The story centers on nine-year-old Jess Hall and his older brother Christopher (nicknamed "Stump"), who is mute and autistic. The boys' mother, Julie, is a devoted member of a local fundamentalist church led by the charismatic and menacing Pastor Carson Chambliss, whose services include extreme rituals like snake handling.Tragedy strikes when Stump is smothered to death during a "healing service" intended to cure his muteness—an event witnessed by Jess. The novel follows the fallout of this death as the community's secrets are unraveled
Published in November 2001 by Covos-Day Books, this 233-page thriller is set in South Carolina and follows an investigation into the thirty-year-old disappearance of twin girls. As characters Harriet Ross, Balt Monroe, and Hollis "Doc" Halliday delve into the mystery, they uncover secrets involving racial hatred, murder, and a powerful state senator determined to keep the past hidden.
Published in 2002 by Doubleday, it is a powerful historical novel set during World War I. The story follows the lives of two Scottish families—one of wealthy landowners and one of shopkeepers—as their destinies intertwine through the onset of the war.Â
The story follows Commandant Michel de Palma of the Marseille murder squad as he investigates a series of brutal, ritualistic killings. The murderer, who calls himself "The Hunter," leaves behind a signature: a drawing of a three-fingered hand, mimicking prehistoric engravings found in an underwater cavern off the coast of Marseille. De Palma must navigate a secretive group of pre-history professors to unravel a mystery that links modern crimes to the Ice Age.Â
