Courtney, thank you for taking the time to read an early version of this, when I was terrified I’d get it wrong. You gave me the courage to keep going.

Kiki, it’s coming on three years since I got your first email and in those three years you have done something miraculous: you’ve made my dreams come true; and I don’t think you give yourself enough credit for that. Thank you for your belief in my stories. It’s an honor to work with someone as insightful, intelligent, kind, and hilarious as you.

Stephanie, you have made my debut and sophomore book experiences perfect. You take what we’ll generously call raw material, and make sense of it in a way that feels like magic to me. Thank you for your guidance with this story and for helping me to give Amy and Sophie the love they deserve.

Slackers, I continue to vow to do murders for you (for legal reasons, this sentence remains a joke). Thank you for letting me be a part of your lives and for sharing your beautiful words with me. Each of you makes me a better writer and person.

Rosie and Meryl, thank you for being the types of people that I can share my secrets with. Thank you for sharing yours with me. Your friendship is my proudest, most precious accomplishment.

Even though I’m certain you’ll never read these books, it’s important that this book have your name in it, Karou. No matter how old you are, no matter what you do, no matter who you become, you can turn to this page and know, I love you, unconditionally, forever and ever.

I always save the best for last: my husband. Thank you for letting me ignore you for the people in my head. Thank you for understanding me better than anyone else, for being the funniest person I know. Thank you for your unwavering confidence in me, your unconditional love. Thank you for letting me live this wonderful life with you. “Baby, you’re the end of June” (Styles, 2019).

Julien Doran arrived in sleepy Maudit Falls, North Carolina, with a heart full of hurt and a head full of questions. The key to his brother’s mysterious last days might be found in this tiny town, and now Julien’s amateur investigation is starting to unearth things the locals would rather keep buried.

Perhaps most especially Eli, the strange, magnetic manager of a deserted retreat that’s nearly as odd as its staff. When an old skeleton and a fresh corpse turn a grief errand into a murder investigation, the unlikely Eli is the only person Julien can turn to. Trust is hard to come by in a town known for its monsters, but so is time...

Keep reading for an excerpt from Pack of Lies by Charlie Adhara!

Chapter One

It was exactly the sort of place you’d expect to see a monster. A lonely mountain road, a forest so old it creaked. Hell, it was even a dark and stormy night. Or dark and snowy, anyway. But the way the wind was hurling restless flurries against the windshield as the trees swayed vengefully overhead was enough to put even the most assured traveler on edge.