First published 2021
Sarah Vernon has written novels for twenty years without success. Her books sell fewer than five thousand copies each. Her agent drops her after her latest failure. Then she meets Will Presser, a powerful literary agent known as The Viper. After a business dinner and a night Sarah cannot recall, Will offers to help her career. He sends her to Elder Island, a wealthy summer retreat that sits empty from September to May. Sarah writes alone in an isolated mansion. Her work flows like never before. She loses hours in creative trances, absorbed in her story world. But she wakes each morning with nightmares she cannot shake. Dirt covers her feet. Blood stains her fingernails. Will Presser makes every author he represents successful. Sarah believes he will do the same for her. Elder Island hides secrets beneath its beautiful surface. Sarah discovers that literary success demands a terrible price. She learns that every contract contains terms written in fine print.
Genres: suspense, contemporary, psychological-thriller, mystery-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Elder Island
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
26 pages · Kindle Edition · Washington Square Press
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness