Outskirts Press, INC.

A haunting exploration of nature and the human heart

A dead man washes up on the shore of Hollow, an island in the Pacific Northwest full of natural beauty and magical thinking, where wolf-conservationist and ex-musical wunderkind Jack Karlsson has exiled himself. To make matters worse, Jack has just agreed to let his estranged niece Esther stay on the island with him for the summer. Tomas, an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD, is the first to find the body. The shock of it sends him spiraling and he looks to the Nagual (werewolf-like) legend from his mother’s Aztec heritage for guidance to find the killer and save himself - or is his Nagual looking for him?

As the summer progresses, Jack retreats into a mysterious madness while local investigator Sahara Moses follows troubling clues to solve the mystery of the dead man. Esther bonds with Jack’s young assistant Luis, each grappling with the sins of their fathers. Increasingly unhinged, Tomas’s truth-seeking brings them all to the brink until the real story has to come out. 

Summer Fruit is a genre-defying literary novel that weaves elements of mystery, myth, and emotional realism into a powerful meditation on trauma, family, redemption, and what it means to heal. Through lyrical prose and cinematic storytelling, Renee Humphrey delivers an unforgettable debut about the instincts that bind us, the truths we hide, and the wilderness—both literal and internal—that we all must navigate.