Fatal Secrets Book

After her sister drowns, Ryan McCauley is haunted by the dead girl's past

Two sisters walk through a snowy wood, collecting pinecones for Christmas decorations. Something has frightened Marisa, and she's about to explain it to Ryan, her younger sister, when she steps onto a patch of thin ice. Marisa plummets into the frigid water below, and though Ryan tries to save her, there's nothing she can do. Even though the accident wasn't her fault, Ryan is consumed by guilt. But guilt is not what she should be afraid of. Three weeks after Marisa's death, Ryan sees her everywhere. At night she feels something following her, but when she turns around there's nothing there. A creepy college friend of Marisa's shows up at Ryan's house, and her mother asks him to stay through Christmas. To free herself of guilt, Ryan must unlock Marisa's terrible secret—before death takes her too. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Richie Tankersley Cusick including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

For three decades, Richie Tankersley Cusick (b. 1952) has been one of the most prominent authors of horror fiction for young adults. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana—home to some of the country's most ancient ghosts—Cusick spent her early years in a small bayou town called Barataria. Inspired by the eerie Louisiana swampland, she began writing at a young age. After college, Cusick took a job at Hallmark and moved to a haunted house in Kansas City, where she began work on her first novel, Evil on the Bayou, whose success allowed her to leave her job and begin writing fulltime. Since then, Cusick has written more than two dozen novels. She and her three dogs live in Missouri, where Cusick writes on an antique roll-top desk that was once owned by a funeral director. The desk is, of course, haunted.

Stunned by the loss of her sister, Ryan determines to keep the secret they shared right before Marissa died. But Ryan soon finds herself caught in a web of growing terror as a series of "coincidences" make Ryan doubt her own sanity. Can she discover the truth before she shares her sister's fate? Original.