Not Random

Rice Lake

By: TJ Cummings

Narrated by: Ashley Moss

Justin Peters thought coming home would mean closure.

Instead, it marks the beginning. After a suspicious fire destroys his parents' house, Justin returns to Brainerd, Minnesota — and to the frozen shoreline of Rice Lake, where the past once felt safe. But grief quickly turns to dread when violence follows him home. A slaughtered dog placed with precision. A woman vanishing the same night as the fire. A financial trail leading back to a secret affair buried in 1997. As Aubrey Thompson uncovers a truth about her father that shatters everything she believed about her family, a hidden heir emerges from the shadows — calculating, patient, and convinced the Thompson legacy was stolen from him. He doesn't want money. He wants acknowledgment. And he's willing to escalate until he gets it. When Aubrey's teenage daughter becomes the next move in his carefully constructed game, Justin realizes the fire was never random. Neither was his return. In a town where everyone thinks they know each other, the past is not buried — it's waiting.

And someone has been planning this for years.

©2026 TJ Cümmings (P)2026 TJ Cümmings