The Singing Bone: A Novel

A convicted killer’s imminent parole forces a woman to confront the nightmarish past she’s spent twenty years escaping. I found you. That’s what Mr. Wyck told her: I found you. 1979: Seventeen-year-old Alice Pearson can’t wait to graduate from high school so she can escape the small town in upstate New York where she grew up. In the meantime, she and her friends avoid their dysfunctional families while getting high in the woods. There they meet the enigmatic Jack Wyck, who lives in the rambling old farmhouse across the reservoir. Enticed by his quasi-mystical philosophy and the promise of a constant party, Alice and her friends join Mr. Wyck’s small group of devoted followers. But their heady, freewheeling idyll takes an increasingly sinister turn, as Alice finds herself crossing moral and emotional boundaries that erode her hold on reality. When Mr. Wyck’s grand scheme goes wrong, culminating in a night of horrific violence, Alice is barely able to find her way back to sanity. Twenty years later, Alice Wood has created a quiet life for herself as a professor of folklore, but an acclaimed filmmaker threatens to expose her past with a documentary about Jack Wyck’s crimes and the cult-like following he continues to attract from his prison cell. Wyck has never forgiven Alice for testifying against him, and as he plots to overturn his conviction and regain his freedom, she is forced to confront the truth about what happened to her in the farmhouse—and her complicity in the evil around her. The Singing Bone is a spellbinding examination of guilt, innocence, and the fallibility of memory, a richly imagined novel that heralds the arrival of a remarkable new voice in literary suspense.

About the Author :
Beth Hahn studied art and writing at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and earned an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. She attended the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference and has been the recipient of a Ragdale Foundation residency. Beth’s short stories have appeared in Necessary Fiction, The Hawai'i Review, The South Carolina Review, and The Emrys Journal. She lives in New Castle, New York, with her husband, where she teaches yoga.

Review :
"Tantalizing . . . carefully crafted." — Publishers Weekly "A writer to watch for fans of sophisticated psychological suspense . . . Hahn maintains a fine balance between mystery and disclosure. The atmosphere throughout is tense and subtly creepy, and the folkloric elements are an interesting, original touch." — Kirkus Reviews "The Singing Bone reads like the work of a seasoned novelist: rich, haunting, layered, beautifully written. It raises questions about the good and evil in all of us, the characters are complex, and the story's a page-turner—what more could a reader ask for?" — B. A. Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of The Art Forger "I stayed up all night reading The Singing Bone, and I kept on reading it on the airport bus. When I finished it, I was halfway across the ocean, and I wanted to stand up in the aisle and yell, this is a terrific book by a writer with talent to burn and the only thing wrong with it was that it wasn’t twice as long. Fans of the elegant, masterful, and downright chilling, watch this space for Beth Hahn." — Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Two if By Sea "The debut spine-chiller from Beth Hahn, is a concoction of sophistication and surprise . . . riveting in detail and nuance." — Bookpage