The House Built on Alligator Bones A Novel

The Greers built their fortune on alligator bones.

Dartrine Beaumont believes her mother’s sudden death has left her alone in the world—until she learns of long-lost wealthy relatives living in Florida. Confused but delighted by the possibility of extended family, Dart travels to her grandmother’s stately Gilded Age mansion on Amelia Island for answers, just in time to stake a claim on an unusual inheritance: an alligator farming empire.

Her arrival at Greer House isn’t everything she hoped. Without warning, Dart finds herself in fierce competition with her grandmother’s arrogant heir-apparent, and tensions rise as threatening acts of vandalism escalate on one of the farms. More unsettling is her hostile grandmother’s fanatical belief that the danger stems from a curse; according to legend, a larger-than-life alligator hunted down by a bloodthirsty ancestor still haunts the family. Yet Dart can’t deny that the farm’s placid alligators hiss only at Greers, or that a shadowy figure creeps through the mansion’s halls, plaguing her with suspicions that the mythical alligator and monstrous, long-dead matriarch may have unfinished business.

As Dart uncovers the truth about her violent birthright, she faces a terrible choice: accept her place in her family’s grim legacy or forge a new path by slaying a different beast entirely.

Sophia Huneycutt was born and raised in Lakeland, Florida. Her short fiction has won the Porch Prize, judged by Kevin Wilson, and appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, STORY, The Greensboro Review, Nashville Review, and elsewhere. She has received support from the de Groot Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Ohio Arts Council. A Tin House alumna, she holds a BA in English literature from Davidson College and an MFA in creative writing from the Ohio State University. The House Built on Alligator Bones is her first novel. Learn more at sophiahuneycutt.com.