The Stolinger Case

What happens when the truth surfaces—and drowns everything it touches? When disgraced journalist Clara Bensen returns to Winther Ridge to care for her ailing mother, the sleepy lakeside town is the last place she expects to find another headline. But when the local principal, Grace Stolinger, is found dead in a wedding dress floating in the lake, Clara is pulled into a chilling mystery that dredges up more than a body—it exhumes secrets buried for decades. As Clara peels back layers of small-town loyalty, faded friendships, and official lies, she begins to unravel the cold-case drowning of Eddie Hadley, Grace's younger brother. What begins as a search for justice soon becomes a fight for survival, as powerful men move to silence the past—and anyone who threatens to expose them. With the help of a haunted police chief, a defiant student witness, and her own fractured memories, Clara must face what happened twenty-five years ago, even if it means burning Winther Ridge to the ground. The Stolinger Case is a razor-sharp psychological suspense novel about redemption, moral courage, and the cost of truth in a community built on lies.