Genevieve Tompkins’ life has recently been turned upside down. Following two great losses—the death of both her father and her ex-fiancé—she decides to leave her PhD program in New York City to work as an archivist upstate in historic Wilton Springs. It sounds like a solid plan: She will use her background in history to make some much-needed money, while taking time to reflect on what she truly wants to do going forward.

Genevieve quickly begins building this new life, befriending a co-worker at the library and a so-called local witch who owns the town spa. She even meets a handsome doctor who gives her hope that maybe, just maybe, there’s a man out there who will treat her well. Not everything is as magical as it seems in Wilton Springs, though.

What begins as the intriguing, if tedious, work of sorting boxes in the dusty library basement—hours upon hours spent organising and cataloguing centuries of the Wilton family’s documents—quickly turns much darker. As her research reveals the founding family’s long history of deceit, including connections to an 18th-century witch trial, Genevieve feels compelled to dig deeper into the past. At the same time, a series of strange disappearances all around her raises red flags she can’t ignore, sparking a relentless search for the truth.

Revealing too much more will spoil the surprises at the heart of this thriller, so let it suffice to say this: Despite being warned against investigating both past and present mysteries, Genevieve finds herself drawn deeper into the myriad secrets of Wilton Springs, culminating in a twisted ending that readers absolutely will not see coming.

Simply put, The Daughters is pure atmosphere and that is what keeps the pages turning. Margaret nails the dark, unsettled feel of a small, northeastern U.S. town with centuries-old ties to witchcraft. It is incredibly easy to get pulled into this world as the story unfolds, short chapters driving the plot ever forward. The reader feels like an archivist themself, digging up bits of history—and clues to the story—piece by piece while sorting through a musty old box of papers alongside Genevieve in the library basement.

Piecing these clues together, however, becomes a bit more difficult as the plot drifts to an unexpected conclusion that feels a bit disjointed from the novel’s premise. Yet the characters keep the reader hooked in, questioning each of their motives and what role they might play in the unravelling mystery.

The novel is also held together by themes that have shaped the United States for centuries. It examines social hierarchies, the position of women within them, and the privilege of wealth. It warns of what those in power can get away with when unchecked. It explores the weight of both belonging and being ostracised as “other.” And, in the end, it is a story of greed and manipulation, in both the past and the present.

All in all, The Daughters is an entertaining, moody read well-suited for a rainy day. So, get ready to curl up in your oversized reading chair with a warm blanket, a good snack, and your favourite beverage. You won’t be leaving until you turn the very last page.

The Daughters is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of March 17th 2026.

Will you be picking up The Daughters? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis

A grieving archivist uncovers a strange connection between recent disappearances and a small New York town’s history of witch trials in this new thriller from the author of The Bequest.

Reeling from the dual deaths of her estranged father and ex-fiancé, Genevieve Tompkins has dropped out of her PhD program in New York City and is looking for a chance to start over in Wilton Springs, a faded Victorian spa town in upstate New York. Utilizing her background as an archivist, she is hired to catalogue the papers of the prominent Wilton family, who trace their lineage back to the founders of the town. But as she digs into their records, Genevieve discovers that the family’s pharmaceutical business and their personal lives have been fraught with a history of tragedy. She also uncovers a series of disturbing disappearances and suspicious deaths among the women of the town.

Three centuries earlier, Wilton Springs was the site of a brutal witch trial–a fact which someone has gone to extreme lengths to erase from historical record. As Genevieve explores the connections between the modern disappearances and the town’s ugly past, she becomes entangled in a web of conspiracy, where the line between superstition and reality begins to blur, and she fears she may become the next woman to go missing from Wilton Springs. . .

Blending elements of Gothic fiction and folk horror, The Daughters is a literary thriller that will keep readers guessing how the mysteries of the distant past may reverberate and resurface in the sinister and atmospheric present.

The post Review: The Daughters by Joanna Margaret appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to learn more about how Margaret made the switch from being a historian to a writer, what famous author mentored her, and which book left her inconsolable at age 10.

Hi Joanna and thank you so much for taking time to chat with The Nerd Daily! To start, tell our readers a bit about yourself.

