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24 stories found

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Mystery & Thriller

24 stories
Appraising the Afterlife by Zeta Carlton Sign in to Save

Paranormal Cozy Mystery · General

Appraising the Afterlife

by Zeta Carlton
#rivals to allies to lovers#non-cat magical companion#found family#small town#amateur sleuth
Story blurb

The mirror comes up cold, monogrammed T.V., and it isn’t done yet.

By the time Trix McGlone gets home from her first solo estate sale, there’s a trickster spirit riding shotgun in raccoon form. He introduces himself as Pockets and gets straight to the point: the mirror is only the first piece. Trisha Vantree, blamed and run out of Glencross County decades ago for a theft the whole county still believes she committed, left herself behind in silver and cloth and paper, scattered through every estate sale Trix will ever work.

Reuniting them means reopening a case nobody wants solved, least of all the families whose good names depend on Trisha staying guilty and gone. It means going up against Ruben Brasch, the competitive, entirely too charming owner of the county’s only auction house, every single time a piece comes up for bid.

Trix built a business out of finding out what things are actually worth. This time it might cost her the quiet life she just started building and hand her a rival who won’t stay just a rival. Trisha Vantree has waited fifty years for somebody to finally look. Trix isn’t putting the mirror down.

A sweet, kissing-only romance with no explicit content.

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ARIELLE by TomiRoyal Sign in to Save

Mystery/Thriller · General

ARIELLE

by TomiRoyal
#slow burn#suspense#second chance#twins#college
Story blurb

Arielle had always known she was good at observing people.

She just never imagined she was one of the experiments.

Halebridge University was supposed to be her second chance. She got in as a scholarship student majoring in art, and managed to bag herself a quiet job at the campus café. She had a new life she was building with her own hands, away from her suffocating relationship with her mother back at home. But then the cracks appeared:

She finds an old photograph she doesn’t remember, which makes her question everything she thought she knew about her childhood,
Then there was the locked tower no one would talk about that gave off eerie vibes,
And she encountered twin strangers on campus who looked at her like they’d been waiting years for her to arrive: the handsome but intense graduate student, and the sharp-eyed artist whose gaze felt like both an accusation and a warning.

It wasn’t until a threatening message appeared in her inbox that Arielle realized something life-changing. Someone wasn’t just hiding the truth, but they were also willing to destroy her life to keep it buried.

Because she was never just Arielle. She was Subject A.

In a campus where every locked door hides a history and every kindness might be a strategy, Arielle must decide how much of the truth she’s willing to remember, and what it will cost her and everyone she loves if she does.

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Bella and Django: A Vegas, Velvet Caper by Ellen M Laura Sign in to Save

Mystery, Cozy Feline Fantasy · General

Bella and Django: A Vegas, Velvet Caper

by Ellen M Laura
Story blurb

From island hush to neon thunder—two cats are about to become each other’s fate.

Bella’s first world was Lānaʻi: salt air, warm stones, plumeria on the wind, and the gentle chaos of a sanctuary where humans move softly and love loudly. She learned the rules of paradise early—share sun patches, guard your dignity, and never admit you’re afraid.

Then a wrong turn in the human world drops her into Las Vegas.

The desert smells of heat, pavement, perfume, and electrical hunger. Everything flashes. Everything moves. And tucked inside the glare is The Gamblers Bookstore—a velvet-quiet refuge where Bella might finally catch her breath.

Except the bookstore already has a king.

Django Whiskerblades is watchful, disciplined, and unimpressed by feline theatrics. Bella is audacity in fur.

They should avoid each other. Naturally, they don’t.

Soon, the two cats are drawn into a Vegas caper involving secrets, risk, and considerably more trouble than either intended.

A cozy feline adventure filled with wit, slow-burn chemistry, Las Vegas mischief, and two cats discovering that fate occasionally has whiskers.

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Codename: Chaos by Terry Sign in to Save

Mystery · Mature

Codename: Chaos

by Terry
Story blurb

They thought she died...they were wrong.
Five years ago, elite operative Evelyn Vale disappeared during a mission that was supposed to be routine. The official report called it a tragedy. Her agency called it unavoidable. Her enemies called it a victory.

