What the Pines Buried
When podcaster Rowan Ashford receives an anonymous tip about a decades-old disappearance in the estranged hometown she fled years ago, she sees the story that could finally make her true-crime show a hit. But the deeper she digs, the more the pines seem to close in around her, until she realizes the truth she's chasing isn't just buried in the forest soil. It's buried in her own bloodline. Rowan's investigation pulls her into the orbit of Sheriff Ezra Dodd, whose family has policed the town for generations, and Deacon Dodd, the soft-spoken minister who seems to know more about the town's secrets than any prayer book could hold. With the help of her brother Garrett and the prickly County Archivist Hattie Calloway, Rowan unravels a chain of small-town silence: a missing girl, a convenient lie, and a family willing to do anything to protect their name. As an unknown caller begins feeding her fragments of the past, Rowan must decide whether exposing the truth is worth unraveling everything her family has built, and whether the voice on the other end of the line wants justice, or revenge. With Hollis Crane circling the case and evidence slipping into the pines for good, Rowan has one chance to light a match in the darkness. But some fires, once started, burn everything they touch.