Shady Creek

A Novel

A gripping coming-of-age small town murder mystery in the backwoods-noir tradition of Stephen King's The Body (Stand by Me) and Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone.

Ten year old Delbert and his mother return to the small factory town of Shady Creek tucked in the rugged foothills of western North Carolina where Delbert meets his father for the first time after his father is released from prison.

With dark secrets festering beneath the surface like an old wound that promises to never heal, Delbert's new life in the small town is quickly complicated by his father's release, the town’s long memory, and the murder of a young local girl on a cold autumn night - the teenage daughter of the only witness to testify against his father a decade earlier.

As the days become increasingly shorter and the nights longer, Delbert comes to the gradual realization not all is what it seems and only he holds the keys to his father's absolution.

At times heartbreaking, and at other times simply heartbreakingly beautiful, Shady Creek is suspense cooked at a slow-burn with a young, indefatigable protagonist you will desperately root for until the final page.