Evelyn called it what it really was: BETRAYAL...
Because she didn't die that night-she survived.

And now Evelyn is back and someone is leaving a trail of destruction across the globe. Targets are disappearing, secrets are being exposed and powerful people are beginning to panic. At every scene, investigators find the same chilling message: CHAOS WAS HERE.

They believed Evelyn Vale was gone forever...that was their first mistake.
Welcome to Codename: Chaos.

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Dutopia by Hunter Chadwick Sign in to Save

Cozy Fantasy · General

Dutopia

by Hunter Chadwick
Story blurb

In a land far away, there was the Kingdom of Dutopia, where everything must be as it is proclaimed to be. Join us now in the behind the scenes documentary to learn the true story of what really makes this kingdom tick. If you're a fan of The Office, Park & Rec and Legends and Lattes, this is the story for you. :)

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Heartfelt Cases Books 1-3 by Julie C. Gilbert Sign in to Save

Christian Mystery · General

Heartfelt Cases Books 1-3

by Julie C. Gilbert
#Christian Suspense#FBI Romance Clean#Romantic Thriller#Inspirational Fiction#Faith Based Mystery
Story blurb

2 agents, 3 cases, 1 God …

Ann and Patrick aren’t your typical FBI agents, but then again, these aren’t normal cases either.

They’re much more personal.

The Collins Case: The agents race against time to find one of Ann’s high school friends.

The Kiverson Case: Ann and Patrick battle a man bent on revenge.

The Davidson Case: Ann scrambles to find out who wants her sister dead.

Fear rules their world, will it rule their hearts?

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Herring Season, A Knight & Dey Mystery, Bk 2 by JR Hopkins Sign in to Save

Murder Mystery · Mature

Herring Season, A Knight & Dey Mystery, Bk 2

by JR Hopkins
#Murder Mystery#SE Alaska#Herring fishery
Story blurb

As Dalton Knight and Georgia Dey recover from having worked together on the investigation of a serial killer in the last book, Angel of Death, they take time off from the police station, but work parttime jobs during the Herring Season in March. On the first day of opening, Dalton butts heads with an out of town fisherman and is seen arguing with him in the bar later than night. The next herring opening, the man Dalton argued with is found dead in a skiff brought up in a fisherman’s net. Can he and Georgia prove his innocence and find out who really killed the fisherman? To make matters worse, there was a female found floating in the water north of town and they must work to find out who the killer is. Are the two murders tied together or totally separate?

This is the second book in the series I started on Vella. Angel of Death is the first one and is a complete book you can find listed under my published works.

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Hex Education by Lory Ewan Sign in to Save

Cozy Paranormal Academy Mystery · General

Hex Education

by Lory Ewan
#fish out of water witch mystery#hidden magical potential#witch familiar sidekick mystery#magical academy mystery#second chance witch protagonist
Story blurb

Teaching at a magical academy sounded like the perfect fresh start for Fern Millwood.

She didn’t plan on becoming an amateur detective.

When her grandmother’s irreplaceable Guidebook of Crossings disappears on her first day at Silverstone Academy, Fern suspects someone on the faculty knows more than they are admitting. Then she finds a torn page hidden in the restricted Archives.

The page contains part of a crossing rite, and someone has already tried to use it.

When the academy’s head librarian is found dead after the rite goes terribly wrong, suspicion spreads through Silverstone. Faculty members guard their secrets, evidence points toward an innocent man, and the person responsible is preparing to try again.

With her opinionated familiar, Pickles, providing sarcastic commentary, Fern must trust the unusual sensitivity she has spent years doubting. She may not have the credentials of Silverstone’s experts, but she can recognize what they have overlooked.

Before anyone else is hurt, Fern must identify who stole the guidebook and stop them from attempting the rite again.

