Vampires in the Shallows

Brody Hood, 17, has not set foot in the ocean since a shark attack left him broken and bleeding on his surfboard over a year ago. Now he’s stuck living in a beach town that feels like a beautiful cage—especially with his precocious new stepsister, Katie Ung, 15, parading around the house in next to nothing, stirring up feelings he must suppress.

But when Katie emerges from the ocean with a strange bite mark, everything changes. Enter Sofia Esteban, allegedly 16, dark-eyed, intoxicating, and far too interested in Katie’s companionship. Sofia claims she recently moved from Cartagena, Colombia with her enigmatic father, Francis, but Brody can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something dangerous beneath her seductive smile.

As innocent young girls begin turning up bisected along the peninsula—their nude bodies drained of blood—the press dubs the culprit The Peninsula Ripper. The kills are too precise, too ritualistic, and worst of all, they match unsolved murders dating back more than a century.

Caught between his forbidden desire for Katie and his obsession with the mysterious Sofia, Brody starts digging into the impossible. Is Francis the serial killer stalking their town? Is Sofia even human? And why does the ocean—the same dark waters that nearly claimed his life—suddenly feel like it’s calling him back? In this sensual, suspenseful tale where teen angst meets ancient evil, Brody must uncover the truth before the girls he loves become the next victims and an immortal killer vanishes without a trace, only to kill again