WINNER of the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel!
Finalist for the 2015 Mary Higgins Clark Award!
Also winner of the Lovey Award for Best First Novel, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion for Best First Mystery/Thriller, and the Illinois Woman’s Press Association Mate E. Palmer Communications Award in Fiction! Nominated for the Macavity Award for Best First Novel, the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original, and the Left Coast Rosebud for Best First Novel!

Read the first chapter!

The Black Hour Reviews

“An exceptional debut…. An irresistible combination of menace, betrayal, and self-discovery.” —Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW

“An unputdownable read.” —Booklist STARRED REVIEW

“Captivates from page one…. This reviewer was bowled over by the novel’s alternating points of view, superb storytelling, and pitch-perfect take on academia.” —Library Journal STARRED REVIEW

About The Black Hour

For sociology professor Amelia Emmet, violence was a research topic—until a student she’d never met shot her. He also shot himself. Now he’s dead and she’s stuck with a cane and one question she can’t let go: Why her?

All she wants is for life to get back to normal. Better than normal, actually, since life was messy before she was shot. Then graduate student Nathaniel Barber offers to help her track down some answers. He’s got a crush and his own agenda—plans to make her his killer dissertation topic. Together and at cross-purposes, Amelia and Nathaniel stumble toward a truth that will explain the attack and take them both through the darkest hours of their lives.