First published 2026
Yana travels from village to village across nineteenth-century Bulgaria, staging elaborate hoaxes. She plants bloody animal corpses in town squares and fills chicken coops with blood-soaked eggs while people sleep. When villagers discover these grisly scenes, Yana spins tales of vampires stalking their streets. Then she performs her theatrical "slaying" and collects payment for ridding the town of monsters. In Koprivici, a village cursed with dying crops and infant mortality, Yana encounters Anka. The headstrong orphan faces blame for the village's misfortunes and an unwanted marriage to the local Captain. Anka sees no escape from her fate until Yana arrives with her bag of tricks. The two women devise a scheme to create their most terrifying monster yet. They hope this fabricated threat will provide chaos enough for Anka to flee. But their carefully planned deception spirals beyond their control, taking on a life neither woman anticipated. Their fake monster becomes all too real.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, mystery, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, found-family
Setting: Bulgaria, Koprivici
Period: 19th-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books
Content warnings: violence