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May 15, 2019
A waitress moves into the home where, as an 18-month-old baby, she witnessed the ax murder of her mother and three older brothers in this debut thriller. Dixie Wheeler is shopping for a house to buy with her boyfriend, Garrett, when she discovers her childhood home, scene of the notorious Wheeler Massacre in 1992, is on the market. Garrett refuses to live there, but Dixie, compelled to find out what really happened to her family, arranges a month-to-month rental and moves in with her family's furniture, which her Aunt Charlene had kept in storage. Dixie suffers from gruesome nightmares and has reason to believe the creepy house in Franconia, Virginia, is haunted. Mysteries pile up: Did Dixie's father, Billy Wheeler, actually kill his wife, Debbie, and their sons, Josh, Eddie, and Michael, and then slit his own throat? Did Dixie suffocate her cousin Leah? Did Dixie's childhood friend Rory Sellers push his girlfriend Erin Doyle down the stairs to her death? Is Dixie insane? Before long Dixie isn't sure whether she can trust her own instincts about who killed whom or why she's "linked to every bad thing that's happened." Multiple violent crimes make this novel somewhat disturbing, but the many twists, surprises, and reversals will keep readers hooked.

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May 27, 2019
Dixie Wheeler, the narrator of Vandelly’s chilling, enthralling debut, was the sole survivor of a massacre in which her father, Bill, took an ax and, just before breakfast one Thanksgiving, killed his wife and their three sons—ages 15, eight, and four—before slitting his own throat. Only 18-month-old Dixie was left unharmed in their Franconia, Va., home. The press nicknamed her “Baby Blue” because that Badfinger song was playing when the police arrived. When the Wheeler house comes on the market 25 years later, listed as a “stigmatized property,” Dixie impulsively buys it, despite vehement objections from her boyfriend and the aunt who raised her. Dixie furnishes it with the family’s furniture that was stored in the garage of her late uncle, who was adamant that Bill was innocent. The suspense rises as Dixie hears noises, finds items moved or missing, hallucinates about her dead family, and taps into her own dark side. Driven by a believable plot and populated with realistic characters, this delicious mix of horror, ghost story, and mystery marks Vandelly as a writer to watch. Agent: Zoe Sandler, ICM.

May 24, 2019

[DEBUT] Vandelly's gruesome thriller opens on Thanksgiving Day 1992, which Dixie Wheeler's father celebrated by slaughtering her entire family--her mother and three brothers with an axe, then himself--leaving 18-month-old "Baby Blue" to wail in her highchair while her namesake Badfinger song played. Twenty-five years later, Dixie learns that her childhood home is on the market. Against the judgment of everyone close to her, as well as the retired detective who investigated the murders, she moves in, using crime scene photographs and old furniture kept in storage to re-create the house as it looked on that violent day. Almost immediately, Dixie's attempts to figure out why her father killed her family, if he did at all, run up against the belief that the house is haunted. With her grasp on reality becoming more tenuous, the Wheeler family ghosts freely congregate around the house and more people in Dixie's orbit keep turning up dead. VERDICT There's a character in this engaging but somewhat repetitive debut who talks about a "blood bucket," the amount of violence one can take before it tips over. For fans of A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window with sufficiently large buckets, this twist-filled story will be mostly eagerly welcomed.--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2019
Twenty-five years after being the sole survivor of the Wheeler Massacre in the kitchen of her suburban Virginia home, Dixie Wheeler wants to buy the stigmatized house. On Thanksgiving Day in 1992, William Wheeler murdered his wife and three sons with an axe, then slit his own throat, leaving 18-month-old Dixie crying while a cassette tape labeled Dixie's nap music played a song called Baby Blue. Aunt Cel, who raised Dixie, considers the notion of Dixie buying the house to be seriously misguided, and Dixie's boyfriend, who knows her history, balks at moving there. Undeterred, Dixie moves in, retrieving household effects kept by her late Uncle Davis, William's younger brother, who always maintained William's innocence. When Dixie finds the police crime file in an old desk, she scouts out the now-retired detective who worked the case and asks that it be reopened. Dixie struggles with shocking news about the father she had lived to hate, as new bodies begin to pile up. Vandelly shows a deft touch at creating characters and spinning plots, leading to an almost unbearably terrifying and bloody climax in this gripping debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)