Bones to the Cedars, a novel
Manuscript Status: On submission to literary agents
Lee Tanner thinks her brother’s planting log is a study on trees, while younger sister Kellen is sure it’s a catalogue of his victims. Only Ash knows the truth, but her secrets have followed her to the grave. Or have they…
Bones to the Cedars, set amidst the dark beauty of a Pacific Northwest forest and the wild world of rodeo, exposes the vulnerability of girls on the cusp of womanhood. Readers see in novelist Suzan Ahrens’ characters the underbelly of wealth and privilege. This haunting mystery rings true.
—Julie Muhlstein, columnist, the Everett Herald (retired)
IT IS 2003 WHEN ASHLEY ‘ASH’ CLARK comes to live with the Tanners on their ranch above Douglas Mill, a small logging community on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Closed-off and secretive, this 18-year-old is nevertheless befriended by the Tanners’ two independent daughters, Lee, also 18, and Kellen, age 14, who are dealing with their own dark secrets. Theirs is a bond that seems unbreakable, but at summer’s end, the patriarch of the family, Royce Tanner, is killed in the private airplane he is piloting. Found in the wreckage is the body of a missing girl. The very same day, Ash disappears.
Two decades later, Kellen remains on the ranch with her husband and kids, while Lee is in San Francisco chairing a non-profit for sexually abused children. Estranged since their father’s death, the sisters are thrown back together when a recently abducted girl is found dead on the ranch. The prime suspect: their reclusive brother, RJ.
Feeling the squeeze from a cop who has his own agenda, Lee and Kellen must confront their past—and the clues Ash has left behind—in order to expose a predator who’s been living all this time in plain sight.
Comparable titles:
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel (socio-economic disparity, sexual predation/grooming, and the disappearance of girls)
Long Time Gone by Hennah Martian (ranch/Western setting, dual timelines, and buried secrets)
Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan (atmospheric magical realism)
Dark Horses by Susan Mihalic (similar sexual themes, competitive riding as backdrop)
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (set in the Pacific Northwest, the past resurfacing)
The Secrets She Keeps by Deb Caletti (dual-timeline mystery, sisters, dude ranch setting)
True Colors by Kristin Hannah (set in the Pacific Northwest, ranching family saga)