First published 2025
Samantha Payne never expected her estranged grandfather to leave her anything. She cut ties with him fourteen years ago after witnessing her father bury a murdered child near their family cottage. Her father killed himself when accusations surfaced. Now the will requires Sam to spend a month at that same lakefront property to prove her father's innocence, as her grandfather believed. Sam returns to Paynes Hollow with her aunt, confronting memories she buried long ago. Within days, her aunt vanishes without explanation. Sam finds herself alone in the cottage where everything went wrong. The forest fills with unexplained sounds at night. Strange shapes emerge from the lake water. Her dreams turn violent and sleepless paranoia takes hold. The lake seems to harbor something terrible beneath its surface. Sam must determine whether the danger comes from her fractured memories or something far worse lurking in the depths of Paynes Hollow.
Genres: fiction, mystery, horror, adult-fiction, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, eerie, haunting, psychological, suspenseful
Tropes: isolation, mystery-to-solve, return-to-hometown, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Paynes Hollow, family cottage, lakefront property
Period: 14 years prior to present
304 pages · Paperback · St. Martin's Griffin
Content warnings: child-death, murder, suicide