'How far would you go to get out?'
This is the question three unlikely friends living in a dead-end town in America ask each other. The answer would come to haunt them.The narrator, a writer, now in his late 30s, lives alone in New York, eking out a living as a college lecturer. His life is turned upside down when Samantha Pierce, a woman he hasn’t seen in twenty years, re-enters his life and tells him she is being blackmailed because of something they did twenty years before in the Black Wood.
A cat and mouse game ensues as they try to find out the identity of the blackmailer, and the narrator recalls the events of the summer they graduated High School that led to the fateful night in the Black Wood, and how he – an average student nobody paid any attention to – wound up at the centre of an unlikely and dangerous relationship between Samantha – the High School prom queen – and Charlie Rhodes – the High School dropout; first as an observer and then, as something more sinister, changing their lives forever.
The Black Wood presents several flawed characters who reel you in as you too, the reader, becomes obsessed to know their darkest secrets. Can the past, especially one shrouded in deadly deeds ever go away? And when the bonds formed in adolescence, with that intricate mix of danger, passion, and fragility, cross the line, at first, the darkness may seem innocent, until bit by bit, one wrong decision after another, an overzealous teenager become capable of things that he can never escape from....
'Black Wood – the deeper you go, the darker your intent..'
You can order the book HERE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Derek’s previous books BROKEN FALLS and THE DEAD GIRLS have been a big hit with readers – THE DEAD GIRLS featured on a number of book blogger’s “Best of 2018” lists and came in at number 11 in the Rick O’ Shea Book Club poll of the “Best Irish Books of 2018”.
The BLACK WOOD launch kicks off at 6.30PM at THE GUTTER BOOKSHOP and all are welcome.
