Paulette Kennedy is the bestselling author of The Artist of Blackberry Grange (2025), The Devil and Mrs. Davenport (2024), The Witch of Tin Mountain (2023), and Parting the Veil (2021), which received the HNS Review Editor’s Choice Award. Her work has been featured in People magazine, The Mary Sue, Paste Magazine, and BookBub. Originally from the Missouri Ozarks, she now lives with her family and a menagerie of rescue pets in sunny Southern California, where sometimes, on the very best days, the mountains are wreathed in gothic fog. For more information, visit www.paulettekennedy.com.

“Kennedy is a mesmerizing force in this gothic tale of murder, sex, and self-discovery. The dark, marshy world of 1850s Charleston bursts to life as our heroine fights to survive and clear her name of the mysterious murders plaguing the city. But when she meets a charismatic stranger with secrets of their own, she’s faced with astonishing revelations, making her question everything.” —Heather Levy, Anthony-nominated author of Hurt for Me“A heart-pounding ride from start to finish, The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael balances equal parts gothic, horror, and thriller to bring you an incredible fresh take on the classic vampire tale that will leave you spellbound and reeling. Kennedy continues to produce literary masterpieces, making this book a must-read in 2026.” —Maria Tureaud, author of This House Will Feed“Set in a richly detailed, pre–Civil War Charleston, this deliciously gothic tale twists through cobbled streets, shadowy crypts, and teeming marshes, seducing the reader with deaths that are not deaths, discoveries of literal and figurative disguises, and deftly written reversals. Kennedy is a maestro of subversive psychological suspense.” —Emily Carpenter, author of Gothictown“A bloodthirsty low country gothic, steeped in salt and sorrow, where the boundaries between the living and the dead grow thin. In Paulette Kennedy’s The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael, Charleston’s nights breathe with hidden menace, death proves an unreliable narrator, and the pluff mud always remembers. At its heart this is a tale of class, race, sexuality, and love, in which the strict costumes of gender loosen, and freedom is found only by confronting the ugliest of truths.” —Andrew K. Clark, author of Where Dark Things Grow and Where Dark Things Rise“A lush, blood-soaked southern gothic elegy for survivors. Kennedy crafts a striking tale of subsistence on the fringes, where monstrous femininity and dark desire entwine beneath the moonlit shadows of the Charleston salt marshes. Perfect for fans of Alexis Henderson with a haunting examination of what it means to live—and die—on your own terms.” —Lindsay Barrett, author of The Dravenhearst Brides“Eerie, laced with tension and a heady sort of atmosphere I was both loath to leave and itching to be released from.” —Jessika Grewe Glover, author of Bromeliad House“Luscious intellectual escapism.” —Raven Belasco, author of Blood Ex Libris

Paulette Kennedy is the bestselling author of The Artist of Blackberry Grange (2025), The Devil and Mrs. Davenport (2024), The Witch of Tin Mountain (2023), and Parting the Veil (2021), which received the HNS Review Editor’s Choice Award. Her work has been featured in People magazine, The Mary Sue, Paste Magazine, and BookBub. Originally from the Missouri Ozarks, she now lives with her family and a menagerie of rescue pets in sunny Southern California, where sometimes, on the very best days, the mountains are wreathed in gothic fog. For more information, visit www.paulettekennedy.com.

“Kennedy is a mesmerizing force in this gothic tale of murder, sex, and self-discovery. The dark, marshy world of 1850s Charleston bursts to life as our heroine fights to survive and clear her name of the mysterious murders plaguing the city. But when she meets a charismatic stranger with secrets of their own, she’s faced with astonishing revelations, making her question everything.” —Heather Levy, Anthony-nominated author of Hurt for Me“A heart-pounding ride from start to finish, The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael balances equal parts gothic, horror, and thriller to bring you an incredible fresh take on the classic vampire tale that will leave you spellbound and reeling. Kennedy continues to produce literary masterpieces, making this book a must-read in 2026.” —Maria Tureaud, author of This House Will Feed“Set in a richly detailed, pre–Civil War Charleston, this deliciously gothic tale twists through cobbled streets, shadowy crypts, and teeming marshes, seducing the reader with deaths that are not deaths, discoveries of literal and figurative disguises, and deftly written reversals. Kennedy is a maestro of subversive psychological suspense.” —Emily Carpenter, author of Gothictown“A bloodthirsty low country gothic, steeped in salt and sorrow, where the boundaries between the living and the dead grow thin. In Paulette Kennedy’s The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael, Charleston’s nights breathe with hidden menace, death proves an unreliable narrator, and the pluff mud always remembers. At its heart this is a tale of class, race, sexuality, and love, in which the strict costumes of gender loosen, and freedom is found only by confronting the ugliest of truths.” —Andrew K. Clark, author of Where Dark Things Grow and Where Dark Things Rise“A lush, blood-soaked southern gothic elegy for survivors. Kennedy crafts a striking tale of subsistence on the fringes, where monstrous femininity and dark desire entwine beneath the moonlit shadows of the Charleston salt marshes. Perfect for fans of Alexis Henderson with a haunting examination of what it means to live—and die—on your own terms.” —Lindsay Barrett, author of The Dravenhearst Brides“Eerie, laced with tension and a heady sort of atmosphere I was both loath to leave and itching to be released from.” —Jessika Grewe Glover, author of Bromeliad House“Luscious intellectual escapism.” —Raven Belasco, author of Blood Ex Libris