeast Ohio house. After she watches in horror as the newest homeowner murders one of his PhD students and then hides the weapon deep within her fissured bark, Catherine is resolved, somehow, to see that justice gets served.

Fortunately, present-day Catherine has an unwitting ally: Lani Whitaker, a fourth-generation detective facing mandatory retirement and sick of being treated like a dried-up relic by her young chief of police. When the body of that same PhD student turns up in the woods, Lani is determined to solve the case and go out with a win.

Two women, generations apart, linked to each other through murder. Can solving a twenty-first-century homicide shed light on a nineteenth-century killer?

*Genre note: Fractured Oak is a generational mystery rooted in magical realism.