She inherited a bookshop, a mystery… and the creature living in her rafters.
When archivist Wren Calloway returns to the quiet town of Ashfen after her father’s death, she expects grief, dust, and the slow work of rebuilding a life among old books.
What she doesn’t expect is the whispers.
Not the town’s gossip. Not the secrets buried in land records and forgotten archives.
The other whisper.
The one that moves through the bookshop after dark.
Something has been watching Wren from the rafters of Calloway Books—something ancient, careful… and unmistakably intelligent.
He calls himself Sable.
Tall. Silent. Eight-eyed. A creature woven from shadow and silk.
A monster the town was never meant to know about.
But when Wren begins uncovering evidence that a beloved local shopkeeper was murdered, the truth pulls her deeper into Ashfen’s hidden history—one tied to land deals, old loyalties, and secrets someone is willing to kill to protect.
Sable has been guarding this town for longer than anyone remembers.
Now he’s guarding her.
As the mystery tightens and the danger grows closer, Wren must decide whether to trust the monster who watches her from the dark… or the people she has known her whole life.
Because the deeper she digs, the clearer the truth
The killer is closer than she thinks.
And the only thing more dangerous than the monster in her shop…
is how safe she feels in his web.
✨ Perfect for readers who
Cozy mystery with a dark twist
Monster romance with protective heroes
Small town secrets
Slow burn supernatural romance
Humanoid spider / arachnid shifter heroes
Bookshop settings and quiet investigative heroines