A Song at Dead Man's Cove

By Ana Yudin

Book Overview

Never turn your back on the ocean...

2023. Another person has disappeared at Dead Man's Cove in coastal Washington. Jaded from her job at the historic Irving Hotel, Zarya wanders to the scene of the tragedy. She has heard her Russian mother's tales of rusalki-vengeful spirits that have died unclean deaths near a body of water-and never paid them much attention. But now, on a misty headland beside an abandoned lighthouse, Zarya locks eyes with the rusalka and is chosen to be the next victim. She must unearth the siren's tragedy before Rusalka Week, a period in early summer when water-spirits roam freely on land.

1850. Josephine has just joined her newlywed husband in Washington, in the lighthouse erected by local businessman Hurley Irving. Marriage is not quite what she expected, and her melancholia grows over the course of the winter. The medic prescribes pregnancy as the antidote. What he doesn't realize is how far Josephine is willing to go in order to become a mother.

A Song at Dead Man's Cove has been awarded The BREW Seal of Excellence, The Bookish Reader's Pick title, The Narrative Voyager Award, and the Voyages of Verses Book Award.

"There's a quiet elegance to Yudin's prose that elevates the novel beyond typical genre fare. The writing, often cinematic, captures salt-tinged air and flickering lantern light with equal finesse."
-The Chrysalis BREW Project

"If every story is a kind of song, A Song at Dead Man's Cove is the kind you don't hum-you remember. Its melody is melancholy but never despairing. It's a story about what lingers: in towns, in water, in us."
-The Bookish Magazine

"It reminds us that not all hauntings come from ghosts. Sometimes, they come from memories, and the human desire to make sense of what cannot be named. And perhaps that's what makes this novel quietly extraordinary-it doesn't try to solve the mystery. It lets it breathe. In a market often crowded with noise, Ana Yudin's work whispers. But for those who listen, it sings."
-The Narrative Voyager

"There's real power in how this book handles emotional weight. Grief isn't treated like a plot twist. It's part of the landscape. Part of the ritual. It shapes how people move, what they say, what they avoid. Yudin understands that sometimes the scariest thing isn't what's lurking in the ocean-it's the way people pretend nothing's wrong. The way entire towns learn to live with a lie because the truth is too sharp to hold."
-The Pinnacle Review

"There's something uncanny about the way Yudin builds atmosphere. The town in this novel isn't just a setting-it's a mood."
-Voyages of Verses

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F5LNXN7Z
• ISBN13: 9798314553800
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"