Lute - Tor Nightfire
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Wicker Man meets Final Destination in Jennifer Thorne’s atmospheric, unsettling folk horror novel about love, duty, and community.

On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less.

Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. They live a happy, superior life, untouched by the war that rages all around them. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored.

Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. Heard about the horrific tragedies, the lives lost, but she doesn’t believe in it. It’s all superstitious nonsense. Stories told to keep newcomers at bay and youngsters in line.

Then The Day begins. And it’s a day of nightmares, of grief, of reckoning. But it is also a day of community. Of survival and strength. Of love, at its most pure and untamed. When The Day ends, Nina—and Lute—will never be the same.


JENNIFER THORNE is the author of The Wrong Side of Right, The Inside of Out, and Night Music. An NYU-Tisch grad with a BFA in Drama, she lives in Gloucestershire, England with her dashing husband, two bold sons, and trusty hound.


Praise for Lute

“Equally horrifying as it is beautiful, Lute will slip under your skin, haunting you until you’ve turned the very last page. Folk horror at its finest.”—Kim Liggett, New York Times bestselling author of The Grace Year

“Lute is as alluring as it is terrifying. Thorne’s prose is exquisite, her storytelling masterful, the setting a haunting character in itself. I wanted to savor every passage, but I was desperate to see who the island would claim next. I devoured this book.”—Elle Cosimano, author of Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead

“Is there a dark side to paradise or a bright side of hell? That’s the genius of Lute, a book made magic by its captivatingly isolated setting, spine tingling suspense, and characters with a heartbeat . . . or at least for so long as they survive The Day. This is the only creepy island I was actually sad to leave when I turned the last, spellbinding page.”—Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author of The Husbands


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