Dr. Julian Voss, a brilliant criminologist and expert on female serial killers, thought he had escaped the monsters.
In The Widow Next Door, a move to the idyllic town of Maplewood, Ohio becomes a waking nightmare when Julian’s charming new neighbor, Becca Harlan, begins displaying the unmistakable patterns of a Black Widow. As bodies are buried under flower beds and late-night digging raises deadly questions, Julian must risk his marriage, his daughter’s innocence, and his own sanity to expose the smiling killer living just beyond the fence.
But the monsters do not rest.
In The Caretaker’s Shadow, set seven months later in Columbus, a warm and highly respected nurse practitioner named Jennifer Hale moves in across the street. As she inserts herself into the Voss family’s most vulnerable moments — caring for Elena’s ailing father with seemingly endless compassion — Julian’s instincts scream that something is terribly wrong. What begins as subtle suspicion spirals into a terrifying battle against an Angel of Death who hides her poison behind gentle hands, medical authority, and perfect neighborly kindness. Told with the same atmospheric tension, forensic authenticity, and psychological depth as the first story, these two interconnected novellas follow one man’s relentless fight against the most invisible and dangerous killers of all — the ones who smile, bake casseroles, and offer comfort while deciding who lives and who dies.
Because in the quiet suburbs of Midwest Ohio, the most terrifying monsters don’t hide in the shadows.
They live next door.
