Knife River: The captivating, slow-burn debut thriller everyone will be talking about

(Hardback)

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Description

First, there were my mother's bones . . .

A young woman returns home to the small, claustrophobic town of Knife River. When Jess was thirteen, her mother went for a walk and did not return - now, fifteen years later, bones have been discovered in the woods nearby.

Jess's sister has remained in their childhood home - her life, their home and the town itself seemingly frozen in time. As days turn into weeks, Jess's understanding of the past, her sister, and herself become more and more complicated - and the list of suspects responsible for her mother's terrible fate more and more ominous . . .

Reviews

Knife River is an intelligent literary mystery with a rich sense of place and a clever plot; but it is Champine's keenly-observed depiction of the aftermath of tragedy and the corrosive impact of loss that sets this novel apart -- Paula Hawkins

A twisting, engrossing and beautiful mystery. Thrilling, yet also deeply moving, layered and powerful.

* Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of We Begin at the End *
Knife River is a delicious smoke curl of a novel: atmospheric, sharp, and skilled at twisting the reader's guesses in unimaginable ways -- Jodi Picoult
Beautifully written, gripping and poignant, Knife River is a moving debut about love, women and buried secrets -- Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation
Knife River is a gorgeous, magnetic portrait of two sisters whose lives are shattered by the loss of their mother. Part mystery, part investigation into the nature of loss, this novel is both startlingly beautiful and unputdownable. Justine Champine has written a knockout debut -- Danielle Trussoni

Author Bio

Justine Champine's short fiction has appeared in Kenyon Review, Epoch, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a founding staff member of No Tokens Journal. She lives and writes in New York City, where she has served as an organiser on the NYC Dyke March Committee and at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in resource digitization. Knife River is her first novel.