Join us when debut author Archer Sullivan presents her Appalachian mystery The Witch's Orchard, in conversation with local writer Meagan Lucas.

The event is free, but registration is required.

The Witch's Orchard
Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore joined the military right after high school to escape the fraught homelife of her childhood. Now, she’s getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.

Ten years ago, three little girls went missing from their tiny mountain town. While one was returned, the others were never seen again. After all this time without answers, the brother of one of the girls wants to hire an outsider, and he wants Annie. While she may not be from his town, she gets mountain towns. Mountain people. Driving back into the hills for a case this old―it might be a fool’s errand. But Annie needs to put money in the bank and she can’t turn down a case. Not even one that dredges up her own painful past.

Archer Sullivan is a ninth generation Appalachian. She’s moved thirty-seven times and has lived everywhere from Monticello, Kentucky to Manhattan, New York and from Black Mountain, North Carolina to Beverly Hills, California. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Rock and a Hard Place Magazine.

Meagan Lucas is the author of the Anthony nominated collection Here in the Dark (Shotgun Honey, 2023) and the award-winning novel, Songbirds and Stray Dogs (Main Street Rag Press, 2019). Meagan teaches in the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC-A, is the editor-in-chief of Reckon Review, and studies law at the University of Dayton. Born and raised on a small island in Northern Ontario, she now lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina with her husband and children.

Archer Sullivan presents The Witch's Orchard in conversation with Meagan Lucas