Teaser Thursday: Envy (Empty Coffin Series, #1) by Gregg Olsen

Envy (Empty Coffin Series #1)

Author: Gregg Olsen

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Synopsis: Murder is such a dirty word . . .

Crime lives--and dies--in the deceptively picture-perfect town of Port Gamble (aka “Empty Coffin”), Washington. Evil lurks and strange things happen--and 15-year-olds Hayley and Taylor Ryan secretly use their wits and their telepathic “twin-sense” to uncover the truth about the town's victims and culprits. 


Envy, the series debut, involves the mysterious death of the twins' old friend, Katelyn. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Hayley and Taylor are determined to find out--and as they investigate, they stumble upon a dark truth that is far more disturbing than they ever could have imagined.

Based on the shocking true crime about cyber-bullying, Envy will take you to the edge--and push you right over.

Sneak Peek

Water gushed out of the corroded faucet into the chipped, porcelain tub, pooling at the bottom with a few tangled strands of long, brown hair. The water was easily 120 degrees—so hot that Katelyn Berkley could hardly stand to dip her painted green toenails into it. The scalding water instantly turned her pale skin mottled shades of crimson. Perched on the edge of the tub with her right leg dangling in the water, Katelyn smiled. It was a hurt that felt good.

At fifteen, Katelyn knew something about hurt.

Promises had been made . . . and broken. Things change. People let you down—even those closest to you. Promises, she realized, were very, very hard to keep.

As a blast of icy air blew in from her open bedroom window, the silver razor blade next to the half-empty bottle of Tea Tree shampoo glinted, beckoning her. Katelyn fantasized about taking control of the situation—of her pitiful excuse for a life—the only way she could.

She looked in the full-length mirror across the room. The glass was starting to fog as the scream billowed from the tub’s rippling surface, but she could see that her eyes were red. There wasn’t enough Smashbox on earth to cover the splotches that came with her tears.

“Merry Christmas, loser,” she said.

She pulled inside of herself, into that place where there was only a little relief.

The bathtub was nearly full. Steaming. Just waiting.

Katelyn had no idea that, not far away, someone else was doing that exact same thing—just waiting for the right time to make a move.

As fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, Katelyn took off the rest of her clothes, threw them on the floor,and plunged herself into the tub. (Chapter 1 pgs 1-2)

SNEAK PEEK #2

It came to Hayley Ryan in a dream, the way a lot of things did. She was in the middle of the food court of the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale. All around her were the people of Port Gamble. Her family. Her neighbors. Mill hands whose names she didn’t know because they lived in Little Boston or on the other side of the Hood Canal Bridge, but whose faces were very familiar. Beth. Colton. Starla. Even Segway Guy. No one seemed to be talking to each other, though the noise of their voices fought with the sound dueling blenders at the Orange Julius counter. She watched herself wait for Taylor’s smoothie—raspberry and banana. All around her. The noise. The people she knew. The girl behind the counter made change and handed it to her. She didn’t recall ordering anything and was going to hand the money back to her sister, who was sliding a straw through the “X” cut through the plastic lid.

When she held out her hand, she noticed something peculiar about the dollar bill crumpled in her palm.

Hayley looked down, closer. Written over Geroge Wasington’s unattractive green face:

THE CAUSE OF HER DEATH IS AMONG YOU

For a second, all sound stopped. It was instantaneous. Hayley looked up from the money and then quickly scanned the crowd in the food court.

Everyone from Port Gamble was there. For a moment, she even thought she saw Starla’s dad, Adam Larsen, who’d been gone a couple of years. He waved at her, and then he vanished. All of them did. Gone, like the smoke from a birthday candle.

The next morning, while the twins put on makeup in the bathroom mirror, Hayley told Taylor about the dream.

“Weird. I hate bananas, and you know it,” Taylor said, running brown mascara over her fair eyelashes.

Hayley knew her sister was playing with her. “I thought it was strange, too.”

“Seriously,” Taylor said, “I had a dream sort of like that last night too. Not exactly, though. Mine wasn’t set in the mall. It was at Katelyn’s room. Same idea. The feeling that the person responsible for Katelyn’s death is right here, among us.” (Chapter 21 pgs. 112-113)