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by Johanna Frank (Author)
Answers lie buried beneath a grave marker. Only it happens to be her own.
Something was missing. Lexxie easily buries that niggling sense. After all, she's had all the love and protection a young woman needs. But when the man she thought to be her father spews a fever-pitched confession-that she was taken from her real family as an infant-her contented and isolated life ends.
STIRRING... EXTRAORDINARY... UPLIFTING...
Angry and heartbroken, Lexxie leaves the people she loves, following a mere hint-her true father lives in Vereiteln Dorf, two villages over. There, she's drawn to an unconsecrated graveyard. But the locals have secrets to keep and no answers to give. The more she probes, the more her presence threatens this superstitious village-and the more she gives credence to the voice in a pit of ashes. Now amid a 1688 witch hunt, the perils of a noose lie heavy on her shoulders.
In the same village years earlier, young Meginhardt succumbs to a vicious attack. Ethereal beings take him on a time-traveling journey to conquer his perception of unworthiness. But when he learns some woman named Lexxie-not him-is chosen to carry forward his father's descendants, his dreams incinerate, and jealousy rises from their ashes. Now frantic to ensure this undeserving woman's demise, he delivers Lexxie a message, face-to-face. In apparitional form.
Here lyeth more than buried secrets. Can Meginhardt and Lexxie resurrect the past and breathe life into their future?
Set in fictionalized 17th century German-speaking villages, the settlements in Here Lyeth are ruled independently. Notably, one of them is notorious for its witch trials. Like gold threads in a tapestry, themes of faith are woven into the narrative.
Winner of 2025 Speculative Fiction Award, The Word Guild
