A Riley Thomas Mystery Series

The dead can speak. They need her to listen. Ever since Riley Thomas, reluctant medium extraordinaire, accidentally released a malevolent spirit from a Ouija board when she was thirteen, she’s taken a hard pass on scary movies, haunted houses, and cemeteries. Twelve years later, when her best friend pressures her into spending a paranormal investigation weekend at the infamous Jordanville Ranch—former home of deceased serial killer Orin Jacobs—Riley’s still not ready to accept the fact that she can communicate with ghosts. Shortly after their arrival at the ranch, the spirit of a little boy contacts Riley; a child who went missing—and was never found—in 1973. In order to put the young boy’s spirit to rest, she has to come to grips with her ability. But how can she solve a mystery that happened a decade before she was born? Especially when someone who knows Orin’s secrets wants to keep the truth buried—no matter the cost. Content warning: Adult language, sexual situations, discussions about sexual assault.

He doesn’t want her to focus on the past. It’s been six months since Riley Thomas, reluctant medium extraordinaire, has had a ghost haunting her apartment, and she prefers it that way. Life is less complicated when the dead aren’t trying to get her attention. Her best friend is getting married and wants to DIY her way through wedding prep—Riley’s got no time for ghosts. One of Jade’s wedding must-haves is vintage film cameras her guests can use to help document the big day. The months-long hunt for relics leads to a thrift shop jackpot, and Riley adds the cameras to the growing pile of wedding supplies in her apartment. That night, Riley gets a midnight wake-up call from a ghostly Black woman in a yellow dress. Even after the haunted cameras are removed from the apartment, the ghost woman keeps popping up, both in Riley’s dreams and in the corner of her eye. Tracking down the previous owner of the cameras proves difficult, and as Riley digs deeper, she uncovers a link between the cameras and two murdered women—one white, one Black, yet neither one is Riley’s mystery woman. Though the identity of the ghost proves to be as elusive as her predator, Riley is determined to uncover the truth of what happened to these women. But now someone knows she’s looking … and he’s hell-bent on making sure he finds her first. __ Content warning: Contains adult language and mentions of sexual assault

This short story is set a few months before the events in The Forgotten Child. Riley Thomas can see and communicate with ghosts. But ever since a Ouija board incident gone awry, this ability has always scared more than intrigued her and she has vowed to avoid paranormal activity at all costs. She does a decent job of keeping the ghosts at bay—until she breaks up with her cheating asshat of a boyfriend and moves into a new apartment alone, that is. While she’s ready to start her single lifestyle drama-free, her ghost roommate has other plans. Every night for a week, he rudely wakes her up at 3:12. Struggling to get her crap together, Riley knows she has to make a choice: take two steps back and ditch the new digs before begging her best friend to let her crash on her couch—again—or take one step forward and figure out why this ghost is going bump in the night … Content warning: There is adult language.