Photograph

by Brian Freeman

Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Brian Freeman, Photograph is an emotional cold case mystery of hidden identities and startling twists—perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Mary Kubica, and Freida McFadden.

Shannon Wells is a private investigator who helps women with nowhere else to go. Last year, a woman named Faith Selby came to Shannon with a strange request: Find out who I really am.

Shannon soon discovered that Faith was hiding a whole other life, but was unable to penetrate the web of mystery the woman had built around her past. Now Faith is dead. The only clue to who she was and why she was murdered is an old photograph of a little girl in the rain outside a Midwestern motel.

The hunt for answers takes Shannon from the hot beaches of Florida to a remote small town in Michigan as she peels away layer after layer of a shocking cold case that has rippled violently into the present. With each secret she uncovers, the danger around her grows—and forces Shannon to confront the demons hiding in her own past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665109765
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	10/07/2025
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brian Freeman is a New York Times bestselling author of psychological suspense novels including Spilled Blood, winner of the ITW Thriller Award for best novel.

Editorial Reviews

Riveting, heartwarming, and profound, Photograph needs a warning label: Will cause insomnia, obsessive thoughts, and heart palpitations as you race to unravel this web of multilayered mysteries. Along with top-tier suspense, it’s a tale of family—blood and found—and how far we’ll go to protect our loved ones and reclaim our power. All the stars.”

author of A Friend Indeed Elka Ray

★ 2025-07-17
A tense psychological thriller introducing a strong female protagonist.

Kate Selby visits the coastal Florida office of Shannon Wells Investigations and demands to know why her mother, Faith, had hired a private eye a year earlier. It turns out that Faith had wanted Shannon to find out her true identity, which Shannon had been unable to do. Now Kate says her mother has been murdered. What follows is a dark, moody mystery revolving around a 25-year-old photograph taken by Faith that appeared in a coffee table book namedMillennium Memories, depicting images of ordinary people doing ordinary things. In the photo, a young girl is standing in front of a motel vending machine and holding a red can of Coke, her back to the camera. But there had been a murder in the motel parking lot that night in Michigan so long ago. Now the killer wants to eliminate witnesses and seems to have tracked down Faith. Who was the girl in the photograph, and what happened to her? And is Faith’s death connected to the recent triple murder of a prosecutor and his family? Shannon has horrible nightmares about a man coming to kill her, and she has a scar on her face from an event in her own past. A strange woman named Maro in Cocoa Beach tells Shannon that a man killed her in past lives and is about to do it again unless she can kill him first, and she’s unsure whether to believe the woman’s story. Is Maro addled by the lightning strike she survived as a child, or did it give her special powers? There are moody scenes involving darkness, wind-driven rain, and lonely roads that bring to mind the opening chapters of a Stephen King novel. And those roads twist a lot as Freeman unloads one surprise after another. He has written several excellent adventures includingRobert Ludlum’s The Bourne Evolution (2020).

An enjoyable read. May there be more Shannon Wells tales to come.

Kirkus Reviews

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a photograph is worth a thousand twists in Brian Freeman’s latest blockbuster, Photograph. The novel explores family secrets, the despair of losing a mother, and the lies we tell for those we love. Photograph proves once again why Freeman is one of the best thriller writers working today.”

bestselling author of Parents Weekend Alex Finlay