Elizabeth Gray is found hanging from a tree. Her town is shocked to learn that Elizabeth had no birth certificate, no social security number, no record of education. Her mother, an independently wealthy woman, refuses to cooperate with authorities.
But Elizabeth is not truly gone: she communicates in spirit with her three childhood playmates, driving them to investigate the true circumstances of her death.
And in doing so, Mack, Lillian, and Vanessa discover the world of The Brambles; Drugs, a motorcycle gang, a mansion owned by the elderly movie star, Mitch Cooper, John Leary, a defrocked priest and Mitch's "caretaker" and a corrupt medical doctor nicknamed "Honeybear". How are all of these things connected, and what is the secret to Elizabeth's true identity? Only three brave teenagers can find out.
"The Brambles is a more than a mystery, but an absorbing exploration of life, death, and how people navigate relationships around them. A book you don't want to put down, and when you do, your thoughts go back to it." -- Ross Rojek, San Francisco Book Review
"Mature teens to new adults who want a story that begins with a ghostly presence and evolves into a much broader plot will find The Brambles creates a brooding set of circumstances that embrace everything it touches, making for an engrossing story that's thought-provoking and hard to put down. "-- Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
The Independent Press Award first place in Crime Fiction and the Independent Book Award, first place in Paranormal Fiction.