The Retreat
A “gorgeously written and atmospheric thriller” following one woman’s long-awaited visit to a mountain arts retreat—where she soon finds herself in a race to survive (Robyn Harding).
She came looking for inspiration.
Instead, disaster strikes. Maeve Martin arrives at the High Water Center for the Arts, a gorgeous lodge nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains, determined to do one thing: begin her own dance company. A retired performer and mother of two, time is running out for her to find her feet again after the collapse of her disastrous—and violent—marriage. And at first, there’s a thrill to being on her own for the first time in years. Isolated in the snowy beauty of the retreat, Maeve can forget the ghost of her past for an hour, for a day.
But when an avalanche strikes, Maeve finds herself trapped with six other guests. They’ve lost all power, phone service, heat, and the road back to town. At first, there’s a sense of camaraderie—the fire is warm, the freezer well-stocked. But as the days pass and the storm rages on outside, tensions start to run high. Help is coming, so they just have to hold on, right?
Then the first guest meets an unspeakable death.
Followed by another.
Soon Maeve must admit how little she knows about these strangers . . . and how useless a locked door is if the darkness is already inside.
Hysteria
One of The Globe and Mail’s “Favourite Books of the Year”
The closer she gets to the truth, the faster it slips away.
In the spring of 1945, fifteen year-old Heike circles in the mountains high above Switzerland. Pushed out the door by a worried mother, Heike and her little sister, Lena, have escaped Dresden only days ahead of the firebombs that will destroy that city, to cross a war-torn Germany on their own. But now, Lena is lost and Heike is alone, stalked by a feral dog.
Eleven years later, Heike’s life looks very different: married to a prominent American psychiatrist, she’s living in idyllic upstate New York, where she’s free to wander the woods and care for her beloved four-year old son, Daniel. But despite the shiny veneer of this new life, Heike cannot shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong. On the sunniest day of the year, she’s relaxing by a pond with Daniel when a strange little girl appears out of nowhere—then eerily disappears below the surface of the water. From that moment on, nothing is ever the same again. Is the girl a ghost, or an omen of bad things to come? The closer Heike gets to the truth, the faster it slips away.
The Devil You Know
“A brilliant debut novel.” – The Globe and Mail
In the vein of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, The Devil You Know is a thrilling debut novel about a rookie reporter whose memories of the murder of her childhood best friend bring danger—and a stalker—right to her doorstep
The year is 1993. Rookie reporter Evie Jones is working the crime beat in a city terrified by a serial rapist and a growing number of missing and murdered young girls. As she covers this story, Evie is haunted by the unsolved murder eleven years earlier of her own best friend, Lianne Gagnon. The suspected killer, a repeat offender named Robert Cameron, was never apprehended, turning Lianne’s case cold.
Now twenty-one and living alone for the first time, Evie becomes driven to find out what really happened to Lianne. But every clue she uncovers seems to lead to an unimaginable conclusion. As she gets closer and closer to the truth, Evie is convinced that the killer is still at large—and that he’s coming back for her . . .
Critically acclaimed author Elisabeth de Mariaffi delivers a spine-tingling story about secrets long buried and an obsession that cannot be controlled.
How To Get Along With Women
Longlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize
A sharply original debut collection, How To Get Along With Women showcases Elisabeth de Mariaffi’s keen eye and inventive voice. Infused with a close and present danger, these stories tighten the knot around power, identity, and sexuality, and draw the reader into the pivotal moments where—for better or for worse—we see ourselves for what we truly are.
“How to Get Along With Women is at once stunning and daring, a kaleidoscope of stories weaving the emotions and experiences of mostly female protagonists as they explore their relationships with themselves, their environments and others.” – Canada Arts Connect
“Elisabeth de Mariaffi is urgently trapping the ten percent of emotions that hardly get mentioned by anyone else. She’s alive to what disturbs, and she’s dead to cliché.” – Michael Winter, author of The Death of Donna Whalen
Elisabeth de Mariaffi 