The Shadow of Staven Manor

By Jerri Blackthorne

Anne Vance has spent her life chasing the ghost of her father's reputation. A disgraced academic who claimed to see monsters in the woods, he died a madman--unless his final, frantic theories about a '1923 Arrival' were actually the truth. Driven by a need for vindication, Anne arrives in the foggy coastal town of Seaborne to disprove the legend once and for all. But the salt-cracked cliffs and abandoned manors hide something that defies science. Deep within the ruins of Staven Manor lives Nero Kraujis: a feline-vampire shapeshifter and the last of an ancient Lithuanian lineage. For a hundred years, Nero has been a 'ghost in the machine, ' an apex predator who fears his own bloodlust more than the humans he watches from the shadows. When Anne uncovers the truth, she doesn't find a monster to expose--she finds a soul in isolation. But their meeting has awakened a century-old conspiracy. From the dark marshes of Connecticut to the gnarled forests of Lithuania, Anne must decide if she is a researcher of history or a part of it. As Nero's past catches up to them, the line between hunter and protector blurs. Can Anne save the man who represents her father's greatest madness, or will the shadows of Staven Manor swallow them both? If you crave the atmospheric gothic tension of Mexican Gothic and the lyrical, dark folklore of The Bear and the Nightingale, you will devour this literary dark fantasy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H8MF65R5
• ISBN13: 9798187034369
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"