Copyright © 2026 by Declan James Books All Rights Reserved Please Note: This is a prepublication preview. It may undergo changes before the final edition is published. Chapter One It’s important to thrust the blade upwards. Not straight in. You could forget sometimes how solid a structure the rib bones could be. They’re easy to…
Copyright © 2025 by Declan James Books All Rights Reserved Content Warning Chapter One Thirty-one years, eight months, sixteen days, two hours, and thirty-nine minutes ago… On the last day of her life, Sonya Cashen hated her shoes. Such a stupid thing to care about, she knew. But as she ran through the yard toward…
Copyright © 2025 by Declan James Books All Rights Reserved Chapter One Eighteen hours ago… She looked at him, those piercing, ice-blue eyes filled with fear. Those eyes. That dark hair. He reached down and curled a strand of it between his fingers. She flinched, tried to scramble backwards, but she couldn’t find a good…
Copyright © 2024 by Declan James Books All Rights Reserved Chapter One She stared at him. Always judging. Always looking down at him. Her frozen gaze, wide-eyed, accusatory. Her mouth stuck open in her final scream. He held her face in front of him, ready to call him another name. But she would never get…
Copyright © 2023 by Declan James Books Chapter One She was dead the moment the killer reached for the doorknob and turned it. He knew. This was going to be the hardest part. The unknown. If he’d had to break one of the panes of glass to get to the lock, she might have heard…
Copyright © 2023 by Declan James Books Chapter One Pain is a song most cannot play. Most cannot hear. But make no mistake, there is a melody to it. A harmony. There is beauty of form. Each person is different. Like each instrument. No two notes sound exactly the same, if you know how to…
Copyright © 2023 by Declan James Books Chapter One Echo Lake Twenty-five years ago… She wasn’t the first to die here. In 1973, a boy had gone fishing with his father, waded in too deep, his foot stuck in the muck, he had panicked. For him, it felt just like going to sleep, after the…
Copyright © 2022 by Declan James Books All Rights Reserved Twenty pairs of disapproving eyes settled on Detective Jake Cashen during the morning roll call. Then half of them turned to grins as they got the full effect of Jake’s ringtone. He’d broken a rule. “Phone’s on silent, Detective,” Lieutenant John Beverly said, peering at…