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Hope Rising by Kim Brown Sign in to Save

Cozy Fantasy · Teen

Hope Rising

by Kim Brown
#Cozy Fantasy#Found Family#Slow-Burn Romance#Hope & Belonging#Changing the System
Story blurb

✨ HOPE RISING ✨

A Cozy Fantasy Novel by Kim Brown

Tammy goes to sleep expecting another ordinary day.

Instead, she wakes in a silent forest with no idea where she is—or how to get home.

Beyond the trees lies Hope Rising, a seemingly perfect community built on peace, equality, and order. Tammy is given a new name—Celeste —a new home, a new purpose…and a long list of rules she is expected to obey.

But Hope Rising has secrets.

Every resident is secretly ranked. No one knows their own level. No one knows exactly what makes them rise or fall.

And nobody wants to talk about Level Zero.

Determined to get back to her family, Celeste begins searching for answers. But between forbidden paths, missing residents, hidden friendships, and an infuriating rule-follower named Andre, she starts wondering if she was really brought to Hope Rising to escape it…

Or to change it.

🌿 Found family

✨ Mysterious magic

💜 Slow-burn romance

🔐 Dangerous secrets

📜 Rules that might just need breaking

Not all rules are meant to be followed.

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Howl If You Love Me by Margaux Carroll Sign in to Save

Paranormal cozy mystery · General

Howl If You Love Me

by Margaux Carroll
#Scooby Doo for grown-ups#Supernatural Hoaxes#Mystery with humor#Female Private Investigator#Diverse found family
Story blurb

Private investigator Keke Chung believes there’s always an explanation for the unexplained.

Then the Wolfman shows up.

After Keke connects a viral dating sensation in fur and fangs to a string of San Francisco robberies, actor Jax Maddox is arrested. But Jax insists he was only following instructions from someone known as the Handler.

When one of his former dates turns up dead, Keke follows a trail of secret research, coded messages, and a respectable academic society obsessed with people who disappear and return.

Just like her.

Twenty-eight years ago, three-year-old Keke vanished from a locked home during the Lunar New Year. Four days later, she was found near Coit Tower, unharmed and clutching a stuffed toy no one recognized.

San Francisco called her the Lucky Lunar New Year Baby.

The Silver Howl Society calls her the Returned One.

Now another Wolfman is stalking the city, and the mystery Keke has spent her life trying to solve may finally be hunting her back.

This Black-led paranormal cozy mystery is perfect for fans of Only Murders in the Building, Poker Face, and mysteries where the supernatural always has a very human explanation.

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Love & War: Season One by C.R. Raven Sign in to Save

Dark Urban Fantasy, Mafia · Mature

Love & War: Season One

by C.R. Raven
#Urban Fantasy#Organized Crime#Family Drama#Morally Gray Characters#Strong Female Lead
Story blurb

A year has passed since the Devil's Massacre.

Sapphire Astor takes the reins of her family's empire as Don, but not every family in Chicago is willing to answer to a woman. As old tensions threaten the fragile peace, the Astors have more to protect than their name.

Chicago is a city built on secrets. And some secrets are worth killing to keep.

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Return to Birch Lake by Kim Brown Sign in to Save

Cozy Fantasy · Teen

Return to Birch Lake

by Kim Brown
Story blurb

Ashleigh never quite belonged in the ordinary world.

Growing up in Birch Lake, her closest friends weren't the other children in town. They were the animals that seemed to understand her, the faeries hidden among the trees, the nymphs nestled in flowers, and the centaurs who listened when no one else would. But eventually, Ashleigh left Birch Lake—and the magic she once believed in—behind.

Now her parents have vanished without a trace.

Returning to her childhood home in search of answers, Ashleigh discovers an even stranger mystery waiting for her. The magical friends who once filled the woods have disappeared too. Yet unexplained shimmers appear in the darkness, something moves just beyond her windows, and impossible little clues suggest that perhaps the magic never left at all.

Then there's Investigator Viktor Wilde, the handsome newcomer assigned to her parents' case. He's asking questions Ashleigh isn't sure she wants to answer—and making it increasingly difficult to remember why getting involved with him would be a terrible idea.

