Jenny Milchman

When a young girl seeks out sanctuary with a total stranger, a nightmare follows in this riveting novel of suspense by Jenny Milchman, the USA Today bestselling author of The Usual Silence.Author Kara Parsons is at a book signing in the town where she was raised. Before it’s over, a young girl approaches with a copy of Kara’s book containing a handwritten inscription: I am a missing child.Most people would alert the police, but Kara knows what happens to the young and vulnerable when the system fails them. She turns to her former therapist, Arles Shepherd, who’s recovering from injuries and staying off the grid. But even Arles, who’s seen everything, finds something off about this girl who refuses to reveal her own name. What is she running from? And how much of what she says can be believed?When a man with a gun manages to locate Arles’s remote wilderness home, the true threat is revealed, and Arles and Kara go on the run. But fleeing only gets them so far. To save this child, Arles must allow her to be found. And that’s when the real danger begins.

A psychologist haunted by childhood trauma must unearth all that is buried in her past in this twisting, lyrical novel of suspense by Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Jenny Milchman.Psychologist Arles Shepherd treats troubled children, struggling with each case to recover from her own traumatic past, much of which she’s lost to the shadows of memory. Having just set up a new kind of treatment center in the remote Adirondack wilderness, Arles longs to heal one patient in particular: a ten-year-old boy who has never spoken a word—or so his mother, Louise, believes.Hundreds of miles away, Cass Monroe is living a parent’s worst nightmare. His twelve-year-old daughter has vanished on her way home from school. With no clues, no witnesses, and no trail, the police are at a dead end. Fighting a heart that was already ailing, and struggling to keep both his marriage and himself alive, Cass turns to a pair of true-crime podcasters for help.Arles, Louise, and Cass will soon find their lives entangled in ways none of them could have anticipated. And when the collision occurs, a quarter-century-old secret will be forced out of hiding. Because nothing screams louder than silence.

"Proving Stephen King isn't the only author who can make a scenic small town in Maine feel menacing, Jenny Milchman's The Second Mother is a haunting thriller."--POPSUGAR Opportunity: Teacher needed in one-room schoolhouse on remote island in Maine. Find the freedom in a fresh start.Julie Weathers isn't sure if she's running away or starting over, but moving to a remote island off the coast of Maine feels right for someone with reasons to flee her old life. The sun-washed, sea-stormed speck of land seems welcoming, the lobster plentiful, and the community close and tightly knit. She finds friends in her nearest neighbor and Callum, a man who appears to be using the island for the same thing as she: escape.But as Julie takes on the challenge of teaching the island's children, she comes to suspect that she may have traded one place shrouded in trouble for another, and she begins to wonder if the greatest danger on Mercy Island is its lost location far out to sea, or the people who live there.

Featured in HelloSunshine.com's Father's Day Book Gift Guide"Wicked River is partly a who-is-my-husband-really story, partly a horror-in-the-wilderness story, and partly a Manhattan-family drama, all rolled up in elegantly propulsive prose, and shot through with sinister suspense."?LEE CHILD, New York Times bestselling authorNewlyweds Nat and Doug expected a romantic adventure when they decided on a canoe trip for their honeymoon, but they're not alone in the woods.Six million acres of Adirondack forest separate Natalie and Doug Larson from civilization. For the newlyweds, an isolated canoeing honeymoon seems ideal--a chance to start their lives together with an adventure. But just as Natalie and Doug begin to explore the dark interiors of their own hearts, and the deceit that has led to their love, it becomes clear that they are not alone in the woods.Six million acres makes it easy for the wicked to hide. And even easier for someone to go missing for good.As they struggle with the worst the wilderness has to offer, a man watches them, wielding the forest like a weapon to get exactly what he wants. And once they are near his domain, he will do everything in his power to make sure that they never escape the of terror in the woods.Wicked River is a slow-burn psychological thriller--a book full of sinister secrets, deceit, and terror--a chilling addition to the genre.

Jenny Milchman's "Cover of Snow" is a remarkable debut, a gripping tale of suspense in the tradition of Gillian Flynn, Chris Bohjalian, and Nancy Pickard. Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan, has committed suicide. The first few hours following Nora's devastating discovery pass for her in a blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in: Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them. Unraveling her late husband's final days, Nora searches for an explanation--but finds a bewildering resistance from Brendan's best friend and partner, his fellow police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence unknown . . . and its darkest secrets hidden. Praise for "Cover of Snow" "Well-defined characters take us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the darkest night, with blinding twists and occasionally fatal turns. This is a richly woven story that not only looks at the devastating effects of suicide but also examines life in a small town and explores the complexity of marriage. Fans of Nancy Pickard, Margaret Maron, and C. J. Box will be delighted to find this new author."--"Booklist" (starred review) "Milchman reveals an intimate knowledge of the psychology of grief, along with a painterly gift for converting frozen feelings into scenes of a forbidding winter landscape."--"The New York Times" "Milchman makes readers] feel the chill right down to their bones and casts a particularly effective mood in this stylish thriller."--"Kirkus Reviews" "Milchman tackles small-town angst where evil can simmer under the surface with a breathless energy and a feel for realistic characters."--"The Seattle Times" "The plot unfolds at an excellent clip . . . ultimately rushing headlong to a series of startling revelations."--San Francisco Journal of Books "Milchman expertly conveys Nora's grief in a way that will warm hearts even in the dead of a Wedeskyull winter."--"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) "From the Hardcover edition."