Tense, unsettling, and psychologically gripping.
A Dallas defense attorney questions his sanity in Lively’s psychological legal thriller. A delayed retirement sparks tension with Simon Steed’s increasingly cold protégé, Shade Olson. But as disturbing events unfold nearby, his biggest question becomes: is something happening—or is it all in his mind? Haunted by past hallucinations, he struggles to stay grounded. At the same time, the person he once trusted most may be slipping beyond his control.
Lively balances legal detail with psychological suspense, gradually tightening the narrative around Simon’s deteriorating sense of certainty. The story leans into ambiguity, inviting readers to question both external events and internal perception, with a deliberately open-ended approach. By the end, the novel’s tension rests both on solving a mystery and on understanding the limits of trust—both in others and in oneself. Readers looking for character-driven mysteries with unreliable narrators will want to take a look.
A slow-burning exploration of perception, control, and the uneasy boundary between reality and illusion.
Coming soon
Treaty Oak Publishers