What the Hollow Keeps

Vera Cassidy returns to the Hollow for the first time in years , and the town wants her gone before she even arrives. When the county bus deposits her on cracked pavement beneath a sky heavy with fog, the storefronts are dark, the sidewalks are empty, and the only person waiting is June Cassidy, her silence louder than any welcome. By morning, Sheriff Dale Merritt is asking questions Vera does not want to answer, and the Sloane family , Ewan, Maren, and the elderly Bea , has closed ranks behind their weathered doors. Father Dimas hears what the parish will not say aloud, while Hank Reilly, Nora McKinnon, and Eleanor Pratt trade glances that suggest the Hollow has been keeping its secrets long before Vera stepped off that bus. Lila Vance is the only one who seems willing to speak the truth, and Tommy Greer knows more than his silence admits. As the fog thickens over Piney Ridge, Vera realizes the Hollow did not simply forget her , it buried something in her name. To leave is to vanish; to stay is to dig up what the valley has spent decades concealing. And the Hollow, it turns out, has no intention of giving up its dead.