Maris Matherly-Reed is a renowned New York book editor, the daughter of a publisher and the wife of bestselling author Noah Reed. It’s not often that an unsolicited submission tantalizes her, but a new manuscript with blockbuster potential inspires her to search for the elusive author.

On an obscure island off the Georgia coast, amid the ruins of an eerie cotton plantation, she finds Parker Evans, a man determined to conceal his identity as well as his past. Working with him chapter by chapter, Maris is riveted by his tale of two friends who charter a boat with a young woman for a night of revelry . . . an excursion from which only one person returns.

As the story unfolds, Maris becomes convinced it is more than just fiction. Disturbed about her growing attraction to Parker and gripped by a chilling suspicion about his novel’s characters, she searches for the hidden truth about a crime committed decades ago. Then someone close to her dies while an evil presence looms even closer: a man who will use anyone — and anything — to get what he wants . . .