As the mysteries of Birch Lake begin to intertwine, Ashleigh must uncover what happened to her parents, where her childhood friends have gone, and why the animals—and perhaps the magic itself—have always been drawn to her.

Coming home was supposed to give Ashleigh answers. Instead, Birch Lake is about to show her just how much she never knew.

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Scion by Ash Storm Sign in to Save

Feminist Thriller · Mature

Scion

by Ash Storm
Story blurb

Every founding myth needs a monster. Scion Tech chose her.

Three years ago, Wren was erased from the company she helped build. Not with violence. With paperwork—and a story repeated until it hardened into fact. Now she's the name new hires are warned about. Too ambitious. Too difficult. Too much.

What the story leaves out: she never stopped watching.

She works alone. In silence. Dismantling the same machine that tore her career apart, one founder at a time—because the one time she let herself be seen, it nearly destroyed her. She has a single rule: Never surface until it's too late.

Now, something is stirring inside Scion again. A new name is quietly being prepared to vanish. And finding Wren before she finds them may be the only thing standing between Scion and the monster it made.

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Skidaway Alligator by Alan Chaput Sign in to Save

Mystery · General

Skidaway Alligator

by Alan Chaput
#Southern murder mystery#Southern crime thriller#environmental conspiracy thriller#organized crime suspense#Souther mystery
Story blurb

When a bloodstained shoe and a trail leading to an alligator-infested lake are discovered in Savannah’s most exclusive communities, residents are eager to blame a man-eating gator. But the keys found inside the reptile point to missing land investor Josh Middleton, and the evidence suggests he was murdered before the alligator ever reached him.

For environmental attorney Hayley Falcon, the mystery strikes dangerously close to home. Her fight to stop a developer from destroying coastal wetlands has already drawn threats. Now a reporter is digging into the dead man’s deals, officials are hiding secrets, and a ruthless criminal organization is tightening its grip on Savannah through bribery, bloodshed, and fear.

As attacks against the Falcon family escalate, Hayley learns that her husband, Shawn, has concealed a life far more dangerous than she imagined. With their marriage fracturing and their daughter caught in the crosshairs, Hayley must decide whom she can trust before an enemy inside Savannah’s highest circles destroys everyone she loves.

Skidaway Alligator is a fast-moving Southern mystery of murder, corruption, family secrets, and ambition, set amid the moss-draped beauty and shadowed marshes of coastal Georgia, where the most dangerous predator is not always the one beneath the water.

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Skidaway Oak by Alan Chaput Sign in to Save

Mystery · General

Skidaway Oak

by Alan Chaput
#Southern mystery#Southern family mystery#mother-daughter crime thriller#psychological thriller#domestic abuse murder mystery
Story blurb

Meet Hayley Falcon, a gun-toting matriarch, and her single-minded daughter, Maxine, whom she loves unconditionally. Meet Tater, a computer technician with sociopathic tendencies, who has lived with and exploited Maxine since she graduated from college. Follow Hayley as she is plunged into mayhem in order to rescue her daughter from self-destruction. Watch as Maxine’s life blows up, literally.

Plot twists abound in this contemporary Southern Suspense novel. Think “Dallas” meets “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

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Taking You Mine by Bobbie Robins Sign in to Save

Thriller · Mature

Taking You Mine

by Bobbie Robins
#stalker#psychological thriller#suspense#domestic thriller#identity theft
Story blurb

He says someone else was watching her first.
Nora Valder thought the stranger at the hotel bar would be one reckless night she'd never repeat.

Then Adrian Cross appears in her city.

He knows where she works. He knows her routines. And when photographs taken through Nora's bedroom window begin appearing, every clue seems to point to the man she should never have trusted.

Except Adrian says someone else was watching her first.

And he can prove it.

As the watcher moves closer, Nora's carefully ordered life begins to unravel. Someone has followed her for months, learning where she shops, when she comes home, and how to get inside her apartment. Adrian may be the only person who can help her find him.

Or he may be exactly the person she should fear.

