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Surrender the Dead

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"John Burley is a fearless talent." — Glen Erik Hamilton, award-winning author of the Van Shaw series

From the award-winning author of The Absence of Mercy comes a chilling psychological thriller about a family and community divided by tragedy, and the dark secrets that will set their town aflame.

When Erin Reece left Wolf Point fifteen years ago after graduating high school, she'd planned to never set foot in her childhood hometown again. But an urgent phone call from her father's doctor leaves Erin with no choice but to return to a place filled with painful memories and wounds that never closed. Two decades ago, people in Wolf Point started disappearing without a trace—including Erin's mother—and no explanation was ever found.

It's been years since the last disappearance, but the town is still steeped in suspicion and haunted by the ghosts of the missing. No one is thrilled to see Erin back, including her former best friend, Robbie, who has changed from a spirited, fearless boy to a reclusive shut-in.

Then a body is discovered, buried in a makeshift grave for years . . . on the Reece family's land. The police reopen their investigation, and the evidence against Erin's father is damning. After such a long time without answers, the community wants justice. It's up to Erin to clear her father's name, but the path to the truth will force her to unearth long-buried secrets and confront a terrible evil. Because in Wolf Point, everyone knows more than they are letting on . . .

"John Burley has an eye for detail, a feel for story, and a deep sympathy for his characters." — Lou Berney, award-winning author of November Road

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 19, 2020
      When veterinarian Erin Reece finds out her estranged father is critically ill, in this uneven psychological thriller from Burley (The Quiet Child), she reluctantly leaves her practice in Colorado and drives to her hometown in northeastern Montana to visit him. The return unearths dark memories of a childhood during which 16 people vanished over a three-year span, including her own mother. When Erin learns that skeletal remains have been uncovered on her father’s farm, she’s faced with the possibility that her father is a serial killer—and that some troublesome secrets from her past may not be as buried as deeply as she thought. Distinctive characters and assured prose (“The aqueduct stretched below her, its long concrete spine like the remains of a dead animal lying in the dust”) help compensate for the nonlinear plot’s clarity and flow issues and a predictable conclusion. Burley has enough talent that readers will want to see more of his work. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

    • Booklist

      January 1, 2021
      Burley's fourth novel is set in Wolf Point, Montana, a reservation-edge town haunted by a string of disappearances years ago. After Erin Reece graduated from veterinary school, she tried to put her mother's disappearance behind her, an event that initially found Erin, still a child, searching daily for her mom on the same desolate road where she vanished. When Erin is forced to return to Wolf Point because her father is seriously ill, she learns shocking new details about her parents' lives, tearing apart what she thought she knew about the man and reminding readers of the extremes that families will go to for love. Burley's understated storytelling helps highlight the sometimes-stunning psychological twists facing his characters; their italicized thoughts punctuate the tale. The ruminations are affecting, neatly revealing secrets and, most poignantly, victims' fears as they are approached and hurt by a predator. Burley's debut, The Absence of Mercy (2013), won the National Black Ribbon Award, given to an author who "brings a fresh, new voice to suspense writing." His subsequent work does not disappoint. Try this with fans of somber, psychologically driven fiction.

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  • English

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