We are honored to host the launch of local author Karen Dietrich's first novel, Girl at the Edge in conversation with Rebecca Drake. Girl at the Edge is a thrilling nature-versus-nurture psychological suspense about a daughter trying to deny her worst impulses and distance herself from her violent and dangerous father.

Sixteen-year-old Evelyn Gibson is haunted by her father's violent crime that sent him to death row. Lost and alone, Evelyn struggles to form an identity for herself -- outside of the menacing shadow of her father's actions.

As Evelyn begins to discover who she is, she finds herself terrified by her increasingly violent impulses and dangerous actions. Perhaps she is more like her father than she originally thought. Is she capable of killing without hesitation or remorse? Is she destined to follow in her father's footsteps? Or can she escape the fate that her psychological nature has laid out for her?

Karen Dietrich is a writer of fiction, poetry, and memoir. She earned an MFA in poetry from New England College. She also writes music and plays drums in Essential Machine, a band she formed with her husband. Karen was born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania and currently lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and son.