The school year begins tragically at Blair High School when student Martin Welch is found brutally murdered. The town descends into a spiral of fear as they hunt for the person responsible. Jaycie Brogdon, a senior at BHS, can only watch as her community becomes undone while dealing with the cracks within her own family.
Soon the residents shift the blame of Welch’s murder inward, convinced the perpetrator is one of their own. Stuart Reinhart, BHS literature teacher, falls under the crosshairs. Tensions flame as townspeople claim the books used in Reinhart’s lessons are immoral. Now history begins to repeat itself in Blair as the town’s past is unearthed. Yet, the heart of a witch once used as a scapegoat still beats, and the townspeople’s fear and hatred turns to thirst for retribution.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Hailing from New York, Edward J. Flora is a lifelong horror fan who is just getting started on his horror fiction journey. The author of Ropes in the Attic and The Triangle Forest, when not writing, Flora is busy publishing with his own press. With his latest, Flora taps directly into the vein of small-town-horror with a community on the edge and an evil wickedness spreading rapidly. Corey Farrenkopf (Haunted Ecologies) says: “Did you wish Stranger Things took a more folk horror turn? If so, check out In The Shadow of a Broken Spire. Flora does exciting small town big cast horror in the vein of early Stephen King. There’s nostalgia, there’s teenage joy, and there’s so much darkness … but also, goats! Don’t miss this one!”, and Clay McLeod Chapman (Wake Up and Open Your Eyes) says: “Flora gives hometown pride a hellish spin with In The Shadow Of A Broken Spire, a demonic double helix of Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s Hex and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. They always say you can never go home again, and with Broken Spire, well, you may never want to …”.
Releasing from Gravesend Books 1 October 2025, In the Shadow of a Broken Spire by Edward J. Flora is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA