All right, friends. The halls of Eventide College are officially open! The book I’ve been talking your ear off about for two years, The Professor of Eventide, is here. The eBook is released at the introductory price of $2.99, and it will change to the regular price of $6.99 in May. Paperbacks are available through Amazon for $16.99.

Here’s the blurb:

Perfect for readers of The Secret History and The Historian, The Professor of Eventide is a slow-burning, atmospheric literary mystery that explores the thin line between intellectual obsession, the weight of eternity, and the madness of memory.

At Eventide College, the past is never buried—it is exhaled through the ivy and etched into the stone.

Professor Jonathan Ferrars lives in the shadows of academia, a man tethered to a history he cannot outrun—and a secret he has spent a lifetime concealing. When he arrives at Eventide College, the sanctity of the autumn term is shattered as three of his students are found murdered in a manner that feels less like a crime and more like a ritual.

As the police close in and the college’s halls begin to tighten around him, Jonathan realizes the deaths are part of a meticulously crafted design—one that places him at the center of its unfolding tragedy. To preserve his sanity—and his freedom—he must uncover the rot at the heart of Eventide College before the darkness he has spent a lifetime outlasting finally claims him.

A story of isolation, the seduction of narrative, and the predatory nature of history, The Professor of Eventide is a haunting meditation on what happens when the ghosts we carry are as alive, and as enduring, as we are.

The Heart of the Story

Writing this novel has been a unique journey for me. While it centers on a series of tragic events at a secluded college, it isn’t a traditional “whodunnit.” And it isn’t entirely an inverted mystery either. The main themes are memory, madness, and how we construct our own narratives to survive the things we’ve done—and what happens when those structures begin to crumble.

For those who have been following me for any amount of time, you know I have a deep fascination with memory. It’s funny, but I didn’t realize myself until recently how many of my novels center around memory, both what we remember and what we choose to forget. Professor Jonathan Ferrars is a man tethered to a history he can’t outrun, which is also a history he has chosen to forget, that is, until the reality of that past is standing directly before him. Eventide College is the physical manifestation of that line—a place where the ivy and stone hold secrets just as firmly as the people within them.

Why Dark Academia?

Like so many others, I fell in love with the aesthetics of Dark Academia, and then I began reading Dark Academia novels. After all, I’m an academic, and I like dark, so it seemed like the perfect fit for me. I read The Secret History for the first time in early 2024, and I loved it so much that I wanted to write something similar. Of course, me being me, I never quite do what I set out to do because I like to let the stories figure out what they want to be. In time, The Professor of Eventide evolved into its own entity, which is how it should be when another work inspires you.

I loved leaning into the atmosphere of Eventide College. I loved leaning into the autumn and early winter backdrop. I’ve written a few stories with Gothic leanings, and The Professor of Eventide is the most Gothic of all.

You can pick up your copy of The Professor of Eventide at the following retailers:

Whether you are a longtime reader of my fiction or you’re joining me for the first time with this Gothic literary mystery, thank you for being part of this journey. I’ll have more to say about the story behind The Professor of Eventide in the coming weeks.

Please consider leaving an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews are the best way to help new readers find their way to the halls of Eventide.

Welcome to the 2010 autumn term at Eventide College. Your seat is waiting…