Spotlight Post: The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano (Excerpt)

Hey everyone! Today, I have an awesome excerpt to share with you from Elle Cosimano’s The Suffering Tree (June 13, 2017 – Disney-Hyperion). I’m really excited to share this excerpt with you because this book looks AMAZING! First, here’s more about the book:

“It’s dark magic brings him back.”

Tori Burns and her family left D.C. for claustrophobic Chaptico, Maryland, after suddenly inheriting a house under mysterious circumstances. That inheritance puts her at odds with the entire town, especially Jesse Slaughter and his family—it’s their generations-old land the Burns have “stolen.” But none of that seems to matter after Tori witnesses a young man claw his way out of a grave under the gnarled oak in her new backyard.

Nathaniel Bishop may not understand what brought him back, but it’s clear to Tori that he hates the Slaughters for what they did to him centuries ago. Wary yet drawn to him by a shared sense of loss, she gives him shelter. But in the wake of his arrival comes a string of troubling events—including the disappearance of Jesse Slaughter’s cousin—that seem to point back to Nathaniel.

As Tori digs for the truth—and slowly begins to fall for Nathaniel—she uncovers something much darker in the tangled branches of the Slaughter family tree. In order to break the centuries-old curse that binds Nathaniel there and discover the true nature of her inheritance, Tori must unravel the Slaughter family’s oldest and most guarded secrets. But the Slaughters want to keep them buried… at any cost.

From award-winning author Elle Cosimano comes a haunting, atmospheric thriller perfect to hand to readers of the Mara Dyer trilogy and Bone Gap.

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And now for the excerpt! Enjoy!

“I always knew he’d come back.” The woman’s brittle voice carried through the air.

Tori turned, shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun, uncertain who the woman was speaking to. Matilda Rice stood bowed in the shade of her porch, her cataract eyes watching Tori. She must have seen Tori reading the flyer.

“Did they find him?” Tori called to her.

“That boy, he wasn’t supposed to die like that.”

A cold weight settled in Tori’s chest. “What?”

The old woman’s gap-toothed grin melted into a thin line. She looked hard at Tori. “Emmeline always said that boy would come back. He’s got business here. Old business. You mind yourself ’round that Bishop boy. It’s dark magic brings him back.”

The hair on the back of Tori’s neck prickled as the woman’s bent frame disappeared into the house.

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About the Author:
 
Elle Cosimano grew up in the Washington, DC suburbs, the daughter of a maximum security prison warden and an elementary school teacher who rode a Harley. She spent summers working on a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay, baiting hooks, scrubbing decks, and lugging buckets of chum. A failed student of the hard sciences, she discovered her true calling in social and behavioral studies while majoring in psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Fifteen years later, Elle set aside a successful real-estate career to pursue writing. She lives with her husband and two sons in Northern Virginia and Mexico.

Elle’s debut, Nearly Gone, was a 2015 Edgar Award finalist and winner of the International Thriller Award. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Horror Writers Association, and Sisters In Crime. She was selected for the 2012 Nevada SCBWI Agented & Published Authors’ Mentorship Program, where she worked under the guidance of Ellen Hopkins. She attended the Writers’ Police Academy at Guilford Technical Community College, Department of Public Safety, to conduct hands-on research for her books.

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