ED A. MURRAY

In a Northern Town

From the author of Between Two Slopes and Somewhere More Than Free comes a collection of short stories that spans the stunning and vast landscape of northern Michigan.

In a Northern Town follows the characters who reside in this often-overlooked region as they navigate their way through journeys of grief to find their own means of escape. The stories begin and end with brutally honest personalities: an old fisherman living in isolation on the shores of Lake Huron, a teenage girl who must confront her mysterious father, young brothers who find themselves caught between two evils, and a reclusive author who grants a reporter the first interview since her lone bestseller more than two decades ago.

Share in the triumph, pain and loss of innocence that these characters experience in some of the most richly painted tales that could speak for any corner of rural America.

Somewhere More Than Free

Travel from the untouched forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to the mysterious mountains of eastern Tennessee in this stirring new novella collection.

TO THE LAND OF NOD follows Mason Clark, a twenty-six-year-old living in the northern Michigan woods. Mason carries with him a dark secret that he has never entrusted to another soul. Every day he takes one step closer to leaving this secret in the past, where it belongs, where it came from. But one day, Mason’s past shows up in Marquette. It’s the day he’s dreaded for six years. He must now face his sins head on.

In THE HILLS OF MERCY, fifteen-year-old Claire Simon’s story begins fishing on a riverbank with Davey, her longtime neighbor and best friend. That’s the moment to which her mind often returns, because innocence and ignorance are bliss. Something’s been missing from Claire’s life. It’s the key to everything she’s ever wanted. But as she digs deeper into this unknown, dragging her friends down with her, she soon realizes there are some questions better left unanswered.

Between Two Slopes

Deemed altogether a “complex” yet “relatable” debut novel, Between Two Slopes tells the story of one northern Michigan family’s struggle to reunite following a devastating tragedy.

It has been a year since 15-year-old Allison and 18-year-old Allen lost their mother and older brother. Along with their father, they must now finally face the cruel reality of life after loss. But with their father losing his job, Allen struggling to plant himself back into law-abiding society, and Allison secretly sneaking off with her late brother’s best friend, this may be more difficult than anyone could have imagined.

Weaving death and danger, desperation and desire, Murray travels the path of one family’s fight to find happiness when the valley of despair seems too steep to climb out.

Set in beautiful Cheboygan, Michigan, Between Two Slopes puts the responsibility on the survivors to keep the loss of loved ones from destroying an entire family.