Thank you so much! I have a PhD in early modern history from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. My first novel, The Bequest, was published in 2022 and follows a group of scholars in Europe who become embroiled in a 450-year-old mystery, which has eerie repercussions with their present lives. I also write short fiction. My short story, “Malena” was published in the Akashic anthology, A Darker Shade of Noir, New Stories of Body Horror By Women Writers in 2023. My second novel, The Daughters, is coming out on March 17^th !

Your new novel, The Daughters, packs a lot into one story—including some interesting twists and turns! For those who may not already know the premise, how would you tell readers what to expect without spoiling any of the fun?

The Daughters follows a grieving PhD student, Genevieve, who drops out of her graduate program and moves from New York City to a small town in upstate New York to organize the archives of the town’s founding family, the Wiltons, who are rumored to be cursed. After Genevieve arrives, things start to take a dark turn, with strange disappearances among local women. Genevieve uncovers a brutal 18^th century witch trial, which may somehow be connected with the ancestors of the Wilton family. Before too long, she gets caught up in a web of conspiracy and doesn’t know who to trust.

Fill in the blank: If you liked _______________, you will love The Daughters.

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

American Gothic by Robert Bloch

What sparked the idea for this novel and what did the writing process look like for you?

When I graduated with my MFA, I was nominated for a scholarship by Joyce Carol Oates at the New York State Summer Writers Institute in Saratoga Springs New York. I lived there for a month and was struck by the unique architecture, geography, and remote and historical upstate vibes—I knew some sort of fantasy Saratoga Springs (plus Sharon Springs and some other upstate towns) would be the perfect setting for a novel.

I tend to do a lot of research before I start writing, in this case, I researched the history of American and European witch trials.

It’s fascinating to me (and makes perfect sense, considering the subject matter of your novels) that you were a historian before becoming a writer. What made you want to change fields to begin writing fiction?

I loved studying and teaching history. But, as a historian, I always felt limited by the historical record, with actual facts, formal letters, and mostly legal documents, and wanted to know what was happening in people’s minds and the behind-the-scenes versions of historical events. I think both careers have a lot of common ground, in that you’re a storyteller either way, but with a novel, you can follow your own imagination. There’s a great quote by E.L. Doctorow who founded the NYU Creative Writing Program “the historian tells you what happened, but the novelist tells you how it felt.”

How has this background in history influenced your writing and the way you approach the craft?

I had to sort of teach myself how not to write for an academic audience! Especially when you’re writing a suspense novel, you have to learn how to hold back from revealing too much information right away, which is the opposite of a historian who spells out a thesis right at the beginning. Also, I tend to do a lot of research, which is great for the historical portions of my novels but you have to be careful not to go down too many rabbit holes and start writing!

Are there any lessons you learned from writing your first novel, The Bequest, that you found helpful when working on The Daughters?

I think to limit the historical research and focus on telling your story. Also, I learned a lot about writing a mystery, and how to make more of my characters seem suspicious so a reader feels off kilter and not sure who is telling the truth.

Readers will also be excited to learn that Joyce Carol Oates was your thesis advisor in the MFA program at NYU. Can you share any lessons from her that really stuck with you?

Joyce Carol Oates was an incredible mentor and teacher. I was really inspired by her work ethic, teaching multiple classes and writing at the same time. I remember being in her workshop, she assigned stories from her own edited anthologies to go along with our workshop submissions and started class with in-depth craft analyses of the stories, alongside our own work. This was really useful in the context of a workshop for developing our craft. She really stressed the importance of developing a unique voice, and that stuck with me.  

Let’s Get Nerdy: Behind the Writer with 5 Quick Questions

• The book that made you fall in love with reading: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott—I read this at 10 and was inconsolable when Beth died.
• A movie you know by heart: Dirty Dancing
• A song that makes you want to get up and dance: I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston
• Introvert or extrovert: Introverted Extrovert! Or is it the other way around??
• Coffee, tea, or something else: Both!

Will you be picking up The Daughters? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Joanna Margaret, Author of ‘The Daughters’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.