Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired . . . and who the world believes is dead.

When she arrives at the Sinclairs' enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her "too-good-to-be-true" position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.

Wendy Webb’s first novel, The Tale of Halcyon Crane, was the 2011 winner of the Minnesota Book Award for genre fiction, an Indie Next Pick from the American Booksellers Association, a Midwest Connections Pick from the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, and a Great Lakes, Great Reads Pick from the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. Her second, published in early 2013 by Hyperion, entitled The Fate of Mercy Alban, duplicated these feats, landing on independent booksellers’ bestseller lists. She splits her time between Minneapolis, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and Duluth, Minnesota, where she is editor-in-chief of Duluth Superior Magazine, a lifestyle monthly. And yes, she’s the proud owner of Molly, a malamute of great distinction!