The Serpent's Lullaby: by AJ (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798271046292)

For fifteen years, the town of Blackthorn Hollow has lived in fear. Every winter solstice, a child disappears - each leaving behind the same omen: a cornhusk doll wrapped in red thread.

Now it's happened again. And this time, it's personal.

When former FBI folklorist Dr. Maren Cross returns home to find her niece among the missing, she expects a killer. What she finds is worse - a man who's turned folklore into a weapon.

Her former mentor, Dr. Ezra Thorne, has spent decades constructing a false legend, planting evidence, forging history, and bending an entire town's beliefs to his will. The curse isn't real - but the terror is. The disappearances are part of his experiment. And beneath the mountains, seven children are being held for the final phase.

Thorne's goal: to stage a ritual that will make his fabricated curse undeniable - erasing the line between myth and reality forever.

Maren has five days until the solstice to stop him. But Thorne has already written every move she'll make. Every clue is a trap. Every truth is another layer of his lie. And the only way to save the children may be to become part of the legend herself.

A taut psychological thriller where folklore becomes science, and belief becomes a weapon. Perfect for readers who crave dark, atmospheric suspense and stories where nothing - and no one - is what it seems.

BLACKTHORN HOLLOW - Where the curse isn't real... but the fear is.

⚠️ Content warning: child endangerment, psychological manipulation, and manufactured trauma.