Hello e-galley readers! Check out some of the exciting e-galleys that were recently added to Edelweiss for your downloading pleasure:
June, 1994. The storied Mount Varda has been untouched by mountaineers for decades: the last expedition ended in tragedy. When Liam Holness and Petal Coulson-Carter, best friends and celebrated climbers, are invited to join a team organized by the famous Jim Callaghan to pioneer a new route, they are initially skeptical. Working-class Liam and butch lesbian Petal exist on the outside of mountaineering’s privilege, and they have no interest in Jim’s media circus.
But the call of the mountain is too strong, and soon Liam and Petal are in the French Alps preparing for ascent. Joining them on the expedition is Bill Franklin, Liam’s oldest rival, whose sweet nature begins to break down Liam’s defenses, while Petal’s heart is turned by a climber’s widow living in the town. As the expedition looms closer, the climbers begin to experience sleepless nights, bad dreams, and hallucinations. And as they make their way up the mountain, the world gives way to something stranger. With oxygen scarce and the altitude dizzying, how can Liam and Petal be sure of what is real? And will they ever know what happened to those they leave behind on the peak?
Braiding Liam and Petal’s perspectives with Jim’s tell-all memoir in the expedition’s aftermath, UP TO THE LIGHT is a heart-pounding adventure story and an aching dual love story, with a horror edge. Gorgeously written, chilling, and entrancing, this novel asks why we are drawn to danger, and how we can find one another again in the wake of unspeakable loss.
But the call of the mountain is too strong, and soon Liam and Petal are in the French Alps preparing for ascent. Joining them on the expedition is Bill Franklin, Liam’s oldest rival, whose sweet nature begins to break down Liam’s defenses, while Petal’s heart is turned by a climber’s widow living in the town. As the expedition looms closer, the climbers begin to experience sleepless nights, bad dreams, and hallucinations. And as they make their way up the mountain, the world gives way to something stranger. With oxygen scarce and the altitude dizzying, how can Liam and Petal be sure of what is real? And will they ever know what happened to those they leave behind on the peak?
Braiding Liam and Petal’s perspectives with Jim’s tell-all memoir in the expedition’s aftermath, UP TO THE LIGHT is a heart-pounding adventure story and an aching dual love story, with a horror edge. Gorgeously written, chilling, and entrancing, this novel asks why we are drawn to danger, and how we can find one another again in the wake of unspeakable loss.
GONE AT FIRST LIGHT by T. Jefferson Parker
When beloved Laguna Beach therapist Mary Purefoy is found bludgeoned to death in her oceanfront bungalow, Detective Walt Torrance is assigned the case he never wanted—and cannot walk away from. Mary wasn’t just a victim. She was his former sister-in-law, his brother’s first great love, and a woman woven into the fabric of his own past.
As Walt combs through a crime scene steeped in rage rather than robbery, the evidence points inward: to Mary’s patients, her private life, and the intimate betrayals that only those closest to her could know. With the clock ticking and the town watching, Walt must navigate a maze of grief, memory, and moral compromise—while confronting the unsettling possibility that the killer may be closer than anyone dares to believe.
Set against the sunlit beauty and dark undercurrents of coastal California, GONE AT FIRST LIGHT is a gripping, emotionally charged crime novel about love, loyalty, and the devastating cost of secrets kept too long.
As Walt combs through a crime scene steeped in rage rather than robbery, the evidence points inward: to Mary’s patients, her private life, and the intimate betrayals that only those closest to her could know. With the clock ticking and the town watching, Walt must navigate a maze of grief, memory, and moral compromise—while confronting the unsettling possibility that the killer may be closer than anyone dares to believe.
Set against the sunlit beauty and dark undercurrents of coastal California, GONE AT FIRST LIGHT is a gripping, emotionally charged crime novel about love, loyalty, and the devastating cost of secrets kept too long.
THE HOUSE AT HANGER HILL by Ashleigh Mounser
For as long as Betty can remember, Hanger Hill has been more than a house: it’s a place haunted by whispers. Some of the rumors are vague. Others are disturbingly specific. She remembers only some of it… the flick of a cat’s tale. The smell of rot. Screams coming from below the kitchen floor. Pages of old diaries curling amongst flames.
On Betty’s eighteenth birthday, she finds the courage to ask her strange, reclusive mother to tell the real story of her family: her mother had been a young woman, reeling from the suicide of her grandmother, when she inherited her family home in the town where her troubled sister drowned. Moving from the city with her long-term boyfriend, she began renovating the house in which she spent so much of her childhood. At first, she was convinced that the project would lift her out of her debilitating grief, but instead she found herself isolated, soon overcome by creeping solitude as her relationship broke down and tensions within the house rose.
As her mother spins her story, Betty evades questions from the police officer who is circling, convinced that the case of the deaths at Hanger Hill should be reopened. Then, she discovers her great-grandmother’s diaries, and the passages inside reveal a terrible truth at the heart of her family.
On Betty’s eighteenth birthday, she finds the courage to ask her strange, reclusive mother to tell the real story of her family: her mother had been a young woman, reeling from the suicide of her grandmother, when she inherited her family home in the town where her troubled sister drowned. Moving from the city with her long-term boyfriend, she began renovating the house in which she spent so much of her childhood. At first, she was convinced that the project would lift her out of her debilitating grief, but instead she found herself isolated, soon overcome by creeping solitude as her relationship broke down and tensions within the house rose.
As her mother spins her story, Betty evades questions from the police officer who is circling, convinced that the case of the deaths at Hanger Hill should be reopened. Then, she discovers her great-grandmother’s diaries, and the passages inside reveal a terrible truth at the heart of her family.
THE FALL OF ELVENESSE by Kai Ashante Wilson