The seed for Ana Reyes' first novel "The House in the Pines" came to her as a child, an image she held on to for years. It's an image that anchors the book, that of a cabin in the woods.
But there's more to this cozy-seeming image in Reyes' novel, a thriller that includes the mysterious deaths of several young women, a charming man who may be behind the murders, and a flawed main character struggling with painkiller withdrawal, based on the author's own experience. Living in Los Angeles, Reyes was prescribed Klonopin for sleep, but in a new city, with a new doctor, she was cut off from the medication suddenly and treated like a criminal as she struggled through sudden and confusing benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms.
