#1 New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake crafts a riveting true-crime-inspired novel about a teenage girl accused of a string of grisly murders and the sheriff’s son she confesses to. Now available in paperback!

Summer 1958. A gruesome killer plagues the Midwest, leaving behind a trail of bodies completely drained of blood.

Michael Jensen, an aspiring journalist whose father happens to be the town sheriff, never imagined that the Bloodless Murders would come to tiny Black Deer Falls. Not until the night the Carlson family was found murdered in their home. Marie Catherine Hale, a diminutive fifteen-year-old, was discovered at the scene—covered in blood. She is the sole suspect in custody.

Michael is pulled into the investigation when Marie decides that he is the one she will confess to. As Marie recounts her version of the story, it’s up to Michael to find the truth: What really happened the night that the Carlsons were killed? And how did one girl wind up in the middle of all these bodies?