Because one man wants to protect her. One wants to possess her.

And Nora isn't sure they're different men.

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The Mayor’s Final Speech by LC Hovater Sign in to Save

Cozy Mystery · General

The Mayor’s Final Speech

by LC Hovater
#cozy mystery#amateur sleuth#small town#senior sleuths#clean mystery
Story blurb

Founders Day in Crestview, Georgia, is supposed to bring neighbors together. Instead, it ends with the mayor dead.

When Mayor Thomas Holloway’s fatal fall begins to look less like an accident, Frances “Fifi” Davis finds herself noticing the little things everyone else seems to overlook. With her best friend, Mae Carter, beside her, Fifi starts asking questions, following hunches, and discovering that their charming small town has been keeping more than a few secrets.

Someone in Crestview knows what really happened to the mayor.

And Fifi has never been very good at leaving a question unanswered.

A clean, cozy mystery filled with small-town secrets, friendship, humor, and two women who are far more observant than people give them credit for.

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The Mirror Bride by Arla Jones Sign in to Save

Cozy mystery · General

The Mirror Bride

by Arla Jones
#ghost story#suspense#cozy mystery
Story blurb

After surviving a drowned village and a ghost cat on their honeymoon, Sara and Granger have one simple goal: enjoy the rest of their trip without encountering anything dead.

Then they stop in Fenwick Hollow.

The quiet old mill town seems harmless enough, until Sara discovers an antique hand mirror that shopkeeper Thomas Renner insists isn't for sale. By the time she and Granger leave, the mirror is traveling with them anyway.

And they aren't traveling alone.

Adelaide Fenwick drowned herself a hundred and fifty years ago after the man she loved was lost at sea. Her family erased the truth of her death, denied her a proper grave, and spent generations trying to rid themselves of the mirror meant to be her wedding gift.

Now Adelaide has noticed Granger.

As he begins sleepwalking toward mirrors and dreaming of a beautiful house, a waiting bride, and a life that was never his, Sara realizes Adelaide isn't simply haunting them.

She's trying to finish the wedding she never had.

To bring Granger back, Sara must uncover what happened to Adelaide—and give a forgotten woman something her own family denied her for more than a century.

A name. A grave. And, perhaps, the chance to finally leave.

A haunting paranormal mystery about love, grief, forgotten histories, and a bride who has waited far too long for her groom.

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The Shadow Women of Penderton Asylum by Grace Mirchandani Sign in to Save

Historical women’s fiction/Thriller · General

The Shadow Women of Penderton Asylum

by Grace Mirchandani
Story blurb

THE SHADOW WOMEN OF PENDERTON ASYLUM

They were told they were ill. They knew they were prisoners.

Penderton Asylum has stood since 1880, built with the promise of caring for those society could not—or would not—care for itself. But behind its imposing walls, some women have discovered a terrifying truth:

You don't have to be insane to be locked away.

In an era when a woman's grief could be called hysteria, her independence labeled defiance, and her refusal to obey deemed evidence of madness, a handful of women find themselves committed to Penderton under circumstances that make no sense.

At the center of it all is Dr. Klaus Brenner, a brilliant and formidable physician who seems to know far more about his patients than he should. Under his watch, the women are diagnosed, controlled, silenced—and slowly stripped of any hope that someone outside the asylum will believe them.

But Brenner has made one mistake.

He has put the wrong women in the same place.

Strangers at first, they begin to recognize something in one another: courage, intelligence, secrets—and an unshakable determination to survive.

With help from a few unexpected allies inside Penderton, they begin a secret alliance.

Then they begin to plan.

Because there is only one way out of Penderton Asylum…
Escape.
But freedom will come at a price.
And if Dr. Brenner discovers what they're planning, they may never see the outside.
Come inside Penderton.
Just be careful who you trust.

