House in the Pines

A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'AN ABSOLUTE, CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN THRILLER' Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club Jan '23 Pick)'EERIE AND ATMOSPHERIC'Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of The House Across the Lake'CREEPY' The Times'GRIPPING . . . CHILLED ME TO THE BONE' Andrea Bartz, author of We Were Never Here'SUPERB'M. W. Craven, Sunday Times bestselling authorThis is the story of a house.The cabin lies deep in the woods, where the trees are so dense it's easy to miss. On the outside it might look like it's crumbling, crawling with weeds, but on the inside it's warm and cosy. A fire crackles in the fireplace. Dinner simmers on the stove.Maya once saw this cabin as an idyllic place, like a cottage from a fairy tale, but now she knows the danger that lurks beneath. The summer she visited the cabin was the summer her best friend Aubrey died.Now, another woman from Maya's hometown has died in the same strange, unexplained way, and Maya believes only she can save the next innocent girl.Guided by her fractured memory and a mysterious, unfinished book by her late father, Maya returns home to face the house in the pines and the man who waits there - the man she's tried so hard to forget . . .

This is an absolute, can't-put-it-down thriller . . . It's truly a wild ride that had me flying through chapter after chapter - which I think is the perfect way to kick off your year of reading, A creepy work of unreliable memory and desire, Powerfully eerie and atmospheric, The House in the Pines is a compelling mix of psychological thriller and dark fairy tale. By focusing not on whodunnit but how and why, Ana Reyes' stellar debut explores the many ways our memories can fail us - and how they can set us free, Loved it! Read in a single-sitting, totally enthralled and desperate to learn the truth!, The House in the Pines has a great hook, a beautifully painted central protagonist and a genuinely creepy villain. I loved it. Superb.

Ana Reyes has an MFA from Louisiana State University. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir!, The New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and teaches creative writing to older adults at Santa Monica College. The House in the Pines is her first novel.