The Grave Does Not Keep

The grave gave Ryko Graves back. It did not give him back unchanged.

After clawing his way out of his own coffin, Ryko returns to the hidden lodge with strength, speed, healing, and senses no living man should possess.

Audrey Rose is relieved to have him back.

Then she sees what came back with him.

Ryko can stop violence before other people understand it has begun. But power arrives faster than judgment, and the body that no longer tires, heals normally, or fears pain is becoming increasingly difficult to control.

As copycats turn the Misericord mask into a public symbol, investigator Gide Verran follows evidence that should be impossible, while Audrey begins building rules designed to keep Ryko from becoming the very thing people believe he is.

But resurrection has a cost.

The grave is not only giving Ryko something.

It is taking something too.

Misericord: The Grave Does Not Keep is Book Two of the Misericord series, a supernatural psychological crime-horror novel about power, restraint, second chances, grief, and the difference between stopping harm and deciding who deserves to exist.

That last theme is central. Ryko's new senses let him hear fear and pursuit, but they cannot tell him the truth. After attacking an innocent father by mistake, Audrey gives him one of the book's defining rules: power is not proof.