The Tenth Mark

by David Connor

Overview

For nine months, the mountain town of Hemlock Falls has lived in quiet dread. Nine victims. Nine months. Each body was left with a carved symbol, and no clear link between them. The press calls them The Silent Nine. The locals call it a curse. No suspects. No answers. Just whispers in the dark.

Evelyn Thorne hoped Hemlock Falls would be a place to disappear. A place to write. To raise her son in peace. But when the killer's mark appears on her property, peace gives way to paranoia-and then, to purpose.

Drawn into a mystery the town refuses to face, Evelyn uncovers fragments of an unfinished ritual, a buried history of cult-like devotion, and the chilling sense that her family has been marked for something far worse than death.

Now, with herself and her son caught in the killer's shadow, Evelyn must confront the darkness before she becomes the final chapter in a story written in blood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798319634580
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	08/05/2025
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

David W. Connor is a writer of literary horror and psychological suspense, with a focus on atmosphere, emotional tension, and the slow unraveling of ordinary lives touched by extraordinary darkness. His fiction delves into the hidden fears that lurk beneath quiet towns, the rituals we inherit or invent, and the unspoken traumas that shape our identities. Originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, Connor discovered his passion for horror literature in his early teens and has since cultivated a distinctive voice defined by restraint, dread, and psychological depth. His debut novel, The Tenth Mark, draws from these lifelong influences to deliver a chilling, character-driven narrative about isolation, silence, and the marks we carry—willingly or not.

Connor lives with his wife in western Massachusetts, where he continues to write stories that explore the unsettling space between the seen and the unseen.