Strange Harm

From the author of Motherthing, an eerie, darkly funny novel about a sudden disappearance in a mysterious town, and a family’s search for answers

In the town of Gold River, there is a rumor that a spirit haunts the land. Centuries ago, Druda, the beloved daughter of the settlement’s founder, made a horrifying discovery about herself that resulted in her death. Some say Druda still lives on.

Another tragedy has befallen a young woman in Gold River. One night fifteen years ago, a girl named Janie disappeared. The town speculated: did an unsettling out-of-towner kidnap her? Could she still be alive somewhere? Meanwhile, her grieving parents become the object of everyone’s unceasing attention. For her mother, Annette, the disappearance shaped her guilt and worry into an exquisite public face of strength and peace—no matter the storms that roiled inside her. For the father, Calvin, the disappearance broke something in him. He had no such composure, crying uncomfortably on television and prompting some to wonder: could his raw emotions in fact be a performance? Is he yet another violent man who got away with murder? Others still, including Calvin, have more supernatural suspicions. What if Druda, the town’s spirit, was actually behind this?

Now, fifteen years on, someone comes to help solve the case, a woman with a very unusual background, who knows a thing or two about public grief herself. Her strange past triggers something for Calvin and his tendency toward superstition, which might be exactly the thing they need to help them find their lost daughter. That is, if it doesn’t tear their family apart first.

Chilling, comic, ultimately heartfelt, Strange Harm is a story about how someone’s pain is another person’s entertainment, how we make sense of tragedy, and how the power of narrative shapes us all.