First published 2026
At Cresswell University, a horror-obsessed film student notices what others miss: the artistic patterns connecting a series of murders across the city. She sees the careful staging, the macabre symbols, the way each crime scene becomes a work of violent art. For her film project, she recreates one of these murders, presenting her work to her class and Professor Maddox Shaw, a celebrated artist searching for his lost inspiration. What she doesn't know is that Shaw committed the very crime she's analyzing. Shaw lives a double existence as both respected academic and methodical killer, controlled by a secretive organization that will eliminate anyone who threatens their operations. When the student and her professor begin an affair, she enters a world where academic boundaries blur with deadly secrets. Shaw finds himself torn between his obligations to his handlers and his growing need to protect the woman who has awakened something in him. The powerful forces behind Shaw's actions won't hesitate to destroy her to preserve their hidden agenda.
Genres: romance, crime, horror, adult-fiction, thriller, dark-academia
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intense, psychological, suspenseful
Tropes: dangerous-attraction, forbidden-romance, secrets-and-lies, unreliable-protagonist
Setting: Cresswell University
Period: contemporary
400 pages · Paperback · Gallery Books
Content warnings: graphic-violence, murder, violence