Willow Close

Kess Hawkins just wants to play video games, eat pizza rolls, and hang out with her cat. But when a determined journalist comes asking about Kess’ past, she is drawn into a thirty-year old mystery. A childhood photo sparks Kess’s memories of an abandoned orphanage called Willow Close, as well as a brother she never knew she had and a boy she once shared a bond with despite his dark and troubled history. Meanwhile, a serial killer dubbed the Family Man is working his way down the coast and Kess’s home of New Haven lies directly in his path. Willow Close is an old-school slasher with two kick-ass, contemporary heroines. A good old-fashioned mystery wrapped in a creepy old orphanage, with cosmic horror, a monstrous killer, and several lovely cats.

Helena O’Connor lives in sunny Australia, where she can write with coffee, treats, and a nice view of the sea. Having previously worked in neuroscience research and clinical psychology, she now writes full time across fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Her work tends towards bittersweet themes and dark dystopias, more often than not with a wry sense of humour. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite (IFWG publishing) and It Was All a Dream: An Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right (Hungry Shadow Press).