What would you do if the past showed up on your doorstep? A woman who grew up in a cult must decide if she can trust the stranger claiming to have answers to the dark mysteries of her childhood in this "irresistible"* thriller.
*Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines
Twenty years ago, the members of a reclusive commune outside Philadelphia vanished without a trace. The mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. No sightings of the members were ever verified, and no bodies ever found. But the group did leave one thing behind: a twelve-year-old girl wandering alone on the side of the road in search of her lost family.
In the years since that morning, Lee Burton has tried to put the pain of her past behind her. She has built a new identity for herself, with a doting husband and seven-month-old daughter, Lucy. No one in her life now knows about her connection to “the cult that went missing,” not even her husband. But new motherhood is proving a bigger challenge than she anticipated. She doesn't want to let Lucy out of her sight even for a moment. She can't return to work. She's not sleeping, and she's starting to have paranoid thoughts of Lucy being harmed.
Then a stranger shows up on her doorstep, offering to finally answer all of Lee’s questions about her past—if she could only trust that the woman is who she says she is. As she digs deeper into the woman's history, the safe, stable life that Lee has constructed for herself threatens to shatter. In The Ascent, Allison Buccola has crafted a nerve-rattling thriller about motherhood, identity, and the truths we think we know about our families.
praise for the ascent
“I read this enthralling psychological thriller in one fell swoop. Every time I thought I would put it down, it sucked me back in and I lost an entire night of sleep. The Ascent is an intense examination of motherhood, trauma, marriage and our fascination with cults . . . I loved it.”—Jo Piazza, bestselling author of You Were Always Mine
“I’ve always been a hard-core fan of Allison Buccola, and The Ascent takes me over the top with one of the most cleverly executed and original thriller plots I’ve read in a long time. Buccola’s delicate writing is masterfully sneaky—her soulful young protagonist is holding your hand in the dark, then snatches it away as you race to the twisty conclusion. I loved it. The Ascent should be at the top of your list.”—Julia Heaberlin, internationally bestselling author of Night Will Find You
“A knife-sharp look into the psyche of a cult survivor who hasn’t come to terms with the events of her past, Allison Buccola’s sophomore novel is a triumph of a book. Poignant and twisty, layered and tense, I was fascinated by the inner workings of Jacob’s Hill and obsessed with knowing how all the loose threads inevitably tied together in the end.”—Stacy Willingham, New York Times bestselling author of Only If You’re Lucky
“The mystery at the heart of this novel is irresistible: how could fifteen people, all part of a doomsday cult, simply vanish one morning without a trace? The Ascent follows the only member left behind as she struggles to protect herself and her child from the trauma of her past and the dangers of her present. I tore through this book and was genuinely shocked by its ending!”—Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines
“Allison Buccola’s gripping and fascinating look at life after a cult is packed with reasons to fly through the pages. With a protagonist haunted by her strange, secluded childhood, the appearance of a mysterious woman who might hold sinister secrets, and the tantalizing question of what happened to an entire community that vanished, The Ascent is an irresistible thriller.”—Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot
In this "thoroughly propulsive" (Kimberly McCreight) debut thriller, a young woman questions everything she thought she knew about the shocking murder that changed her life when she was in high school.
Ten years ago, my boyfriend killed my best friend.
When Micah Wilkes was a senior in high school, her boyfriend was convicted of murdering her best friend, Emily, a star ballerina with a bright future. A decade later, Micah has finally moved on from the unforgivable betrayal and loss. Now the owner of a bustling coffee shop in her small hometown in Pennsylvania, she’s happily coupled up with another old high school friend, the two having bonded over their shared sorrow.
But when reminders of her past begin appearing at her work and home, Micah begins to doubt what she knows about Emily’s death. Questions raised on a true crime blog and in an online web sleuthing forum force her to reexamine her memories of that fateful night. She told the truth to the investigators on the case, but was there another explanation for Emily’s murder? A stranger in the woods. An obsessive former classmate. A domineering ballet instructor. Or the internet’s favorite suspect: Joshua, Emily’s outcast younger brother who hasn’t been seen since his sister’s death.
As Micah delves deeper into the case, she feels her grip on reality loosening, her behavior growing more and more secretive and unhinged. As she races to piece together the truth about that night ten years ago, Micah grapples with how things could have gone so wrong and wonders whether she, too, might be next to disappear.
praise for catch her when she falls
"Buccola’s deeply developed characters and simmering suspense propel this story of one woman’s quest to discover the truth about the mysterious death of her best friend. A riveting game of cat and mouse with a startling conclusion.”—Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish.
“Gripping and mesmerizing, reading Catch Her When She Falls is like watching a building catch fire, aware that dark ends are coming but unable to look away. Ten years after a shocking murder, amateur sleuths question whether the man in prison is responsible, causing his former girlfriend to reopen a case she never wanted to confront again. As new clues pile up, her paranoia and fear ratchet higher until almost everyone is a suspect. A portrait of a woman unraveling, this is the definition of ‘shirk all responsibilities and stay up until 2 a.m.’ reading. A superb story.”—Ashley Winstead, author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife.
"Richly atmospheric and thoroughly propulsive, Catch Her When She Falls is a thought-provoking mystery about the fraught interconnectedness of youth and the tragic limitations of teenage insight."—Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia and A Good Marriage.
“A tense and twisting debut thriller. After receiving ominous warnings that the wrong person might be in prison for her best friend’s murder, Micah is in a desperate race for answers, but can she uncover the truth before her own life unravels? Catch Her When She Falls probes the dark shadows of guilt, suspicion, and obsession that surround a case where nothing is as it seems.”—Laura McHugh, author of What’s Done in Darkness.
“Catch Her When She Falls is wildly suspenseful and almost gothic in tone, making it the perfect book for a reader looking for thrills without any gritty or gory aspects.”—BookPage