Author and Michigan native Karen Dionne, in a brief biography on her website at karen-dionne.com, notes that she has been active in the writing community for over 20 years. She co-founded the online writers community Backspace, organized the Backspace Writers Conferences in New York and the Salt Cay, Bahamas Writers Retreat, and served on the board of directors of the International Thriller Writers.

“She enjoys nature photography and lives with her husband on a private lake surrounded by forest at an undisclosed location in the middle of Michigan, where she spends far too many hours exploring the natural world when she should be writing,” it reads.

The natural world and writing, though, come together in “The Wicked Sister.”

The book centers on Rachel Cunningham, who for a decade and a half has locked herself away in a psychiatric facility, suffering from gaps in her memory and the belief she is responsible for her parents’ deaths.

DIONNE

However, when she learns new details about their murders, she returns to her family’s sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of the U.P.

As explained on Dionne’s website, “As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.”

Translation rights for the book sold in 10 countries, her website says. For example, the German book cover reads “Die Raben Tochter” while the Danish cover reads “Geworteld in het kwaad.”

Dionne also is the author of “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” a psychological suspense novel set in the U.P. wilderness published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons — publisher of “The Wicked Sister’ — in the United States and in 25 other languages.

“The Marsh King’s Daughter” was named a 2018 Michigan Notable Book, took home the Barry and the Crimson Scribe Awards for Best Novel, and was chosen as one of the best books of 2017 by many booksellers and reviewers.

“The Wicked Sister” was a Michigan Notable Book as well, earning good reviews.

For example, in a starred review, Publishers Weekly called “The Wicked Sister” a “devastating, magic realism-dusted psychological thriller…Dionne paints a haunting portrait of a family hurtling toward the tragic destiny they can foresee but are powerless to stop.”

Snowbound Books is located at 118 S. Third St.