The Chain House: A Novel

A dangerous cult leader, days away from execution, reveals he is the famous author behind a bestselling series. With his death, the final, unpublished manuscript—and the crucial evidence it contains—will never see the light of day. In the tradition of Stephen King, this page-turning thriller from author J. H. Markert is packed with mindbending twists. Days before his execution, notorious cult leader and mass murderer Sal Batise grants an unlikely interview to a young filmmaker, Sam Harper. This interview could launch Sam’s career. But his carefully planned questions—including the one about the recently kidnapped governor’s wife—fall apart when Batise seizes control. On live TV, Batise claims that he is Mallard Malone, the anonymous author of a blockbuster thriller series. Stay his execution, and he’ll release the final unpublished manuscript that holds the key to finding his victims’ bodies. At the same time, a ransom note arrives with a single demand to save the governor’s Batise’s execution must go on as planned. As fiction and reality collide, Batise refuses to talk to anyone but Sam. Sam teams up with Jennifer Daley, a childhood survivor of Batise’s cult, to locate the missing manuscript and uncover the truth behind their own ties to Batise, as the clock ticks down to the execution—and the fate of the governor’s wife.