Hale County.

A place where the past isn’t buried—it's waiting.

When a series of violent crimes and unexplained vanishings unsettle a small Tennessee town, Sheriff Jake Hooks begins to suspect something far more sinister than ordinary evil. The trail leads to the derelict Hale County Asylum, a decaying monument to long-forgotten patients and secrets that were never meant to surface.

As the town slips into chaos, unlikely allies emerge: a grieving professor obsessed with local folklore, a conspiracy podcaster broadcasting warnings from the hills, a brilliant doctor hiding more than research, and a young woman drawn to the asylum by visions she can’t explain. Together, they’re pulled into a mystery as old as the land itself—one that bends reality, twists memory, and demands sacrifice.

Beneath the crumbling foundation of the asylum lies something that has waited a long time to be seen. And once the door is opened, it doesn’t close quietly.

HALE COUNTY is a slow-burn Southern Gothic thriller drenched in folklore, dread, and psychological unraveling. A haunting meditation on trauma, obsession, and the weight of forgotten sins, this debut novel pulls you deep into the shadows—where truth and madness blur, and not everyone comes out the same.