Silent Key

A detective, supernatural mystery for fans of Kelley Armstrong and Rachel Caine, with elements of Nick Cutter’s The Deep and Stephen King’s Firestarter.



After the loss of her husband under mysterious circumstances, former Detective Cam Ambrose learns how little she truly knew him. Reeling with the grief of her loss and the realization that the man she loved was a stranger, she must learn how to keep her young daughter safe from a world of the supernatural she never knew existed. With the help of her best friend Dimi and reclusive neighbor Eric Morgan, she sets out to solve a decades-old mystery entangling the machinations of an obsessed killer, her husband’s mistress, and a series of deadly hauntings.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.

Laurel Hightower grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and after forays to California and Tennessee, has returned home to horse country. She’s a fan of true life ghost stories, horror movies, and good bourbon. She is the author of Whispers In The Dark, Crossroads, and Below, and has more than a dozen short story credits to her name, including publications through Burial Day Press, Cemetery Gates, Brigid’s Gate, Dead Sea Press, Brian Keene’s Patreon, and the forthcoming anthology Human Monsters from the newly formed Dark Hart Books. Crossroads was the recipient of an Independent Audiobook Award in 2020 in the category of Best Horror, as well as the This is Horror Best Novella Award for 2020. She has also co-edited three anthologies: We Are Wolves, a charity anthology released in 2020 by Burial Day Press, The Dead Inside, an anthology of identity horror released in 2022 by Dark Dispatch, and Shattered & Splintered, a charity anthology released in 2022 to benefit the Glen Haven Area Volunteer Fire Department, who saved the historic Stanley Hotel from wildfires in 2020.