A Thorn Among the Lilies

Description

In Michael Hiebert’s haunting and powerful novel, a long-ago tragedy echoes through small-town Alabama as one woman tries to track down a serial killer.

Detective Leah Teal is privy to most of the secrets in her hometown of Alvin, but there are always surprises to be had. Like the day she agrees to take her daughter, Caroline, to see a psychic for a reading. The psychic hones in on Leah instead, hinting at a string of gruesome killings and insisting that she intervene to prevent more deaths.

When you go looking for trouble, you never know how much you’ll find. Sure enough, the psychic’s scant clues lead Leah to a cold case from six years ago, when a young woman was found shot to death, her eyelids sewn shut. As Leah digs deeper into old files, a second unsolved case surfaces with the same grisly pattern. While her shrewd young son, Abe, observes from the sidelines, Leah races to prevent another horrific murder, unaware of just how deep the roots of evil can go.

Taut, suspenseful, and rich in Southern atmosphere, A Thorn Among the Lilies is a mesmerizing novel of loss and vengeance, and the lengths some will go to out of loyalty and love.

Praise for Michael Hiebert’s

“Hiebert’s first novel courts comparison to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird, but the book manages to soar as a moving achievement in its own right. In Hiebert’s hands, psychological insight and restrained lyricism combine to create a coming-of-age tale as devastating as it is indelible.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“This book captured me from page one. It’s honest, it’s raw and it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long, long while.” —Lisa Jackson

“There’s something mesmerizing about Hiebert’s storytelling voice.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Readers who enjoy literary fiction depicting small-town life in the tradition of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird may want to try Hiebert’s debut.” —Library Journal

And praise for Close to the Broken Hearted

“A very good, sometimes emotional, mystery that will stay with you long after it’s over.” —Suspense Magazine

“Hiebert does a masterful job of building suspense.” —Publishers Weekly

Michael Hiebert likes to write surprising stories that cross genres, and are often mysterious. He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Surrey International Writers’ Conference Storyteller’s Award and has been listed in The Best American Mystery Stories, edited by Joyce Carol Oates. Michael lives in Canada with his family, a dog named Chloe, and enough books that it is no longer fun to move. Visit him at www.michaelhiebert.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/M.R.Hiebert, and on Twitter @Hiebert_M.US

Additional information