Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Thriller / suspense fiction

THE GHOST WOMEN

Jennifer Murphy

A Novel

A mysterious art academy in the woods, a deck of ancient tarot cards, a centuries-old secret.

On a hot August morning in 1972, the body of Abel Montague, a student at St. Luke's Institute of the Arts, is found hanging from a tree in the forest. An ancient Hanged Man tarot card is found in the back pocket of his pants and his body has been positioned into the exact pose illustrated on the card.

When Detective Lola Germany arrives at St. Luke's - a former monastery that once housed a secret order of monks who carried out witch trials and executions - she believes they are dealing with a ritualistic murder. While interviewing school administrators and Abel's classmates, Lola discovers Abel's live-in girlfriend, Pearl, seems shaken but also might be hiding something - along with her group of friends who call themselves witches.

When more students are found dead, each body arranged like a tarot card, Lola realizes she is trapped in a web of power and ambition that spans centuries. Soon the lines between past and present, spiritual and tangible, begin to blur, and the only way to survive is to seek answers from places she never imagined.

Jennifer Murphy holds an MFA in painting from the University of Denver and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. She is the recipient of the 2013 Loren D. Milliman Scholarship for creative writing and was a contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference from 2008 through 2012. In 2015, her acclaimed debut novel, I Love You More (Doubleday, 2014), won the prestigious Nancy Pearl Fiction Award. Her love of art led her to start Citi Arts, a public art and urban planning company that has created public art master plans for airports, transit facilities, streetscapes, and cities nationwide. She hails from a small beachfront town in Michigan and has lived in Denver, Charlotte, Seattle, and Charleston. She currently lives in Houston, Texas.

Available products
Book Published 2026-02-24 by Dutton Books

Comments

Murphy's (Scarlet in Blue) new novel is a dark-academia tale of murder and revenge that delves into the depths of strength and determination that women can reach when they are pushed to the brink by men. On the autumnal equinox in 1972, Abel Montague, a student at the exclusive, secretive St. Luke's Institute of the Arts, is found dead, hanging from a tree, his body position matching the pose of the Hanged Man tarot card in his pocket. So begins a series of ritualistic murders at St. Luke'sa former monastery that once held witch trials and executionswith each death designed to match tarot cards left at the scene. When detective Lola Germany investigates, she discovers that the administration and students are keeping secrets, including Pearl, Abel's girlfriend, who calls herself and her group of friends "witches." As truth and lies emerge from the past and the present, Lola realizes that she must uncover how it all began to solve the case. VERDICT This fast-paced novel set in the South Carolina Lowcountry combines magic, mysticism, and mystery into an engrossing and entertaining story that is difficult to put down. Recommended for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Alex Michaelides.

A South Carolina island with a history of witch burnings is rocked by the death of a 19-year-old in this strong 1970s-set mystery from Murphy (Scarlet in Blue). Lola Germany thought she'd left Waverly Island for good when she was admitted to Juilliard. Instead, she returned home after dancing for the New York City Ballet and wound up as the island's chief detective. Her latest case involves 19-year-old Abel Montague, who was discovered hanging from the so-called "ghost tree" in Dead Witch Forest in a position that mirrors the Hanged Man tarot card found in his pocket. Legend has it that, after Waverly's witches were burned alive from the 15th to the 17th centuries, their spirits flew to the ghost tree "to rid themselves of the cruelty of their deaths." Lola thinks it's no coincidence that Abel, a student at the island's shadowy St. Luke's Institute of the Arts, a former monastery where the witch burnings were planned, was killed at the ghost tree. Under intense pressure from Abel's father, the chairman of the school, Lola hunts for the killer among the many people - both instructors and students - who hated Abel's arrogance and antisocial behaviors. Murphy crafts a foreboding atmosphere from the jump and makes the occult elements at the center of the story feel entirely plausible. This is a winner.