Description

She was never meant to survive the fire.

The night Sylvia Drake’s house burned to the ground, she was supposed to die in it. Her parents did. And the only one left standing—her sister Dotia—wasn’t grieving. She was calculating.

Saved by a thread and a lie, Sylvia awakens to find herself not rescued, but blamed. The sheriff wants someone to answer for the blaze. The town wants a quiet scapegoat. And Dotia? She’s gone. Again.

Elijah, the boy who once shattered her trust, offers her one impossible escape: vanish with him into the mountains, forge a new identity, and disappear across the sea. But as the noose tightens behind them—figuratively and otherwise—Sylvia begins to understand just how deep her sister’s betrayal went, and how dangerous love can become when it’s the only way out.

Dark, raw, and quietly ferocious, Beneath the Wych Elm is a gothic-tinged historical novel about survival, reinvention, and the kind of girl no one saw coming.

Perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, Tana French, and Where the Crawdads Sing.