Legacy of the Hunt

Dr. Amara Holloway is an expert in antebellum history, but nothing prepared her for the dark past hidden beneath a local tourist attraction: The Manor of Ages haunted house. When her sister, Seraphina, vanishes near Halloween, Amara tracks the last phone ping to the Manor, finding a gruesome secret: a slave-era tunnel connecting the site of old horrors to new, ritualistic murders. Dismissed by a jaded lead detective, Amara is forced into an uneasy alliance with rookie Detective Ben Riley, a cop battling an internal racism review who sees the pattern of missing persons he can't ignore. As Amara uncovers a multigenerational serial killer cabal among the wealthy, Riley's own family connection to the plantation's 'muscle' forces him to choose a side. After Amara is captured and witnesses the horrifying menu of victims, Riley uses his dark family ties to stage a desperate rescue. Now, with a beloved celebrity client dead and the terrifying truth in their hands, the historian and the disgraced cop are on the run, targeted by the most powerful families in America-and the hunt is just beginning. Shari Malin is an author, screenwriter, and film and theatre journalist based in Marietta, Georgia. She holds a master's degree in English Education and has dedicated much of her life to teaching. Her love for writing began in elementary school and has continued throughout her adult life. She lives in Perry, Georgia, with her husband and chihuahua.

Dr. Amara Holloway studies antebellum history. Her sister, Seraphina, was just another carefree tourist who vanished near Halloween. The last place Seraphina's phone pinged? The Manor of Ages, a sprawling, elite-owned haunted house famous for its realistic terror-and its annual body count.The police dismiss the disappearance as another seasonal tragedy, but Amara knows the phone ping is a breadcrumb. Breaking into the manor, she finds Seraphina's phone hidden in a secret passage leading to a slave-era tunnel, a chilling discovery that links the current disappearances to a history her books never dared to publish.She finds an unlikely, troubled ally in Detective Ben Riley, a young cop secretly fighting an internal affairs review for racist remarks, who realizes Amara's case connects to a horrifying pattern he'd seen in cold files. Riley is a man battling a dark past, descended from the very enforcers who carried out the plantation's original cruelty.As Amara and Riley uncover proof-a grotesque, mummified "trophy of the hunt" hidden in plain sight-they are ambushed by the Manor's owners: the powerful and ruthless Ashworth family. Amara is captured and Riley is forced to shoot a celebrity client, branding himself a fugitive.Now on the run, Riley's only hope is the compromised intelligence of a traitorous Ashworth daughter. The clock is ticking down to Halloween night. Amara and Seraphina are the prized victims on a horrifying menu, and they are about to become the main event in a centuries-old aristocratic tradition: The Inherited Game. Shari Malin is an author, screenwriter, and film and theatre journalist based in Marietta, Georgia. She holds a master's degree in English Education and has dedicated much of her life to teaching. Her love for writing began in elementary school and has continued throughout her adult life. She lives in Perry, Georgia, with her husband and chihuahua.

Trapped, wounded, and staring down a blood-soaked tradition, Dr. Amara Holloway and her unlikely partner, former Detective Ben Riley, have become the ultimate prize in the Ashworth family's sickest game.With Amara's sister, Seraphina, incapacitated by drugs, the three are given a fifteen-minute head start into the vast wilderness preserve adjacent to The Manor of Ages. Their hunters-the ruthless Patriarch, Elias Ashworth, and a cabal of wealthy, amoral celebrity clients-are armed with high-powered weapons and the cruel intent of an inherited aristocracy.The clock is ticking down on the twenty-four-hour hunt, with the prize being the Ashworth Family Sword, a symbol of the family's brutal power. Amara must use her last remaining advantage-her knowledge of the slave-era tunnels and the terrain-while Riley must battle his own family's demons and tactical knowledge to keep them alive.Their only hope lies in the moral courage of a disgraced cop, Detective Marcus Holt, who enters the fray with a body cam, ready to expose the truth. But when the dust settles, even the undeniable evidence of mass murder cannot dismantle the Ashworth empire.Now, free from the Hunt but scarred by its cruelty, Amara and Riley must face a horrifying truth: the system won't stop the elite. With Seraphina emotionally estranged and the family still powerful, Amara and Riley must step outside the law to continue The Ritual of the Blade-this time, with the hunters becoming the hunted. Shari Malin is an author, screenwriter, and film and theatre journalist based in Marietta, Georgia. She holds a master's degree in English Education and has dedicated much of her life to teaching. Her love for writing began in elementary school and has continued throughout her adult life. She lives in Perry, Georgia, with her husband and chihuahua.