An eerie Appalachian town. A fatal fire. Three women whose fates intertwine . . .

Essa Montgomery and her brother Clyde were brought up in New Hope, a serpent-handling church in Vintera, West Virginia, until the shocking deaths of both their parents closed the church down. Now twenty, reclusive Essa lives alone in her childhood home in the shadow of New Hope, which to her horror has been taken over by a new charismatic, unsettling pastor who continues the dangerous practice. So when the church burns down, she's glad—until she learns that two people died in the blaze, and her brother's the prime suspect . . .

Life has made Juliet Usher, who scratches a living as a psychic medium, both assertive and ruthless. With a baby on the way, it's the worst possible time for her partner Clyde to be arrested. She'll do anything to survive and keep him out of prison—no matter what it takes!

Merrit Callahan has always been ambitious. A striving news reporter, she's willing to go the extra mile and break the rules to get the big scoop. And in small-town Vintera, she thinks she might have found the story that will be the making of her career.