Leila George

A famous author is pulled into a twisted mind game with her rich, powerful new neighbor — who might be a murderer.

When an intriguing novel appears at the bedside of a journalist whose career has been built on revealing transgressions, she is horrified to realize she's a key character in a long-buried story—one that exposes her darkest secret.

17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Headed by boot-tough matriarch Janine "Smurf" Cody and her right-hand Baz, who runs the business and calls the shots, the clan also consists of Pope, the oldest and most dangerous of the Cody boys; Craig, the tough and fearless middle son; and Deran, the troubled, suspicious "baby" of the family.

Haunted by his past in the FBI and his devout mother's untimely death, the first Black sheriff in a small Bible Belt county is tasked with leading the hunt for a serial killer who has quietly been preying on Black communities in southern Virginia for years in the name of God.