Author Event: Emily Carpenter’s GOTHICTOWN
Join us for an evening with author Emily Carpenter as she discusses her new book, Gothictown. The evening will include a discussion, a moderated Q&A, and book signings.
Registration for the event is required and free. A purchase of the book is required for signing.
About Gothictown
In a post-pandemic response to Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, bestselling author Emily Carpenter bewitches with immersive southern suspense about sacrifice, privilege, guilt, and the vengeful ghosts of a haunted past.
When Manhattan restaurateur Billie Hope gets an email soliciting new residents to boost the economy of the little town of Juliana, Georgia, it seems like a dream come true. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home and leave behind her cramped apartment and the painful memories of her failed restaurant, starting a fresh new life with her husband Peter and her daughter Mere. Plus, she’ll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. They move quickly and find that Juliana is everything they were promised—a world away from city living, a “gentle jewel” with weather as warm and inviting as its inhabitants.
But after settling in the bucolic village, Billie realizes something is off. Its citizens, especially the three founding families known as “the Old Guard,” are so fanatically committed to the town’s well-being that it seems they’ll sweep unpaid taxes, disappearances and even deaths under the rug. And they’re physically affected, with Peter experiencing insomnia and fits of temper as Billie and Mere both suffer from vivid nightmares. Suspicious and paranoid, Billie then makes a horrifying discovery that will send her on a race to uncover the truth about Juliana’s secret past—and what the Old Guard will do to keep their secrets buried, and Billie part of their Gentle Juliana forever.
Emily Carpenter is a bestselling author of suspense novels including Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies and Gothictown. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she graduated from Auburn University and worked in New York City as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes assistant for the CBS shows As the World Turns and Guiding Light before returning to her southern roots. She now lives with her family outside Atlanta, Georgia.