Grave birds A novel

When she was eleven, Hollis Sutherland died. It was only for thirty-two minutes, but the most long-standing effect is that she can now see grave birds, phantom birds that manifest at the site of someone's death and allow her to experience the last moments of their life. Now an adult, Hollis fields memories and requests from the dead while also trying to start an event-planning business in Hawthorne, South Carolina. She has the perfect location in mind when the property is snatched out from under her by the alluring Cain Landry, an obscenely wealthy man with a dastardly smile and a grave bird on his shoulder. As Hollis gets closer to Cain despite her best interests, she's forced to confront a series of strange, sinister events spreading through Hawthorne. Are they coincidences or the signs of something darker? Perhaps something her grandfather once warned her about: the devil's return? Part romantasy, part Southern Gothic, Grave Birds maintains Elmendorf's (In the Hour of Crows, 2024) reputation for writing haunting love letters to the South featuring fierce heroines, spectral secrets, and slow-burn suspense. For fans of Alix E. Harrow's Starling House (2023) and Alli Dyer's Strange Folk (2024).