Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. It’ll drive you crazy. Literally.

Hotel ballroom lights flicker as the University of Baltimore announces the winner of this year’s Tiberian Research Award in Psychology. Years of toil and sacrifice weigh on Emma’s shoulders. Years of enduring her professor’s unearthly demands. Years of researching mass persuasion on the internet late into the night, living in a single-bedroom apartment on campus while her friends moved away and started families.

Years spent watching her mother die of cancer before Emma could give her the grandchildren she wanted.

Years.

But it all ends tonight.

Just not the way Emma thought it would . . .

When her professor suddenly goes missing, she realizes the power of her research. The power of persuasion. Gaslighting on a global scale.

Now, she must rescue her professor before sinister forces use her research to take over the minds of everyone on social media. And, because everyone is on social media, we’re all at risk. Look at your cell phone. Open your favorite social media app. Post pictures of your cat and catch up with trusted friends, but don’t doomscroll. Don’t believe everything you read.

That’s what he wants you to do.

ESCAPE WAS NEVER AN OPTION

Charly Highsmith is a survivor. Abandoned by her parents, she spent her teens looking after her autistic brother on the bitter streets of Denver, Colorado, with nothing but a jacket and a backpack.

But things are better now. Charly and Jacob live in a two-bedroom apartment near a mall, and with the passing of their long-lost father, they've inherited a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains. Charly's eager to go there. Relive the good times she had as a child, running through the forest with Jacob and her cousins.

Amanda the Overachiever. Cam the Recluse.

But when they arrive, the cabin isn't empty.

Barry the Millionaire. Kennedy the Social Media Magnet. Randall the Hunter.

Standing by the fireplace, Charly sees that look in her neurodivergent brother's eyes. There are too many people. He's going to run. He's going to burst into the unforgiving snowstorm, sprint around the frozen lake, and hide in the forest like he did when they were young.

So much for reliving the good times.

Randall the Hunter goes to the window. Opens the curtains. The blizzard rages outside. He says no one is leaving. He says nothing will stop the hunt. Nothing will stop the excursion.

You're only as sick as your secrets.

Lauren Kaine has everything she ever wanted — a fabulous home, a shiny Lexus, a bright sixteen-year-old son, and a loving husband with a lucrative internet career. Tonight, she walks hand-in-hand with William beneath the lustrous Seattle sky, celebrating twenty-two years of marriage.

But they're not alone.

A mysterious black Audi comes out of nowhere and chases William onto a bridge. He shouts, "They're here for the card," and falls to his death. Enraged, Lauren attacks the car, but the tinted windows hide the driver's face, and it speeds away.

Still mourning, she sets out to find her husband's killer when a stranger calls and demands the card. William never mentioned a card, and she doesn't know where it is. The stranger follows her. He torments her. He threatens to kidnap her son and throw him into the same river that killed William.

And it's not just the stranger.

Black cars lurk around every corner. William's co-workers refuse to talk to her. Her brother-in-law resurfaces after years of silence, and he knows something, but she's running out of time. She searches for the card, and the past pulls her back to the first time someone kidnapped her son. Back to her resentment. Back to the truth.

They had her life planned, but when a mysterious girl goes missing, the search just might end her life.

Raine Harkins believes everything the Teaching tells her—forgiveness is freedom, there are no dead, and there is no dying. She has lived her entire life in the Haven, a small religious community buried in the hills of northern Nevada, and it's been a good life.

But when she discovers a frightened teenage girl hiding in the forest, everything changes. Raine offers to help the girl, but gunshots ring out, and the girl runs away, never to be seen again. A week later, Raine finds a letter pinned to her cabin door—God doesn't want you here. Leave the Haven now, before he runs you down.

Raine can't bear the thought of leaving the only life she's ever known, but the threatening letters keep coming, and her search for the missing girl leads her down a twisted path, unraveling the truth behind the Teaching. It's not a good life—there are dead, and people do die.

BASED ON THE AUTHOR'S TRUE-LIFE EXPERIENCE LIVING IN A CULT.

She should never have gotten into his car.

Marcus Crawford doesn't want to go back to jail. They shouldn't have sent him there in the first place because it wasn't his fault. It was an accident. Everyone—except the jury—agreed. The only good thing that came from his incarceration was meeting Crystal. She sent him letters. She supported him. After his release, Marcus, Crystal, and her precious nine-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Hannah, became a family.

But, before they could marry, Marcus discovered a needle in Crystal's gym bag. Crystal lied about where she'd been. Her makeup failed to cover the blossoming red spots on her cheeks. He attempted to support her the way she'd supported him in prison, but her addiction to drugs won.

She ended their relationship.

Now, months later, a man in a stolen car waits outside an elementary school in Elko, Nevada. He's waiting in the hot sun for the bell to ring. He's waiting for a little girl named Hannah to come out.
He's waiting to abduct her.

Crystal's substance abuse has only gotten worse since the break-up. She's not capable of saving Hannah now. Hannah needs someone like Marcus to save her, but thanks to Crystal's meth addiction, he's no longer in Hannah's life.

The school bell rings. Hannah comes out. The man opens the door to his car, and she gets inside.