From a bright new talent comes a twisting psychological thriller with a shocking conclusion, perfect for fans of In A Dark Dark Wood and The Widow.

THE AMERICAN GIRL: A disturbing and twisty psychological thriller

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Horsley, Kate

Mystery

Killer Reads

From a bright new talent comes a riveting psychological thriller about an American exchange student in France involved in a suspicious accident, and the journalist determined to break the story and uncover the dark secrets a small town is hiding. On a quiet summer morning, seventeen-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. Barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her, Quinn's appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes--the French family with whom she's been staying--have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family's disappearance. Though she is cynical about the media circus that suddenly forms around the girl, Boston journalist Molly Swift cannot deny she is also drawn to the mystery and travels to St. Roch. She is prepared to do anything to learn the truth, including lying so she can get close to Quinn. But when a shocking discovery turns the town against Quinn and she is arrested for the murders of the Blavette family, she finds an unlikely ally in Molly. As a trial by media ensues, Molly must unravel the disturbing secrets of the town's past in an effort to clear Quinn's name, but even she is forced to admit that the American Girl makes a very compelling murder suspect. Is Quinn truly innocent and as much a victim as the Blavettes--or is she a cunning, diabolical killer intent on getting away with murder...? Told from the alternating perspectives of Molly, as she's drawn inexorably closer to the truth, and Quinn's blog entries tracing the events that led to her accident, The American Girl is a deliciously creepy, contemporary, twisting mystery leading to a shocking conclusion.

The American Girl: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

United States

William Morrow Paperbacks

"Sane and shrewd and funny...The story of a woman whose captivity is divided equally between her life with her own people and her life among the Indians." LILLIAN SCHISSEL Author of WOMEN'S DIARIES OF THE WESTWARD JOURNEY Sara Franklin is an outcast among her own white people. Her thirst for knowledge and spirituality is threatening to both her abusive father and her neurotic husband. When she is captured by the Apaches in New Mexico, they dub her "Crazy Woman," and treat her like a slave. Yet, as she begins to learn the ways of her captors, she earns their respect as a strong, clever, even magical, woman. And when her innate sensual hunger is tempted, challenged, and finally satisfied by an Apache warrior, Sara finally embraces her whole self at last, body and soul....

Crazy Woman

Ivy Books

Thomas Hall, a young nineteenth-century Bostonian, goes West to escape his rocky relationship with his mother. An idealistic newspaperman and dreamer, Hall is fascinated by Wild West shows and dime novels. He boards a train bound for Nevada but only goes as far as New Mexico. Hall's journey exposes him to love and death, greed and betrayal, and helps him learn that the truth isn't always what is printed in black and white.
 "Horsley's agility serves her well as a writer of historical fiction, since the topics she addresses are necessarily varied and complicated. She deals with them exceptionally well, seeking to understand and present her characters' struggles as completely as possible-to hear all their stories, to explore how historical and cultural realities influenced them, and to encourage the reader to understand how they influence people today."-Bloomsbury Review

Careless Love: Or the Land of Promise

Genre Fiction

University of New Mexico Press

Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, nineteenth-century edge of the future. Fear, greed, and real estate turn the windmill into a hanging tree. Each train into this booming railroad town unloads a cargo of carpetbaggers, entrepreneurs, seekers, Civil War veterans, and strong, lonely women--like Eliza Pelham. Good mother, drunk and unfaithful wife, Eliza stands at this juncture of raw change and random justice, caught in a reality of callousness and redemption. As Eliza searches for her stolen children, she discovers three allies: an Irish saloon girl, an Apache man who reads Melville, and La Llorona, the weeping mother, fierce in a black dress, thousands of years old.

A Killing in New Town

La Alameda Press

From a bright new talent comes a riveting psychological thriller about an American exchange student in France involved in a suspicious accident, and the journalist determined to break the story and uncover the dark secrets a small town is hiding.On a quiet summer morning, seventeen-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. Barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her, Quinn's appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes--the French family with whom she's been staying--have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family's disappearance.Though she is cynical about the media circus that suddenly forms around the girl, Boston journalist Molly Swift cannot deny she is also drawn to the mystery and travels to St. Roch. She is prepared to do anything to learn the truth, including lying so she can get close to Quinn. But when a shocking discovery turns the town against Quinn and she is arrested for the murders of the Blavette family, she finds an unlikely ally in Molly. As a trial by media ensues, Molly must unravel the disturbing secrets of the town's past in an effort to clear Quinn's name, but even she is forced to admit that the American Girl makes a very compelling murder suspect. Is Quinn truly innocent and as much a victim as the Blavettes--or is she a cunning, diabolical killer intent on getting away with murder?Told from the alternating perspectives of Molly, as she's drawn inexorably closer to the truth, and Quinn's blog entries tracing the events that led to her accident, The American Girl is a deliciously creepy, contemporary, twisting mystery leading to a shocking conclusion.

