Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
A chilling debut gothic mystery in the vein of Jason Rekulak and Stacy Willingham about a house with dark secrets beneath its floorboards.
It seems like divine intervention when newly pregnant and freshly unemployed Elinor unexpectedly inherits Wildwood, her family’s estate. She convinces her husband to move to the sprawling wilderness of rural Vermont to make a home and raise their baby.
Estranged from her extended family since childhood, Wildwood is a mystery to Elinor-she’s an outsider to the townsfolk and to the prominent Brook family who control the town and its history. Knowing little of the house or its past, save for snapshots of childhood memories, she becomes entranced by an eerie nineteenth-century mural in the primary bedroom she calls “the Forest of the Dead.”
But instead of growing more settled in her new home, Elinor feels increasingly isolated and uneasy. She begins to have dreams that feel like memories, phantasmagorical visions of something terrible that happened long ago. Haunted by the mystery of why her family fell apart, she’s determined to uncover the secrets of her ancestry buried deep in the past and even deeper in the woods . . . secrets kept by powerful forces within the house and within the town.
Obsessed with finding the truth, Elinor knows she must answer when “the Forest of the Dead” calls her. Someone wants her to know they were there first, and someone else is trying to get in. As the nightmares creep into her waking hours, Elinor embarks on a journey that takes her back and forth in time, to the dark recesses of memories, to the streets of modern Salem, and to the haunted corners of this otherworldy house.
The Forest of the Dead is calling. Can you hear the whispers?
Having just been furloughed, an opportunity to claim an inheritance comes at a perfect time for Elinor.
That inheritance proves to be a significant change compared to the tiny Cambridge condo she shares with her husband. Author Ashley Woo crafts a mesmerizing gothic mystery in Wildwood , delivering all sorts of complications for the expectant couple.
Receiving an inheritance from an estranged extended family member sparks questions that lead Elinor to delve into the past. Soon, ghost stories, a mural, and the woods bleed together in horrific nightmares.
To solve the mystery, she must uncover what really caused the family to splinter. What she discovers will change her life forever.
Full of suspense, the story easily maintains the reader’s interest with each chapter. The visions of the past as seen in Elinor’s dreams are spine-tingling.
Wildwood provides a supernatural horror tale illustrating the connections between past and present.
Ashley Woo studied English Literature at Emory University and has masters degrees from Harvard University and Babson College. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she currently lives in Vermont with her husband and two young children. She writes gothic thrillers and her current work in progress is a murder mystery. Ashley’s debut Wildwood will publish with HarperCollins US in Fall 2026.
