Hale County - Martin Chad R

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.