The American Girl Lib/E

Avon Original

From a bright new talent comes a riveting psychological thriller about an American exchange student in France involved in a suspicious accident, and the journalist determined to break the story and uncover the dark secrets a small town is hiding.   On a quiet summer morning, seventeen-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. Barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her, Quinn's appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes the French family with whom she's been staying have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family's disappearance.   Though she is cynical about the media circus that suddenly forms around the girl, Boston journalist Molly Swift cannot deny she is also drawn to the mystery and travels to St. Roch. She is prepared to do anything to learn the truth, including lying so she can get close to Quinn. But when a shocking discovery turns the town against Quinn and she is arrested for the murders of the Blavette family, she finds an unlikely ally in Molly.   As a trial by media ensues, Molly must unravel the disturbing secrets of the town's past in an effort to clear Quinn s name, but even she is forced to admit that the American Girl makes a very compelling murder suspect. Is Quinn truly innocent and as much a victim as the Blavettes or is she a cunning, diabolical killer intent on getting away with murder?   Told from the alternating perspectives of Molly, as she's drawn inexorably closer to the truth, and Quinn's blog entries tracing the events that led to her accident, The American Girl is a deliciously creepy, contemporary, twisting mystery leading to a shocking conclusion.

The American Girl

This moving and subtle tale both embodies and confirms the enduring power of language. Gwynneve (Gwi-NEEV) is raised in a village of fishermen and pigkeepers at the height of Ireland's transition from Paganism to Christianity. All around her the new doctrines of Patrick and the "tonsured men" are inexorably driving out the old Druid ways. When Gwynneve loses the two figures she loved the most—her mother succumbing to disease, her outspoken Druid teacher abducted by his enemies—she leaves her village and finally takes refuge in the convent of Saint Brigit. Of her past life and loves she retains only intangibles: her mother's love of nature and independent mind, her teacher's gift of literacy and addiction to truth. Clinging to the one constant and comforting force in her life—the power of words, and their offer of immortality to those who set them down—she records her memories surreptitiously, interrupting her assigned tasks of transcribing Patrick and Augustine. But disturbing events from the present keep intervening. Finally, her headstrong ways and growing criticism of the monastery's new abbot lead to the accusation that she consorts with demons. The story's tragic conclusion confirms both Gwynneve's fears and her powers: centuries after she and her tormentors sink back into the Irish earth, her words remain to haunt and inspire us.

Confessions of a Pagan Nun

Literary

Shambhala

A druid-turned-nun writes of faith, love, loss, and religion in this “beautifully written and thought-provoking book” set at the dawn of Ireland’s Christian era (Library Journal) Cloistered in a stone cell at the monastery of Saint Brigit, a sixth-century Irish nun secretly records the memories of her Pagan youth, interrupting her assigned task of transcribing Augustine and Patrick. She revisits her past, piece by piece—her fiercely independent mother, whose skill with healing plants and inner strength she inherited; her druid teacher, the brusque and magnetic Giannon, who introduced her to the mysteries of the written language. But disturbing events at the cloister keep intervening. As the monastery is rent by vague and fantastic accusations, Gwynneve's words become the one force that can save her from annihilation.

Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel

Here, the author of the acclaimed Confessions of a Pagan Nun takes us to fourteenth-century Ireland for a strange and luminous tale of the elusive nature of identity and of triumph in adversity. The Changeling of Finnistuath is the story of Grey, a peasant girl who is raised as a boy, and who, until adolescence, never doubts herself to be male. The revelation of her womanhood marks the beginning of her journey—including son, whore, warrior, and mother—each of which brings its own special wisdom, but none of which, she discovers, can ultimately define her. In the course of her adventurous life, Grey deals with all the challenges of her tumultuous age—from political oppression to corrupt Church hierarchy to the horrors of the Black Death—ultimately finding peace and a kind of redemption by embracing the beautifully impermanent quality of identity that her unusual life has enabled her to understand.

The Changeling of Finnistuath: A Novel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Horsley, Kate. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Horsley, Kate