Twelve years ago, her life was torn apart. Now those who wronged her will pay.
Jubilee Rathman is a straight-A student and star soccer goalie destined for Princeton—until her family is brutally murdered. Twelve years later, she lives in a virtual fortress on Purgatory Bay near Bleak Harbor, plotting revenge on the people she considers responsible.
In her crosshairs is former reporter Michaela “Mikey” Deming, who Jubilee believes got her family in trouble with the Detroit mob. As retribution, Jubilee kidnaps Mikey’s sister and daughter, and that’s just the start in her ruthless quest for justice.
Bleak Harbor police chief Katya Malone, still reeling from her failure to find a kidnapped boy, leads the investigation. She’s determined to keep history from repeating, but Jubilee is more cunning than Malone can imagine.
All Mikey and Katya can do is follow Jubilee’s dangerous trail of clues. But in Bleak Harbor, nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. As an ominous end draws ever nearer, the women must face the misdeeds of the past to find the kidnapping victims before it’s too late.
Their son is gone. Deep down, they think they’re to blame.
Summertime in Bleak Harbor means tourists, overpriced restaurants, and the Dragonfly Festival. One day before the much-awaited and equally chaotic celebration, Danny Peters, the youngest member of the family that founded the town five generations ago, disappears.
When Danny’s mother, Carey, and stepfather, Pete, receive a photo of their brilliant, autistic, and socially withdrawn son tied to a chair, they fear the worst. But there’s also more to the story. Someone is sending them ominous texts and emails filled with information no one else should have. Could the secrets they’ve kept hidden—even from one another—have led to Danny’s abduction?
As pressure from the kidnapper mounts, Carey and Pete must face their own ugly mistakes to find their son before he’s taken from them forever.
The third novel in the award-winning Starvation Lake series finds Gus Carpenter faced with a new case that reveals a haunting secret from his own family's past. Mysterious break-ins are plaguing the small town of Starvation Lake. While elderly residents enjoy their weekly bingo night at St. Valentine's Catholic Church, someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files. Oddly, the intruder takes nothing-yet the "Bingo Night Burglaries" leave the entire town uneasy. When the break-ins escalate to murder, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, is forced to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend's mother, but her body was found in the home of Bea Carpenter-Gus's own mother, who remembers little of the break-in. With the help of Luke Whistler, a former Detroit Free Press reporter who came north looking for slower days, Gus sets out to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when the story leads him to a lockbox his mother has kept secret for years, Gus doesn't realize that its contents could forever change his perception of Starvation Lake, his own family, and the value of truth.
Author Bryan Gruley's The Hanging Tree is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his Edgar Award-nominated debut, Starvation Lake. After an 18-year absence, Gracie McBride returns to Starvation Lake and apparently commits suicide. But newspaper editor Gus Carpenter smells a rat.
Bryan Gruley's debut mystery has received starred reviews from publications such as Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Disgraced reporter Gus Carpenter returns home to his small town and becomes embroiled in a murder investigation.
