Book Feature: The Coven Tree by Ed Perratore
(Reprinted from ReadersMagnet.com, June 15, 2023)
The Coven Tree is Ed Perratore’s story of a home invasion like no other. Set in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, it begins with Daniel and Johanna Keane, parents of a 16-year-old boy, Randall.
They’re out for a drive hoping to distract themselves, to take their minds off Johanna’s recent miscarriage—the second of two. They happen upon a local antique shop run by a peculiar old man and spot an exquisitely crafted highboy, an elegant chest of drawers upon four legs.
The man seems desperate to sell it to them, and when he offers it for a mere thousand dollars, the Keanes snap it up. It’s a showpiece to die for, they feel, and it gives them something else to think about.
Once the chest arrives at their home, though, its grandeur is fleeting. Visitors witness terrifying scenes. Deaths occur without explanation. Soon, as the highboy begins to transform in a way that infects every grain of wood in the house, it ravages the Keanes’ very lives where they’re most vulnerable.
Perhaps too late, they realize the source of the highboy’s wood and see the piece for what it is: the instrument of their family’s destruction through a centuries-old vendetta. Will the Keanes learn how to defend themselves before it’s too late?
What Inspired You to Write the Novel?
The Adirondacks are not a park per se but a vast forest preserve spanning 6 million acres—an area larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier and Great Smokies national parks combined. “While vacationing there with family,” says Perratore, “I thought much about the myriad forests and pondered the notion of a single tree, used for dark worship, that absorbs the very souls of the worshipping coven at their point of death. What would the wood of such a tree, once hewn, do amid the walls and floors of a home—much of it wood? Could its own grain interweave with that of the home, particularly in the home of a man whose ancestry ties in closely with that of the massacred coven?”
Who is the Novel For?
The target market for The Coven Tree is any horror fan looking for a story nobody has quite conceived before, one depicting a wild spiral into a family’s dark journey. One reader described the novel as “a modern-day tragedy steeped in historical accountings that remains a mystery until the bitter end.” Another called it “a horror masterpiece that will have you thinking twice about entering an antique shop.” “Whatever your impressions,” says Perratore, “I want prospective readers to hang off the edge of their seats and wipe their brows when it’s over.”
More About the Author
The Coven Tree, the author’s second horror novel, is one he’s tweaked often during his writing career, one spanning more than 40 years, but made one last push to update and revise again during the height of Covid restrictions. The author’s professional beats have been technology, property care and outdoor power equipment at publications including PC Magazine and Consumer Reports, and he’s contributed to Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, the Newark Star-Ledger, Byte and Computer Shopper. He also has a humor blog (currently on hiatus), The Fog Bell.
When the author isn’t writing, he likes to hike, which inspired his nonfiction work One Man’s Journey: A Walk on the Croton Aqueduct Trail. Besides that he enjoys taking photos, fishing and spending time with Elena, his wife of nearly 40 years, and his family, which now includes two grandsons.
What are your Goals with This Book?
“I cannot tell with any assurance how far The Coven Tree (or my earlier novel, Hindred Spirits) might go,” says Perratore. “More than a few people have told me it would make a great movie, and I agree. Still, I have no delusions. Every reader I’ve heard from has shown heartfelt appreciation, and, for most writers, there’s no greater achievement.”