Wendy N. Wagner

Girl in the Creek is a pulse-pounding story about the horrors growing all around us, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher. Buried secrets only spread. Erin's brother has been missing for five years. It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mount Hood, where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn't the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved. When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces--from this world and beyond--hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

Buried secrets only spread. Erin's brother Bryan has been missing for five years. It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn’t the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved. When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces - from this world and beyond - hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner is a sawmill gothic that begins with June Vogel's return to Storm Break, her family's estate. Things in the great house aren't what they used to be. Doors slam in the night. Faucets turn on, untouched. Something is always watching, whatever June does. And when her brother returns with his new bride, deceit and betrayal threaten to destroy everything she loves. Praise: "Blends the vivid DNA of Rebecca and Jane Eyre with a glorious, muscular queer magnificence that is all Wendy's own. Sexy, scary, compelling, incredible." -Sam J. Miller, Nebula Award-winning author of Blackfish City "A deeply compelling tale of family, secrets, betrayal and love at all costs. The Secret Skin caught me in its gothic spell, and kept me turning pages into the witching hours." -Nebula Award-winning author Kelly Robson "A beautifully written piece of gothic horror, suffused with all the peculiarities of the 1920s in coastal Oregon. Pitch perfect language combines with the brilliant decision to make our narrator both the governess and the inheritor of the manor, a masterful twist on genre tropes." -Caitlin Starling, author of The Death of Jane Lawrence "The Secret Skin is kind of what might happen if you crossed 'The Fall of the House of Usher' with Rebecca, supplemented the result with a child with supernatural powers, and transported it all to the Pacific Northwest. A lively, wild novella, with a nice dark edge to it." -Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses and The Warren "Wagner's eerie, gorgeously rendered tale goes all in on gothic decadence...The evocative prose and insightful heroine make this a treasure." -Publishers Weekly "Perfect for reading on a rainy night, Rebecca meets The Turn of the Screw in this jewel-box of a novella by Wendy Wagner." -Molly Tanzer, author of Creatures of Will and Temper