With the United States the “closest been to war” in a lifetime, intelligence operative Jack Ryan Jr.

In a desperate attempt to rescue her child, she uses every bit of remaining strength and wit to escape Lilydale.īased on a true story, this is a sinister, suspenseful thriller full of creeping horror. She awakens bloody and in pain and without her baby. Realizing that the only way she may ever learn the truth about the town’s strange past and disturbing present is by pretending to be docile, she’s still outsmarted by the cultish group, which forces her to give birth at home. Her paranoia about the way she’s treated and the things she’s learning makes even Ursula, her college roommate and best friend, think she needs help. As she investigates, she feels constantly watched and reported on by the Mill Street gang and quickly learns she can trust no one. Desperate for a job, she gets one on the small local paper, which sends her out to do the usual puff pieces, and finds herself intrigued by a story about a little boy who vanished from school in 1944 and was never found-and the man who's just shown up in town claiming to be that boy. Accustomed to big-city living, Joan immediately feels smothered and uneasy with the attention she gets from the townspeople, who seem unusually delighted with a pregnancy she hadn’t wanted to reveal yet. Deck’s parents and their friends on Mill Street welcome the couple with joy, installing them in Deck’s childhood home. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.Lourey returns to the Minnesota town of Lilydale, whose perfect exterior hides a seething mass of horror.Īfter she’s mugged, pregnant reporter Joan Harken agrees to move from Minneapolis to her fiance Deck Schmidt’s hometown both for her own safety and to save Deck from the military draft that’s claimed so many other men in 1968. Her fianc tells her she's being paranoid. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall.

Joan can't shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. Lilydale's motto, 'Come Home Forever,' couldn't be more inviting.Īnd yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she's eager to settle down. In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fianc back to his Minnesota hometown. An ITW Thriller Award and Anthony Award winner.

Jess lourey bloodline