Elizabeth Evans Kirk

The dead are the best listeners. 16-year-old Violet Chance thinks so, anyway. Which is why she spends most of her time in the graveyard, concocting elaborate stories of the departed, attending the funerals of strangers, and even impersonating the dead.

After an unspeakable family trauma forces her into the safe arms of God’s Acre, the mystical town cemetery, she forges an unlikely friendship with Albert, the reclusive, old gravedigger—a haunted loner who prefers to spend his days six feet under, but whose fascinating stories about the buried enchant and captivate Violet’s imagination. That is, until the dead start telling her stories of their own, and what a lively bunch of storytellers they prove to be.

The Gravediggers of Champagne County is a rare coming-of-age tale about a curious girl tormented by the things she’s seen, haunted by the secrets she keeps, and the graveyard that won’t let them stay buried for long. A gritty and touching story about tragedy and loss, and the unbreakable bonds of love and trust that can be forged even in the darkest moments. Set in the sleepy, small-town of Champagne County, the cast of charming characters (living and dead) simply dazzle against a rich graveyard setting so gripping it’s sure to live on long after the last page has been read.

ELIZABETH EVANS KIRK had a successful PR career before quitting her job and moving to Los Angeles to pursue writing full-time, where she wrote The Gravediggers of Champagne County in a cemetery in Hollywood. She currently lives with her husband and her pug in California.