First published 2026
Song Holloway loses everything when Black Sunday's dust storm destroys her Oklahoma home in 1935. Years later, the army recruits her to work at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a secret city that exists nowhere on maps. Song tests pipes for leaks in a classified system, but nobody explains what flows through them. The work proves dangerous and workers disappear without explanation. Behind the barbed wire and watchtowers, Song discovers the community the dust storm took from her. She bonds with fellow women workers who become her chosen family. She falls for Hol, a kind soldier who brings her peace. Then two government agents summon Song to a small room. They order her to spy on the women she loves. In a place built on secrets, staying quiet once kept Song safe. Now her silence makes her part of something she doesn't understand. Song must choose between protecting her newfound family and obeying men with power she'll never possess. Her decisions will follow her long after she discovers what really moved through those pipes she tested.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, morally-complex, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, moral-dilemma, secrets-and-lies
Setting: Oklahoma, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Period: 1935, World War II era, 1940s
392 pages · Paperback · Storm Publishing
Content warnings: death, sexism