The People in the Rickety House (novel preview)

(Now published as an ebook and in print! available at major retailers) By age 17, Leah has lost everything. Her mother left three years ago and has not been heard from since. She is at risk of losing her relationship with her younger sister Tabitha, who suffers from injuries that Leah blames herself for. Not only has she lost her family, but her home. After their father’s unexplained suicide, the girls are sent to live with their reclusive aunt, Claire, who seems to live as far from civilization as a person can get. While dealing with the idea of her father’s death and her mother’s absence, tolerating her handicapped sister as well as her despondent aunt, Leah finds out that there may be more to the old house than she suspected. She begins to find letters and photographs that tell of the family who used to live in the house, and her interest is drawn in further when she finds she can communicate with the ghost of a teenage boy through a window in the attic. In order to distract herself from her own troubled life, she delves fully into his, trying to uncover the mystery of his death in the house – but it remains to be seen how that will affect her own sanity, or if she will lose what little of her own life she has left.