Author Description

In the cemetery at Thornwood Asylum, Annie Blake meets Mary Donovan when a door between the 19th and 21st centuries miraculously opens.In 2022, Annie Blake's world is shattered when her father suffers a psychotic break and ends up in Thornwood Hospital. Annie's father, an architect and activist, is trying to save Thornwood from greedy developers who want to bulldoze the historic site and deprive the community of a vital mental health resource. He asks Annie to help him find proof that a famous reformer was once incarcerated there. Annie struggles to help her father while finding herself uprooted in an unfamiliar place.In the 1800s, Mary Donovan and her younger brother are separated when they're committed to Thornwood Alms House and Lunatic Asylum. Mary fights to find her brother and escape, but is caught and suffers abusive treatment from staff, until she's taken under the wing of Doctor Jonathan Blackwell, a self-styled reformer who wants to groom Mary as his "success story" to help build his reputation. Suspicious at first, Mary agrees in exchange for Blackwell's promise to allow her to see her brother.When Annie's father nearly dies from a reaction to new medication, and Mary discovers that her brother is near death from consumption, both girls are driven to their breaking points and flee to Thornwood cemetery where the border between their worlds opens and they encounter each other face to face.Can these girls from different centuries find a way to trust and help each other before time runs out?