The Hollow Draft

A Supernatural Thriller

A dead car. A storm that won’t end. And a house that is begging to be heard.Merrin Hill isn’t looking for a story. Three years ago, her ambition cost a teenage girl her life, and Merrin hasn’t written a real word since. Now, she hides in the obituary pages of a dying local paper, living by a single, unbreakable rule: Do not get involved.But when her car dies on a flooded backroad, Merrin seeks shelter in Kestrel Cottage.It seems like a sanctuary. The fire is lit. The table is set. But the stew in the bowl is rotting while it steams, and the dust on the floor is undisturbed by human feet.Then, the performance begins.Every forty-two seconds, a woman screams in the hallway. Every forty-two seconds, a man begs for forgiveness. Every forty-two seconds, the house resets.Merrin soon realizes this isn’t a normal haunting. The spirits of Kestrel Cottage aren’t trying to scare her away. They are trapped in a loop of ancient tragedy, and they are desperate for an audience. They don't need a priest; they need a witness. They need someone to pick up a pen and correct the record of their death.Trapped by the storm and armed only with a damp notebook, Merrin must piece together the truth behind the smell of burnt sugar and the scratches on the cellar wall. But history is a dangerous thing to rewrite.To save the ghosts from their three-hundred-year purgatory, Merrin must do the one thing she swore she would never do again.She has to get involved.Perfect for fans of Darcy Coates, C.J. Tudor, and The Haunting of Hill House, The Hollow Draft is a claustrophobic, atmospheric thriller about the stories we tell to survive—and the price of keeping them secret.