“Adams’ debut novel presents a story of a young woman returning home, only to find home hides the most horrifying and deadly secrets.”
Home for Liz Rocher is Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and she’s returning … somewhat reluctantly. Her best friend is getting married, but home doesn’t really hold many pleasant memories for Liz. But she can handle it.
On the day of the wedding, the young couple’s daughter, Caroline, turned up missing … all that they find is a piece of fabric covered in blood.
Searching frantically, the police tearing through the woods looking for Caroline, Liz seems to remember a pattern, and is the only one who recognizes it: A summer night. Party in the woods. A missing girl. This has happened before, and not just once. Caroline’s disappearance isn’t a coincidence. Digging through the town history, Liz discovers a terrible secret about the place she used to call home.
Missing children, going back years. All of them Black. All of them girls. Now Liz must find Caroline, or be consumed by the evil darkness.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Already established as an award-winning playwright and actor, Erin E. Adams is going to be a name to keep your eye on. With multiple plays written, including Ink’dwell, and Snow Globe, as well as short plays created for Zoom, Adams also provides book reviews for Tor Nightfire. Adams’ debut novel presents a story of a young woman returning home, only to find home hides the most horrifying and deadly secrets. Alma Katsu (The Fervor) says: “Real horror surrounds us in plain sight, nestled in the hearts of fiends who hide behind the barest of masks. Erin E. Adams takes you on a breathless ride with Jackal, revealing the courage it takes to stand up to monsters.”, Stephanie Feldman (Saturnalia) says: “Jackal is both a gripping thriller about missing girls and the dangers lurking in the woods, and a searing and brilliant dissection of what it means to be the ‘only one’ in a small town and a Black woman in the United States of America. Liz Rocher will stay with me for a long time.” and Paul Tremblay (The Pallbearers Club) calls Jackal “A heady, page-turning, all-too-relevant reinvention of the return-to-home horror story—truly gut-wrenching and frightening.”
Releasing 4 October 2022 from Bantam, Jackal by Erin E. Adams is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
