This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I’m excited to share that it was as excellent as I’d expected. If you’re looking for a work of Gothic historical fiction, Lee’s latest will be everything you could hope for and more.

It’s 1918 on Orcas Island, Washington, and Lucy’s spent her life working at the estate of an eccentric shipbuilder. She washed ashore in a canoe as a child, and the shipbuilder took her in. Lucy’s wanted answers that the island can’t give her, but she didn’t want to find those answers by stumbling across her employer’s severed head. Lucy now not only has to ward off the local rumors of a mischievous spirit being the murderer, but she also has been unexpectedly named heir of the estate–putting her future in peril and casting suspicions she may be the killer. —Kelly Jensen