Everly Palmer swore she'd never return to Splendid, Colorado—a town too perfect to be real and too haunted to forget. But when news of a childhood friend's sudden death reaches her, she's drawn back to this unusual place. Founded by her ancestor, Splendid is a town frozen in time, its beauty unmarred, its secrets buried deep. Everly has spent her life trying to decipher the cryptic nightmares that plague her, and now, back in the town she once fled, she begins to suspect they were never just dreams.
As the funeral passes and the shadows lengthen, Everly stumbles upon a forgotten grave and a chilling truth: Splendid's perfection is not a gift, but a curse. Old ties with her estranged friend Rose fray under the weight of buried memories and sinister revelations. The deeper Everly digs, the more she realizes Splendid was never meant to be escaped. In a town where nature doesn't obey natural law and happiness comes at a terrible cost, Everly must choose—unearth the truth and risk being swallowed whole or surrender to the darkness that's waited for her return.
In the Shadow of Roots and Wings is a suspenseful mystery that meets magical realism, reminiscent of The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, and is set in the fictional town of Splendid, Colorado.
Author A. D. Brazeau's latest mystery grips readers on the first page and never lets go.