In this haunting series opener, we meet Dakota—thirty-three, hardened, haunted, and riding the edge of recovery in Delray Beach, Florida. As she pedals through the humidity, past the halfway house that can’t hold her, memories of her childhood and the shadows of addiction follow close behind. One decision, one relapse, and one ghost from her past set the tone for a novel that is as much about loss as it is about the impossible search for redemption.
Then, we shift back seventeen years to the slow-burning heart of the story: Mecklenburg, West Virginia. Told through the eyes of Old Man Jenks, the town’s living archive, we begin to understand the weight of memory, the cycles of history, and the quiet persistence of a place that shapes everyone who passes through it.
This is a work of fiction. While inspired by the messiness of real life, the characters and events are imagined. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
