Girl Among Crows - by Brendon Vayo

About the Book

Short Summary: Convinced child abductions thirty years apart, including her brother's disappearance, are linked to a bloodthirsty cult hoping to appease a Norse god, one woman risks her marriage, family, and even her life.

Book Synopsis

A 2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal Winner

A 2024 IPPY Award Silver Medal Winner

"Intelligent, original, audacious--and scary." --A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"[An] entertaining thriller that will keep even seasoned horror fans guessing." --Publishers Weekly

Beware the Brotherhood of the Raven

When two boys vanish from her hometown, Daphne Gauge notices uncanny parallels to her brother's disappearance 30 years earlier. Symbols of an ancient Norse god. Rumors of a promise to reward the town's faithful with wealth and power, for a price. She warns her husband that another sacrifice is imminent, but just like last time, no one believes her.

This leaves her with a desperate choice: investigate with limited resources, or give in to the FBI's request for an interview. For years, they've wanted a member of the Gauge family to go on record about the tragedy back in 1988. If she agrees to a deposition now, Daphne must confess her family's dark secrets. But she also might have one last chance to unmask the killer from back then . . . and now.

For readers who enjoy Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, Joshilyn Jackson, Riley Sager, Jennifer McMahon, and Simone St. James.

Review Quotes

"Girl Among Crows drew me into a dark world of ritual sacrifice and tantalizing mystery so completely that I lost all track of time. This immersive thriller is haunting, enigmatic, and utterly gripping to the very end . . . one of those wonderful debuts that cannot easily be put down." --T.O. Paine, author of The Excursion

"Brendon Vayo has crafted a pagan potboiler that is equal parts mystical and mysterious, profane and profound, blissfully existing at the intersection of horror and whodunnits." --Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters

"Brendon Vayo's Girl Among Crows is an eerie page turner rich with Norse Mythology, cult rituals, and creepy twists to rival Stephen King, Shirley Jackson and Stephen Graham Jones." --MQ Webb, author of When You're Dying and How to Spot a Psychopath

"Brendon Vayo's heroine in Girl Among Crows is as relatable as she is enigmatic. A woman who seeks to right the wrongs of history while unraveling her own family secrets, Daphne Gauge soars triumphantly from these pages right into the reader's heart." --Rudy Ruiz, award-winning author of The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez and Valley of Shadows

"Fans of Gillian Flynn will love Girl Among Crows . . . Brendon Vayo's debut thriller is eerie, mysterious, and addicting." --Brooke L. French, author of Inhuman Acts and The Carolina Variant

"In this hard-boiled mystery, Daphne is unwilling to let another family fall prey to the Brotherhood of the Raven, but in her quest to uncover clues from her past and save a pair of kidnapped boys, she uncovers sinister secrets about her own family." --Lynessa Layne, author of the Don't Close Your Eyes series

"This fresh, artful thriller, as genuinely frightening a novel as you'll read all year, darts smoothly between the decades as not one but two mysteries unfurl like stairways into darkness. Intelligent, original, audacious--and scary." --A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

About the Author

Brendon Vayo was born in Okinawa, Japan, and now lives in Austin, TX. He has a wonderful wife and three children. The kids keep him awake at night, so he hopes his books do the same to you.