What Lies in the Woods

August 1, 2022

In this adult turn from successful children's/YA author Marshall, Naomi Shaw is attacked while playing in the woods with best friends Cassidy and Olivia. She survives 17 knife wounds and joins with her buddies in identifying the assailant, helping to put away a serial killer. But there's more to the event than they revealed, which a grown-up Naomi is determined to disclose. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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October 24, 2022
YA author Marshall (These Fleeting Shadows) makes her adult debut with a powerful psychological thriller. Twenty-two years after Seattle photographer Naomi Shaw survived a stabbing attack when she was 11 while playing in the forest in Chester, Wash., with her two best friends, Naomi expects to feel some closure when the suspected serial killer the girls’ testimony put behind bars dies in prison. But the opposite occurs when the news unnerves the most fragile of the trio, artistic, unstable Liv Barnes, threatening to unearth long buried—and potentially explosive—secrets. Sucked back to Chester, Naomi tries to support Liv, reconnect with their third friend, golden girl Cass Green, and finally press for the truth she’s never been able to remember, despite her statements on the stand, about what really happened that fateful day. Then a suspicious death near the site of the stabbing ups the ante, and the intricate plot starts careening down precipitous, blind curves. Marshall overloads the twists that lead to the devastating denouement, but readers will root for the determined Naomi every step of the way. This emotionally involving tale of friendship, betrayal, and redemption leaves an indelible impression. Agent: Lauren Spieller, TriadaUS.

Starred review from December 1, 2022
In her debut adult thriller, YA and middle-grade author Marshall explores the complicated dynamics of childhood friendships and the powerful effect that memory has in shaping narratives. Naomi Shaw is a survivor. At 11 years old, she was stabbed 17 times in the woods while playing with her friends Cassidy and Olivia. Naomi's subsequent testimony put serial killer Alan Stahl in jail for 22 years, until his recent death from cancer. Although deemed a hero, Naomi has always questioned her own memories of that fateful summer. Consumed with guilt that she may have put the wrong person in jail, she returns home to look for answers and is interviewed by podcaster Ethan Schreiber. Together, they explore what really happened all those years ago. However, someone is trying to prevent them from finding out the truth and will do anything to make sure the secret remains hidden. In a town where telling the truth is dangerous and everyone has something to hide, Naomi must separate the real world from the fantastical in order to determine who is really the hero and who is lying. In a novel filled with emotional depth and convincing red herrings, Marshall delivers a propulsive mystery about trust, secrets, and friendships.

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Starred review from November 15, 2022
An edgy adult thriller from a YA and middle-grade author shines an incisive light on the secrets of a small-town community. At age 11, Naomi Shaw was left for dead in the woods outside her tiny Pacific Northwest hometown of Chester, stabbed 17 times by her would-be killer. With her friends Olivia and Cassidy--who were also in the woods at the time--she provided the damning evidence that put a dangerous serial killer behind bars. Now, 22 years later, that man has died in prison, resurrecting unwanted memories for the three women. Liv, in particular, is completely overwrought, insisting she has more that she wants to share. At the same time, Ethan Schreiber, an eager and persistent true-crime podcaster, is asking lots of questions, and when Naomi engages with him on several ill-advised levels, the scene is set for an explosive outcome, as decades of secrets begin to emerge. Marshall does a terrific job of maintaining a palpable current of tension throughout the book, and her depictions of the intricately tangled relationships inherent in small-town life are excellent. Elevating this novel beyond the plethora of other thrillers is terrific writing, such as in Marshall's powerful description of a grieving mother sitting in her child's room after it's been searched by the police, "running her fingertips over the empty space where [the girl's] things had been, as if beginning to map the shape of her absence." Great writing and boldly drawn characters bring a terrifying tale to all-too-vivid life.

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