True crime podcaster Lena Crowe knows darkness. After losing her husband and child in a tragic accident, she’s dedicated her life to telling the stories of others — victims, survivors, and the monsters who haunt small towns like Poplar Grass, North Carolina.
When sixteen-year-old Maya is abducted and found a week later, bloodied and traumatized, Lena heads to Poplar Grass hoping to shine a light that might save the girl and the town from slipping into silence. But as Lena digs deeper, she uncovers chilling secrets involving a beloved high school coach tied to dark crimes, a drifter still on the loose, and another girl’s disappearance long dismissed as a runaway. Then the nightmare turns personal. A taunting killer begins to stalk Lena, determined to make her part of his gruesome story. As he escalates, snatching new victims and daring Lena to stop him, she’s drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game that will end only one way. Because in Poplar Grass, the dark roads don’t end at the edge of town. If Lena wants to stop a monster, she may have to become something just as ruthless.

When Maggie Quinn falls gravely ill, she knows she’s running out of time. Desperate to protect her ten-year-old daughter from the clutches of a manipulative neighbor, she sends a final, urgent letter to her estranged sister Josie, begging her to come before it’s too late. Thrust into a bitter legal battle over custody and control, Josie must confront the limits of women’s rights, the strength of sisterly love, and the haunting weight of promises made too late. Caught between grief and resolve, young Clara is left to navigate a world she barely understands, until she discovers her own quiet power to change it. Based on real events, this historical novel honors those who lived in the margins and the letters that helped bring them to light.

"The Miracle" is from a short story I wrote in 2000, which is included as bonus material in this book.

The forest burns with a fire not of this world, and Nicholas Bergeron knows it can only mean one thing. Almeta has returned. For a year, he and his protector Adriean Fritchett have chased the dark witch across dreams and ruins, only to find her stronger each time. Now she is anchoring herself to Thalveryan’s ley lines, rooting her power deeper into the world—and tearing it apart. Armed with the Atheneum Key and bound to Adriean by oath and something more dangerous than either dares to name, Nicholas must face a truth whispered by the dead. Almeta cannot be defeated without a sacrifice of love and blood. As the Council fractures, loyalties are tested, and visions blur the line between illusion and reality, Nicholas is forced to confront not only the witch who seeks to unravel the world—but the bond that could save it, or doom it. Magic burns, shadows lie, and every choice will come at a cost.

Seventeen-year-old Sebastian Hunter had dreams as wide as the Pamlico Sound and a heart brave enough to protect those he loved. But one morning, he’s found dead along Shoreline Lane, and the town calls it an accident.
Josie Grischow knows better. Once a teacher, now a private investigator, she left the classroom when she saw a child fall through the cracks of the system. Now, drawn back into the lives of those she once taught, Josie must unravel a web of secrets, lies, and abuse before the tide claims another victim.

In Teaches Corners, the dead don’t always leave. For years, Zachary has lingered in the cemetery at the edge of town watching seasons change, families grow older, and life moving on without him. He isn’t alone. Others remain too. The forgotten, the lost, and the ones who never found peace. They’ve been waiting.
When Blake arrives in Teaches Corners, he brings with him a secret he’s spent his life trying to understand. He can see them. As buried truths begin to surface and long-silenced secrets rise with the dead, Blake realizes his gift may be more than a curse. It may be the only way to help Zachary and the others finally cross over.

When Jordan was nineteen, he learned two life-altering truths, that love can be safe and that it can be taken in an instant. After surviving a turbulent upbringing, Jordan finds refuge in Matthew and the chaotic warmth of his sprawling family. But on an October night in 1995, a drunk driver rewrites the future they were just beginning to build. Left unmarked by the crash that kills the boy he loves, Jordan must navigate survivor’s guilt, devastating grief, and the fragile task of continuing to live.
Years later, as a mentor at a queer youth center, Jordan recognizes the same shrinking fear in a teenager named Joseph. In guiding Joseph toward safety, Jordan is forced to revisit the love that saved him and the loss that nearly destroyed him. Spanning decades, this intimate novel explores chosen family, trauma, resilience, and the quiet, radical act of staying.
Because sometimes survival begins with a knock at the door.

When true crime podcaster Lena Crowe returns to Harper, North Carolina, grief still clings to her like fog. A year after losing her husband and child in a freak accident, she’s drawn back by an unsolved mystery her grandmother once whispered about, a woman accused of murdering her family and walking free.
In 1955, Catherine Haywood Ellis lost everything: her son, her daughter, her husband—all on the eighth day of the month, eight months in a row. The town whispered poison, madness, and guilt. But no one ever proved she did it. No one ever asked why she stayed.
As Lena digs into the case, she uncovers more than forgotten headlines and fading gravestones. A missing daughter. A town that never forgave. And a pattern that may not be finished yet.
Told in dual timelines, The Eighth of Everything is a haunting Southern Gothic mystery about the weight of silence, the legacy of loss, and the truths we carry when no one wants to listen.

