The Return Date

Every borrowed book has a return date. At Brinkley University Library, there is a secret no one writes down. Every book that leaves the shelves eventually comes back — on the exact day its borrower dies. Assistant librarian Elliott Frost has spent eleven years believing the rumors were nothing more than an old campus legend. Until three overdue books return within hours of their owners' deaths, each one carrying the same impossible signature: a dried oak leaf hidden between the pages. His search leads him back to 1978 and Theodore Gray, a student who vanished without explanation after borrowing a final book he never returned. But Elliott discovers something far worse than a forgotten mystery. Theodore Gray's books are still being borrowed. The borrowers are dying. And someone — or something — is making sure every book finds its way home. When Elliott takes one of Gray's missing books to uncover the truth, he becomes part of the pattern. Now he must discover why the book was never returned before the final return date arrives. The Return Date is a dark supernatural mystery about a haunted library, a missing student, and a secret that has waited decades to be revealed.