The Fractured Lantern

A Gripping Mystery Where Every Clue Burns Brighter Than the Last

Every lantern casts a glow. Some cast a warning.

The lights were meant to guide the children home—until they started marking the ones who wouldn’t return.

When the body of eight-year-old Ava Crowder is found beneath the shattered glass of Eldermere Park’s lantern display, Detective Sarah Bishop knows the case won’t stay small for long. Not when the evidence keeps rearranging itself. Not when every witness remembers something different.
The town blames the traveling display.
The church blames the parents.
But Sarah sees the truth in the details:
Ava wasn’t a random victim. She was chosen.
As Sarah digs deeper, she uncovers a string of unsolved cases—all involving children who vanished near festival lights, all dismissed by officials who preferred convenience over chaos. The closer she gets, the clearer the pattern becomes:
Someone in Eldermere uses light to hide darkness.
And they’ve been doing it for decades.
When a second child disappears and a strange symbol appears carved into Sarah’s windshield, she realizes she’s no longer investigating a killer—
She’s being invited.
And the next message will come in the form of another fractured lantern.
Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Tana French, and Karin Slaughter, The Fractured Lantern is a chilling thriller about memory, manipulation, and the shadows we refuse to see.