Quiver [Paperback]

“First-time author Holly Luhning holds a PhD in the literature of 18th-century madness and theories of the body, but there is nothing remotely academic about this thriller. It is fast and wicked and dark. The writing in this novel is as clean and slick as a stiletto between the ribs.” --National Post

In sixteenth-century Hungary, Countess Elizabeth Bathory began to torture and kill over 600 servant girls so as to bathe in their blood. She believed this practice would render her beauty immortal; it certainly did her reputation. Quiver tells the chilling story of the notorious Countess Bathory and her undying power to enthrall.

Danica, a young forensic psychologist, is one of many who have been drawn into the orbit of Bathory’s enduring legend. Danica has moved to England from Canada to work at Stowmoor, a former insane asylum turned forensic hospital, and one of her patients is Martin Foster, imprisoned for murdering a fourteen-year-old girl. Foster is a menacing but fascinating patient, and Danica begins to suspect he may have belonged to a cabal idolizing Bathory and reenacting her savage murders.

At the same time, Danica receives a mysterious note from Maria, a seductive archivist who moves in glamorous circles and with whom Danica has an intriguing and complicated past. Maria claims she has discovered Bathory’s long-lost diaries, which chronicle her spectacularly bloody crimes, and as Danica’s career and her relationship with her artist-boyfriend, Henry, begin to break down, Maria increasingly insinuates herself into her life. Soon, Danica is in too deep to notice that Maria’s motivations are far from selfless, and that, in fact, they may just cost Danica her life.

Raised in Saskatchewan and now living in Montreal, HOLLY LUHNING holds a PhD, specializing in eighteenth century literature, madness and theories of the body. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and teaches creative writing. She has received a Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award, and her collection of poetry, Sway, was nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award.

Raised in rural Saskatchewan and now living in Toronto, Holly Luhning holds a Ph.D. in eighteenth-century literature, madness and theories of the body. She received a Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor's Arts Award, and her collection of poetry, Sway, was nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award. Quiver is her first novel.