We are so excited to host Joanna for her chilling debut novel! She will be talking with Andi at the store.

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About the Book:

In the earliest days of the new millennium, Karlie Richards is found murdered in her apartment near the University of North Carolina. Two decades later, those who knew Karlie—and those who just knew of her—remain consumed by the mystery of the charismatic, beautiful college student’s death. Jumping between the present and the very last days of the ‘90s, Pearson weaves a prismatic literary mystery about a community haunted by the unknown.

Pearson’s work as a practicing psychiatrist lends stunning psychological insight to each character we meet. There’s Karlie’s freshman year roommate, Joy, now middle-aged and mid-divorce, living in the same college town and desperate for a new beginning. When she stumbles upon a twenty-year-old letter from Karlie, Joy becomes convinced the man in prison for her murder was wrongfully convicted. Soon she is deep into the dark world of internet conspiracy theorists captivated by the sensational aftermath of Karlie’s murder. There’s KC, the night manager at the building where Karlie was killed; Sheri, the mother of the intellectually disabled man convicted of the crime; and Jacob Hendrix, the charming professor with whom, as Joy knows all too well, Karlie was romantically entangled before her death.

About the Author:

Joanna Pearson is the author of two short story collections and a book of poetry. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and many other publications. She has won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and the Virginia Literary Awards. She lives in North Carolina, where she works as a psychiatrist.