Grady’s secrets refuse to stay buried.
When beloved historian Eleanor Dray is found dead beneath the shadow of St. Luke’s bell tower, reporter June Calloway and Detective Ben Harper find themselves pulled into a chilling mystery that reaches back nearly two centuries.
A hidden chamber beneath the church reveals a dark truth, a boy named Elias, entombed alive, silenced to hide a murder that could shake the town’s foundations. As June and Ben uncover a web of lies, betrayal, and forgotten sins, they must race against time to stop history from repeating itself.
But with the town’s powerful figures desperate to keep the past hidden and a deadly adversary willing to do anything to protect their secrets, June and Ben must confront the shadows of Grady before the bell tolls again.

Mary Beth Jones, a local woman haunted by the past, begs journalist June Calloway to investigate the decades-old disappearance of her sister, Delilah Honeycutt.

Delilah vanished in 1975 without a trace, on the same night as her boyfriend, Marc Sinclair. Rumors swirled and theories flourished. However, the truth was never uncovered.

The Girl Time Forgot is a haunting mystery about memory, loss, and the unrelenting pull of the past.

When small-town journalist June Calloway agrees to judge the Grady Sweetheart Bake-Off, she expects a weekend of frosted cupcakes, community charm, and maybe a little local gossip. She doesn't expect Rosa Bloom, one of the contestants, to drop dead before the judging is through.

Armed with her reporter’s instinct and a stubborn streak a mile wide, June will have to sift through the lies, follow the crumbs, and find the truth. Before someone decides she’s stirred up enough trouble.

In the sweltering summer of 1892, a brutal murder in rural North Carolina shocked the region and ignited a fierce quest for justice. When a Jewish peddler was found dead in the woods of Nash County, suspicion soon turned toward two local brothers—Thomas and Calvin Coley, young farmers with hard lives and darker secrets.

What followed was a trial that gripped two counties, revealing not only the chilling details of the crime but also the deep undercurrents of prejudice, poverty, and desperation in the post-Reconstruction South.

Now, over a century later, their distant cousin, Henry D Parrish Jr, unearths the tangled history of his own bloodline—bringing to light the social, racial, and personal forces that led to an infamous crime. Blood, Justice & The Coley Brothers is a gripping narrative of family, violence, and how one reconciles their family's murderous past.

In a land shaped by ancient power and guarded secrets, the Veil is all that stands between the living and the dead — and someone is tearing it open.

Thalveryan is ruled by eight witching families, each bound to a sacred relic and a solemn duty to preserve the world's balance. Among them are the Bergerons, a lineage where power has passed from mother to daughter for generations.

But now, tradition is broken. With no daughter to inherit the gift, the magic falls to Nicholas Bergeron — the first son to ever bear the weight of the family's legacy. Unprepared and untested, Nicholas must join forces with Adriean Fritchett, heir to a family sworn to protect the realm with the legendary Oathbrand Blade.

As an ancient darkness stirs and relics begin to fail, Nicholas and Adriean must uncover the truth buried in Thalveryan’s forgotten past — before the Veil collapses and the dead return to claim the living.

Sequel to After The Fall
In the wake of losing his partner Sam, Gabriel Fox struggles to move forward, his heart still weighed down by grief. Back at Grady High School, Gabriel finds himself facing the remnants of a life that feels impossible to rebuild. But when June Calloway uncovers a new lead tied to the corrupt land deals that once tore his world apart, Gabriel is pulled into a mystery that refuses to stay buried.
The missing person at the center of the case is no stranger to Gabriel’s past—a person whose disappearance is linked to the same shady dealings that claimed the lives of his parents. As Gabriel and June dig deeper, they discover a web of secrets, lies, and dangerous connections to the town’s most powerful figures, including the ever-threatening Mayor Mallory.
While Gabriel struggles with the emotional pull of his past and the guilt of moving on, the investigation takes a personal turn. The truth behind the land deals not only threatens the town’s future but could reveal a hidden part of Gabriel’s own history.

A small town, a buried secret and a love that refuses to fade. In After The Fall, Gabriel Fox is forced to confront the ghosts of his past when journalist June Calloway uncovers the truth about the death of his boyfriend Samuel Whitaker and the mysterious accident that claimed the lives of his parents. As June unravels a web of corruption tied to the mayor and a shady land deal, Gabriel must face the painful truths he's spent years avoiding. But in the process of uncovering the darkness, Gabriel finds the possibility of healing and the unexpected spark of hope.