MY REVIEW
It looks like The Witch’s Orchard by Archer Sullivan is a debut novel, and I must say, it was a great start to Archer Sullivan’s writing career. I was quickly drawn in by Annie Gore, a Former Air Force Special Investigator turned private investigator. Three little girls had gone missing ten years ago. One was returned, but the brother of one of the girls that was never found wants to hire her to discover what happened.
Annie knows about small mountain villages and knows her poking around will make a lot of people uncomfortable. That doesn’t stop her from seeking out the answers to her questions. I love watching an outsider come in and stir up a hornets nest in a place where everyone knows everyone else, but do they? Do we ever really know what someone is thinking or doing?
“Does chaos just happen to follow you around or do you invite it along for rides in that ugly clunker of yours?”
Through the horror and sorrow that Annie investigates, we have some light hearted moments. I love stories that take place in small towns and I love watching the secrets being exposed. The novel moves along at a steady clip. I would categorize The Witch’s Orchard more a mystery than a suspense or a thriller. It lacks those intense nail biting moments that move at a rapid pace, but do deliver on the steady work of Annie as she uncovers what others wish would remain buried.
I would like to thank Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Witch’s Orchard by Archer Sullivan.
GOODREADS BLURB
A ninth generation Appalachian herself, Archer Sullivan brings the mountains of North Carolina to life in The Witch’s Orchard, a wonderfully atmospheric novel that introduces private investigator Annie Gore.
Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.
Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their tiny mountain town. While one was returned, the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire an outsider, and he wants Annie. While she may not be from his town, she gets mountain towns. Mountain people. Driving back into the hills for a case this old—it might be a fool’s errand. But Annie needs to put money in the bank and she can’t turn down a case. Not even one that dredges up her own painful past.
In the shadow of the Blue Ridge, Annie begins to track the truth, navigating a decade’s worth of secrets, folklore of witches and crows, and a whole town that prefers to forget. But while the case may have been buried, echoes of the past linger. And Annie’s arrival stirs someone into action.
- Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, Witches
- 304 pages, Kindle Edition
- Expected publication August 12, 2025 by Minotaur Books
- Setting: Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina, United States
ABOUT ARCHER SULLIVAN (from Amazon)
ARCHER SULLIVAN is a ninth generation Appalachian. She’s moved thirty-seven times and has lived everywhere from Monticello, Kentucky to Manhattan, New York and from Black Mountain, North Carolina to Beverly Hills, California. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, Rock and a Hard Place, and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024.
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