Some truths refuse to stay buried. When Sheriff Evelyn Harwood is called to the decaying Whitlock plantation, she finds a scene out of hell: a young woman's mutilated body, a town choking on superstition, and a preacher whispering about demons that wear human skin.

What begins as a brutal killing unravels into something far older—and far darker. Every clue leads back to the Crowder family, a blood-cursed lineage bound by silence. As Sheriff Harwood digs deeper, she discovers her own father's connection to a buried crime: a child's death erased from the record, and a sin powerful enough to poison generations.

With a storm closing in and the past clawing its way out of the ground, Sheriff Harwood and Pastor Silas Crane must confront the evil binding their town together—a faceless thing born of faith, shame, and buried flesh, one that has been feeding for decades.

To stop it, they'll have to exhume the truth. And some graves should never be opened.

A Southern Gothic supernatural thriller novel where buried sins rot beneath the surface—and the truth demands blood to be unearthed.

A chilling new case from the world of Hale Mercer.

Perfect for listeners of Revival by Stephen King, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, and The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock.