A Southern gothic mystery
Silence Among the Driftwood
The sea takes what it can from this coast. But every now and then, it gives something back.
The finding
This time it gave only a pale shape among the driftwood, hair braided through the roots of a dead oak like seaweed. Then the tide pulled back, and the shape had a face.
It was Jannie Hope.
One June morning the tide gives back the body of Jannie Hope on Driftwood Beach. She was eighteen and bound for college, and someone had strangled her. Jekyll Island keeps quiet about it.
When the water returns, it brings in something cold and broken, and one boy’s name is the first on the list. Fin Thigpen has come home to Brunswick, across the river, and what he turns up there is a truth the town forgot a long time ago.
- Murder mystery
- Southern gothic
- Magical realism
- For readers who loved Where the Crawdads Sing
Readers
What readers say
Silence Among the Driftwood grabbed me and didn’t let go until the ride was finished.
I didn’t see the twist coming, and I ALWAYS see the twist coming.
The setting
Few people know Georgia has a coastline at all.
Along its coast stretch a total of fifteen barrier islands, pearls strung across the edge of the Atlantic, and no two of them alike.
Coastline: USGS National Hydrography Dataset
5 of 6 · north to south
Jekyll Island
Keeps an older kind of time, its forests dark and tangled, passed over by the money that found the other island.
Every line here comes from chapter one.
Start reading
Chapter One
The whole first chapter, free. About ten minutes to read.
Coastal Georgia is a place where the earth and water wage an old, quiet war, the marshes encroaching ever closer to the live oaks that stand guard at the edge of their world. Few people know Georgia has a coastline at all, and because of that it has kept a wild kind of beauty, the sort that only shows itself to those who wade in deep enough to find it.
The egrets, white cousins of the heron, stand statue-still in the brown shallows, their feathers aflame in the tangerine glow of dusk as they hunt between the sawgrass, which looks soft when the breeze pushes through it, though every blade is edged with fine teeth that’ll draw blood if you rub it the wrong way. Kingfishers hover like hummingbirds, orange and blue, then fold their wings and drop, disappearing beneath the surface only to rise again, shimmering, with their catch.
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For book clubs
Is your book club reading Silence Among the Driftwood? Get in touch.
Press kit & book factsQuestions for discussion
- The chapter opens on the Georgia coast before it opens on any person. What does the place know that the characters don’t?
- The old man says a life without time can be a gift or a curse. Which would it be for you?
- Brunswick is described as a forgotten place. How does the town’s forgetting shape what Fin finds there?
- The sea “gives something back.” What else in the book is returned, and at what cost?
- Why do you think the author paired a murder mystery with a thread of magic?
Before you read
What readers ask
What kind of book is it?
A Southern gothic murder mystery with a thread of magical realism, and a coming-of-age story.
Where is it set?
Jekyll Island, Brunswick and St. Simons Island on the Georgia coast.
Is it like Where the Crawdads Sing?
A coastal setting, a girl found dead and a town’s secrets, with a thread of Southern gothic magic.
What formats is it in?
Paperback, hardcover and Kindle. Kindle+ members read it free.
How long is it?
422 pages in print.
Does buying it help anyone?
$1.00 of every sale goes to sea turtle rescue.
Is there another book coming?
Yes, another Southern gothic mystery is in the works. Join the email list to hear when.
Can I get a signed copy?
Signed-copy drops go to the email list.
How do I reach the author for press or a book club?
Email nick@writtenbyknight.com.
A second book is on the way.
Another Southern gothic mystery is in the works. Join the email list to hear when. Signed-copy drops go to the list too.
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