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about the book
A century-old secret. A relentless enemy. One Locket that was never meant to be found.
When antiques dealer Annie Whitaker buys an unremarkable locket at a routine estate sale, she expects nothing more than a quiet ride home through the Smoky Mountains. Instead, a shadowy vehicle sends her car skidding off a cliffside road—and she realizes the attack was no accident. Hidden inside the locket is a key, a cryptic letter, and the first thread of a mystery tied to the disappearance of Eleanor Blackwood, a woman who vanished over a hundred years ago.
Someone has killed to keep that secret buried.
And now they’ve set their sights on Annie.
Her shop is ransacked. Her inventory destroyed. Her building intentionally set ablaze. With no phone, no transportation, and nowhere safe to go, Annie is forced to seek refuge in the only place left: the remote mountain ranch of Detective Jack Calloway, a man who once shared her obsession with cold cases—and who may be the only person she can trust.
As Jack digs into the evidence Annie uncovered, the danger spirals. Break-ins, threats, shadows stalking the ranch at night—each clue reveals a darker truth. The locket isn’t just a forgotten keepsake; it’s the final piece in a long-buried murder. And someone with power, reach, and generations of secrets will do whatever it takes to silence the truth forever.
With Annie marked as the next victim, Jack races to unravel a century of lies before time runs out. Every revelation tightens the noose around them both—and with Annie constantly in his line of fire, Jack’s focus fractures between the case and the woman he’s never been able to forget. The closer they come to exposing the killer, the more Jack realizes he may lose her long before the truth sees daylight. And every step forward draws them toward a final, deadly confrontation neither of them may survive.
publisher: independently published
release date: january 21, 2026
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