Girl in the Creek

Girl in the Creek is a pulse-pounding story about the horrors growing all around us, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher. A finalist for the 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel!

Buried secrets only spread.

Erin's brother has been missing for five years.

It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mount Hood, where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn't the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved.

When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces--from this world and beyond--hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

Author: Wendy N. Wagner
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Published: 05/19/2026
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.29w x 0.64d
ISBN13: 9781250908667
ISBN10: 1250908663
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Horror | Cosmic & Eldritch
- Fiction | Thrillers | Crime
- Fiction | Horror | Slasher

About the Author
WENDY N. WAGNER is a hiker, trail runner, and nature lover. She's the author of the critically acclaimed works The Deer Kings, The Secret Skin, and the Locus bestselling An Oath of Dogs. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson awards, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than seventy venues. She serves as the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine (for which she was nominated for the Locus award), and is part of the Hugo award-winning editorial team behind Lightspeed Magazine. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, a giant cat, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.