Arrowood

A detective tracks a vicious killer through the slums of Victorian London in this “fiercely edgy” mystery that adds grit to the world of Sherlock Holmes (Booklist). London, 1865. The city is terrified. A killer haunts the streets, crime bosses are taking control, and the police force is stretched to the breaking point. Those who have means turn to Sherlock Holmes, but the celebrated private detective rarely visits the streets of South London, where the crimes are sleazier and the people are poorer. In these precincts, victims turn to a man who despises Holmes and everything he represents: his wealthy clientele and his showy forensic approach to crime. Arrowood is a self-taught psychologist, occasional drunkard, and private investigator. When a man mysteriously disappears and Arrowood’s best lead is viciously stabbed before his eyes, he and his sidekick Barnett face their toughest quest yet: to capture the head of the most notorious gang in London . . .

“Superb and subtle psychological suspense.”—Lee Child A haunting novel from the author of The Weight of Blood about a young woman’s return to her childhood home—and her encounter with the memories and family secrets it holds ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST Arrowood is the most ornate and grand of the historical houses that line the Mississippi River in southern Iowa. But the house has a mystery it has never revealed: It’s where Arden Arrowood’s younger twin sisters vanished on her watch twenty years ago—never to be seen again. After the twins’ disappearance, Arden’s parents divorced and the Arrowoods left the big house that had been in their family for generations. And Arden’s own life has fallen apart: She can’t finish her master’s thesis, and a misguided love affair has ended badly. She has held on to the hope that her sisters are still alive, and it seems she can’t move forward until she finds them. When her father dies and she inherits Arrowood, Arden returns to her childhood home determined to discover what really happened to her sisters that traumatic summer. Arden’s return to the town of Keokuk—and the now infamous house that bears her name—is greeted with curiosity. But she is welcomed back by her old neighbor and first love, Ben Ferris, whose family, she slowly learns, knows more about the Arrowoods’ secrets and their small, closed community than she ever realized. With the help of a young amateur investigator, Arden tracks down the man who was the prime suspect in the kidnapping. But the house and the surrounding town hold their secrets close—and the truth, when Arden finds it, is more devastating than she ever could have imagined. Arrowood is a powerful and resonant novel that examines the ways in which our lives are shaped by memory. As with her award-winning debut novel, The Weight of Blood, Laura McHugh has written a thrilling novel in which nothing is as it seems, and in which our longing for the past can take hold of the present in insidious and haunting ways. Praise for Arrowood “This robust, old-fashioned gothic mystery has everything you’re looking for: a creepy old house, a tenant with a secret history, and even a few ghosts. Laura McHugh’s novel sits at the intersection of memory and history, astutely asking whether we carry the past or it carries us.”—Jodi Picoult “An eloquently eerie tale.”—Booklist “Poignant . . . lyrical.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A chilling, twisting tale of family, memory, and home . . . This engaging and thrilling tale about a young woman’s homecoming, the vagaries of memory, and the impact of tragedy on both a town and a family is a terrific choice for Laura Lippman and Sue Grafton readers.”—Library Journal (starred review)

London Society takes their problems to Sherlock Holmes. Everyone else goes to Arrowood. ‘Finlay depicts a seedy, desperate London and vivid characters with considerable skill’ The Times

“Enthralling . . . an alternative Sherlock Holmes, who, instead of relying on physical clues and logic, focuses on the psychology of the people involved.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) 1896: Sherlock Holmes has once again hit the headlines, solving mysteries for the cream of aristocracy. But among the workhouses and pudding shops of South London, private detective William Arrowood is presented with far grittier, more violent, and considerably less well-paid cases. Arrowood has no doubt who is the better detective, and when Mr. and Mrs. Barclay engage him to find their daughter, Birdie—who married a pig farmer and hasn’t been seen since—he’s sure it won’t be long before he and his assistant, Barnett, have tracked her down. But this seemingly simple missing-person case soon turns into a murder investigation. Far from the comfort of Baker Street, Arrowood’s London is a city of unrelenting cruelty, where evil is waiting to be uncovered . . . Praise for Arrowood “A new series that historical crime fans will be clamoring to read more of.” —The Times of London “A wonderful premise: a downscale Sherlock Holmes for the rest of us.” —Kirkus Reviews “Fiercely edgy . . . Finlay captures the filth, frustration, and dark humor of the Victorian-era slum . . . Doyle’s fans will be entertained.” —Booklist “The Victorian workingman’s answer to the higher-class Sherlock Holmes—a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, shabby detective with a seriously bad attitude toward his more famous counterpart . . . It’s a terrific premise . . . Finlay has fun referencing the Holmes canon, and he gives his hero a skill that the more famous detective lacks.” —The Seattle Times

‘Brimming with dark humour, fast-paced action ... this is a top-class series that grows in stature with every new book’ Lancashire Evening Post SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 HWA GOLD CROWN AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 CWA GOLD DAGGER

For fans of Gillian Flynn, Scott Smith, and Daniel Woodrell comes a gripping, suspenseful novel about two mysterious disappearances a generation apart. INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS AWARD WINNER AND BARRY AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE The town of Henbane sits deep in the Ozark Mountains. Folks there still whisper about Lucy Dane’s mother, a bewitching stranger who appeared long enough to marry Carl Dane and then vanished when Lucy was just a child. Now on the brink of adulthood, Lucy experiences another loss when her friend Cheri disappears and is then found murdered, her body placed on display for all to see. Lucy’s family has deep roots in the Ozarks, part of a community that is fiercely protective of its own. Yet despite her close ties to the land, and despite her family’s influence, Lucy—darkly beautiful as her mother was—is always thought of by those around her as her mother’s daughter. When Cheri disappears, Lucy is haunted by the two lost girls—the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn’t save—and sets out with the help of a local boy, Daniel, to uncover the mystery behind Cheri’s death. What Lucy discovers is a secret that pervades the secluded Missouri hills, and beyond that horrific revelation is a more personal one concerning what happened to her mother more than a decade earlier. The Weight of Blood is an urgent look at the dark side of a bucolic landscape beyond the arm of the law, where a person can easily disappear without a trace. Laura McHugh proves herself a masterly storyteller who has created a harsh and tangled terrain as alive and unforgettable as the characters who inhabit it. Her mesmerizing debut is a compelling exploration of the meaning of family: the sacrifices we make, the secrets we keep, and the lengths to which we will go to protect the ones we love. Praise for The Weight of Blood “[An] expertly crafted thriller.”—Entertainment Weekly, “The Must List” “Haunting . . . [a] riveting debut.”—Los Angeles Times “Laura McHugh’s atmospheric debut . . . conjures a menacingly beautiful Ozark setting and a nest of poisonous family secrets reminiscent of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone.”—Vogue “Fantastic . . . a mile-a-minute thriller.”—The Dallas Morning News

A teenager struggles through physical loss to the start of acceptance in an absorbing, artful novel at once honest and insightful, wrenching and redemptive. (Age 12 and up) On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything -- absolutely everything -- changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, "That’s her -- that’s Shark Girl," as she passes. In the meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life? In this striking first novel, Kelly Bingham uses poems, letters, telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it’s like to lose part of yourself - and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again.