Co-authored by Claire Matturro and Penny Koepsel

When late-night phone calls summon Jude Coleridge and Camille Prescott back to the Talbot Hall School for Girls, painful memories bombard them. Though estranged for years, both bear the physical and emotional scars from their youth.

At the boarding school, they were branded “the crazy girls, the ones who lie” and became unlikely best friends. They soon formed a trio with a new student, Wanda Ann, who pulled them into her bewildering relationship with the school psychologist, Dr. Hedstrom. But Wanda Ann’s wild stories masked a truth that threatened to engulf them all.

As teens, the girls could only rely on each other as they moved toward an unfathomable, fiery danger. Now, in the crumbling halls of Talbot, hours before the building’s demolition, they must grant forgiveness, to themselves and others, if they are to move forward.

PUBLISHER AND ACCOLADES

RED ADEPT PUBLISHING, AUGUST 2021

• International Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club Selection

“Sizzling with tension and intriguing characters… The careful unfolding of the truth as the story moves back and forth in time is a testament to the skill of these talented authors. … A compelling novel, one worthy of wide readership and a lasting place on bookshelves.”
-Southern Literary Review August Read of the Month

“With characters so vivid and multi-dimensional, you’ll find yourself rooting for them, however long the odds. A tightly woven and eminently engaging tale, Wayward Girls is a can’t miss book for any audience.”
-Dennis “Mitch” Maley, Bradenton (FL) Times

“…a highly readable book with a strong sense of purpose. … Matturro and Koepsel have plotted the tale well, with high stakes and believable motives.”
-Crime Fiction Lover

“Though the work is fiction, the truths about control, about vulnerability, about the power of authoritative adults in a setting of isolation ring with truth.”
-Tallahassee (FL) Democrat

“Wayward Girls is a story for the times we live in now. A compelling read with characters who stay with the reader long after the book is finished.”
-Carolyn Haines is the USA Today and multi-award-winning bestselling author of over 80 novels

“Wayward Girls is a portrait of brave sisterhood, infused with beauty and exquisite pain. Your heart will melt with every turn of the page.”
-Laura Benedict, Edgar-nominated author of the Bliss House novels and The Stranger Inside

“Wayward Girls delivers suspense, emotional depth, social commentary, and a gripping story. Grab a copy, a box of tissues, and the phone number of your oldest friend, because you’re going to want to talk about this one after you turn the last page. It’s a terrific book.”
-Mary Anna Evans, award-winning author of the Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries, and assistant professor of creative writing at University of Oklahoma

“Emotionally-charged and skillfully written, Wayward Girls is a poignant and heartrending story about trauma, its lifelong hold on one’s psyche, and the need for self-forgiveness.”
-Kelly Stone Gamble, USA Today Best-Selling author

“Wayward Girls isn’t a relaxing afternoon read nor a story to read only when time allows. It’s gut-wrenching and haunting with characters who grab and hold until their story is told.”
-Susan Yawn Tanner, author of four Trouble black-cat detective novels and the The Bellamys of Texas series

“Wayward Girls will leave readers asking: Who are the friends in your life who will help you hide the body?”
-Blogger and award-winning author Karen Spears Zacharias

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

Audio

• Red Adept Publishing

Ray Slaverson, a world-weary Florida police detective, has his hands full with the murders of two attorneys and a third suspicious death, all within twenty-four hours. Ray doesn’t believe in coincidences, but he can’t find a single link between the dead men, and he and his partner soon smash into an investigative stonewall.

Kate Garcia, Ray’s fiancée, knows more than she should. She helped one of the dead attorneys, just hours before he took a bullet to the head, study an old newspaper in the library where she works. Kate might be the only person still alive who knows what he was digging up—except for his killer.

When Kate starts trying to discover what’s behind the murders, she turns up disturbing links between the three dead men that track back to her family’s troubled past. But she has plenty of reasons to keep her mouth shut. Her discovery unleashes a cat-and-mouse game that threatens to sink her and those she loves in a high tide of danger.

PUBLISHER AND ACCOLADES

Red Adept Publishing, July 2020

“This no-holds-barred, tell-Florida-like-it-is tale is as rich as buttery lobster. Brilliantly drawn characters, totally believable dialogue, suspense until the very end: You’ll be glad you read The Smuggler’s Daughter, even if it gave you the shivers.”
-Southern Literary Review’s September Read of the Month

“Matturro’s lyrical depictions of the Gulf Coast landscape, the densely layered story, the narrative that is at once, scary, gripping, moving, and populated by unforgettable characters, combine to make Smuggler’s Daughter as good a novel as I’ve read in years.”
-James W. Hall, Edgar and Shamus winning author.

“The Smuggler’s Daughter is an intoxicating and pulsating thriller that I literally couldn’t put down. Claire Matturro has crafted a story that will keep you up into the wee hours of the night and leave you sad that it’s over when you reach the final page.”
-Robert Bailey, bestselling author of the McMurtrie & Drake Legal Thrillers series and Bocephus Haynes series

“Matturro shows off her literary chops in descriptions that are at once gritty and ruthlessly descriptive of Florida’s Gulf Coast at various times and places, while at the same time, she shows us the interior struggles and ambivalence of character after character. Readers will not want to put this book down.”
-Tallahassee Democrat

“THE SMUGGLER’S DAUGHTER pulls you in and under, revealing a time and place both familiar and remarkable. Once I started the book I couldn’t put it down.”
-USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Haines

“The Smuggler’s Daughter is a searing and salty novel that thrills and entertains while exploring the coldblooded and ruthless crimes so prevalent in Florida’s often sordid past. Crime fiction has long taken a hard look at society’s moral code and in her latest offering, Claire Matturro delivers a tale that remains true to the highest standards of the genre.”
-Gale Massey, award-winning author of The Girl From Blind River.

“A tale with as  many gnarled twists as a tide-swept Florida mangrove thicket. Claire Matturro spins  the gripping, character-rich story of Kate Garcia, from her  shell-road youth to a tangle of bodies and motivations, where just one of the  victims threatened might be the state’s fragile environment.”
-Russ Hall,  award-winning author of the Al Quinn Texas mystery series.

“The Smuggler’s Daughter clutches you like a  riptide and doesn’t let go until the last devastating family secret is revealed  and the last bullet is fired in a Florida waterfront setting so authentic you  can smell the salt and danger in the air.”
-Donna Meredith, Associate Editor of  Southern Literary Review and author of Buried Seeds.

“Matturro delivers one hell of a coldblooded tale played out in the Florida heat.”
-Andrew Nance, author of Red Canvas

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

Audio

• Red Adept Publishing