Fantôme Fatale
When the Cross family arrives at Hawthorne House—an aging country estate in the far reaches of rural Connecticut—they expect a month of tedious appeasement. Their uncle, Nathan Cross, has grown eccentric with age, convinced that the land is haunted by the last Hawthorne, a woman who murdered her kin in a fit of madness before plunging to her own death. Nathan has summoned the family home for a “cleansing,” and unless they humor him, he threatens to cut them out of his will.
But on the second night, the snow outside the house yields a trail of crisp, unmistakable footprints—beginning in empty, untouched drifts and marching straight toward the east wing, where the first body is found. No tracks lead away.
The next morning brings a second horror: a man crushed to death in an open meadow, his ribs splintered inward as though by some vast invisible press. No weapon, no machinery, no tracks. Only the still, silent field.
Rowan Manory, summoned by the local authorities, finds himself facing a family of traveling performers whose smiling faces conceal old loyalties and older sins. Their prodigal magician brother has recently died under suspicious circumstances. Now, it seems to be their turn.
As the snow deepens and Nathan’s health falters, Rowan must navigate a labyrinth of feuds, stagecraft, and buried guilt. Someone in Hawthorne House is using the legend of the estate to kill—and doing so with impossible precision. Unless Rowan can unravel the cruel ingenuity behind the “hauntings,” the Cross family won’t leave the property alive.
James Scott Byrnside 