The Last Casting
Jonas Pryce hasn't set foot in Hollowmere in eleven years, but Margot Halliday's will demands his return, and the inheritance she left him is tied to secrets he's spent a decade trying to bury. Back in the fog-drenched village where the salt marsh meets the bay, Jonas finds the Calder and Grieve families already gathered, each of them with their own reasons for wanting what Margot left behind, and their own reasons to lie. Delia Vance, the estate's sharp-eyed attorney, reads the terms aloud: the inheritance will pass only when a final casting is made, a ritual tied to the town's old fishing traditions. But Margot's cottage holds more than paperwork. A locked room. A fishing journal no one was meant to find. And a disappearance from eleven years ago that everyone in Hollowmere has agreed to forget. As Jonas digs deeper, Miriam Hoff's silence becomes damning, Silas Grieve's charm turns brittle, and the Calder siblings, Eira, Hank, Theo, Lilah, and Elsa, begin to fracture under the weight of what their family has carried. Rose Grieve watches from the margins, remembering things nobody else dares to speak aloud. To claim what Margot left him, Jonas must uncover the truth about the last casting, and decide whether exposing Hollowmere's darkest secret will save the town or destroy it forever.