by S. A. Cosby
First published 2025
Roman Carruthers built a comfortable life as a financial adviser in Atlanta, far from his family's crematory in Jefferson Run, Virginia. That distance collapses when his sister Neveah calls with devastating news: their father lies in a coma after a hit-and-run accident. Roman returns home to discover the crash was no accident. His brother Dante owes money to violent criminals who won't wait much longer for payment. Roman must deploy his financial expertise to generate the cash that will keep his family alive. But the immediate crisis awakens an older wound. Twenty years ago, their mother vanished without explanation, leaving the teenage siblings to fend for themselves. Neveah, who sacrificed her own dreams to hold the family together, refuses to let this mystery remain buried. As Roman fights to protect his siblings and Neveah searches for answers about their mother's disappearance, the Carruthers family faces a reckoning that will either forge them into an unbreakable unit or reduce everything they've built to ashes.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, sibling-relationships
Setting: Atlanta, Jefferson Run, Virginia
Period: Contemporary
333 pages · Hardcover · Pine & Cedar
Content warnings: death, violence