The Website

Can Saskia van Essen outwit corrupt power and a global darknet market to rescue children before the next shipment of images appears. "A sharp, atmospheric procedural set on a forbidding island."

When new images of pale, purple-eyed children surface online, Interpol’s threads point to an impossible place: the cliff-bound city of Si’Empra. Saskia van Essen, a diminutive financial-security consultant with a talent for reading ledgers as others read faces, is recruited quietly to the island. What begins as a technical check on finances becomes a descent into a half-modern, half-ancient society where Cryptal tunnels breathe mylin, Crystalmakers hide their crimes, and a tech-savvy moderator runs a darknet marketplace from within polite company.

Every discovery forces Saskia to navigate politics, broken treaties, and the island’s curious class system: guild masters, Lians, and an Ülrügh who wears power like a careful garment. As she tracks payments and infiltrates forums, the line between rescue and exposure narrows—because every leak risks tipping the whole operation into violence. The island’s hidden pathways and online marketplaces hold the same secret: someone has learned to turn children into currency, and stopping them means breaking traditions no one dares touch.

★★★★★ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY’S BOOKLIFE PRIZE AWARD WINNER!
★★★★★ CHANTICLEER INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR MYSTERY & MAYHEM!
★★★★★ MAINCREST MEDIA BOOK AWARD IN THE MYSTERY/SUSPENSE CATEGORY!
Perfect for fans of crime, thriller, and fantasy alike, The Website is a fast-paced, genre-mashing mystery novel that intertwines the beloved urban fantasy world of Si’Empra with the harsh realities of a child trafficking investigation.