DEAD ORCHARD

When true-crime podcaster Nora Vale returns to her Okanagan hometown to care for her ailing mother, she expects awkward reunions and half-buried memories—not the return of the orchard lights. In 1996, the so-called “Starlight Girls” vanished beneath those flickering spheres, their disappearances written off as tragedy and rumor. Now the lights are back, glowing in the rows like cold lanterns, each appearance followed by silence, static, and someone missing.

As Nora digs into the past, she unearths taped broadcasts, fractured memories, and a town desperate to protect its reputation—even at the cost of its daughters. Every clue points her toward the old cannery’s hidden cellar and the horrifying bargains struck to keep the orchard calm. But the deeper Nora investigates, the more she must ask: are the lights warning her, or waiting for her?

Dead Orchard is a chilling blend of supernatural suspense and true-crime grit, where female friendship and buried secrets collide against the backdrop of a community built on denial. For readers of The Only Good Indians, In the Woods, and True Detective, this haunting thriller proves that silence is the orchard’s real harvest.