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The Tiger's Cage by S.B. Ryan Sign in to Save

Cozy paranormal mystery · Teen

The Tiger's Cage

by S.B. Ryan
Story blurb

When Julian Fairweather attends Vorchov's Family Circus on an unwanted date, he expects acrobats, questionable fairground games, and perhaps a little snack.
He does not expect murder.
When one of the circus family is found dead during the matinee, suspicion falls quickly and a little too neatly in Julian's opinion. With Fiadh Brandywood joining him once again, the pair are drawn into a world of secrets.
At Vorchov's Circus, the murder may not be the only thing hiding behind the curtain.

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There's an App for That? by Hunter Chadwick Sign in to Save

Technothriller · General

There's an App for That?

by Hunter Chadwick
Story blurb

We all know our phones are spying on us, but at EMU, there is something more nefarious going on. That lethargy and malaise across the campus? It might just be more than the runny ice cream in the cafeteria and people reeling from the football team's latest loss. There's an app for everything these days, but nobody expected that there's an app for that...

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Welcome to Pine Ridge by Carly Black Sign in to Save

Psychological Suspense · Mature

Welcome to Pine Ridge

by Carly Black
#small town secrets#domestic suspense#courtroom drama
Story blurb

Katlin Meyer swore she’d never set foot in Pine Ridge again.

Then her father starts dying in the farmhouse at the edge of the orchard, and Katlin has two weeks to sign the papers, sell the land, and get back to the life she built where nobody knows what happened eleven years ago.

On her first night home, she finds a faded pink ribbon tied to the fence.

Crystal Brennan used to wear ribbons just like it.

Crystal was Katlin’s best friend. She was fifteen when she disappeared, and Katlin was the last person known to have seen her.

Then more things begin appearing.

A ring.

An old photograph with Crystal’s face scratched away.

Someone has been holding on to pieces of that summer for eleven years, and they know Katlin has been lying about the night Crystal vanished.

Now a detective is asking questions. A man from Katlin’s past is watching her too closely. And someone is determined to make sure the truth buried in the orchard finally comes out.

Katlin ran once.

This time, the past is waiting for her at home.

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What The Water Remembers by Toryn Cross Sign in to Save

Queer Paranormal Mystery · Mature

What The Water Remembers

by Toryn Cross
#haunted college#local folklore#drowned village#queer slow burn#supernatural mystery
Story blurb

Shandy LaVigne came to Waterside College for a fresh start.

She did not come for the ghost stories.

Unfortunately, her lifelong best friend Katie has always had a thing for the unexplained, and Waterside seems determined to prove her right. Strange laughter echoes through the halls of their historic dorm. Tempers flare for no reason. Local legends have a habit of sounding a little too specific.

Shandy can explain all of it.

Probably.

But the longer she stays in Waterside, the harder it becomes to ignore the feeling that something in this old river town has noticed her. And as Shandy and Katie start digging into the stories everyone else treats like harmless folklore, one question becomes increasingly difficult to laugh off:

What if the legends aren't warning them away?

What if they've been waiting for Shandy to come home?

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Who Gets Missed by Bobbie Lou Sign in to Save

Thriller · Mature

Who Gets Missed

by Bobbie Lou
#Found Family#Slow-Burn#Small-Town Secrets#Missing Teen#Truama Survivor Heroine
Story blurb

Some kids disappear long before anyone starts looking.

When a teenage boy’s body surfaces beneath the thawing ice of Cedar Glen’s lake, therapist Libby Rogers recognizes the braided bracelet around his wrist. Eli Mercer was once her client at Cedar Creek, a wilderness program for vulnerable teens... and he had been trying to tell someone something was wrong.

Sheriff Nolan McCann has his own questions. Records are missing. Security footage doesn’t match. Powerful people in Cedar Glen are far more interested in protecting the town’s reputation than reopening old wounds.

Then another boy disappears.

As Libby and Nolan follow separate trails toward the same disturbing truth, the investigation begins to expose the difference between the people who claim to protect children and the ones who actually do. For Libby, the case also stirs memories she has spent years keeping buried, and forces her to confront how far she’ll go to keep the people she loves safe.

In a town built on beautiful views, old money, and carefully guarded secrets, finding the truth may depend on one question:

Who gets missed?

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