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Headline: Twenty years ago, the town of Hapless buried a monster. Or so they thought. In the sweltering heat of a Texas summer, the past doesn’t just haunt you—it hunts you. Twenty years ago, Alfred Boggs—known to the neighborhood children as "The Nice Man"—drove his ice cream truck through the quiet streets of Hapless, Texas. But when two little girls vanished, the town’s trust turned to venom. A vigilante mob of upstanding citizens took justice into their own hands, murdered Alfred, and buried the truth along with his body. They swore an oath of silence and went back to their comfortable lives. Now, the prodigal son has returned. AJ Boggs was just a boy when he watched the neighbors drag his father away. Now a man, he has returned to the house on Elm Street, claiming he only wants to renovate the dilapidated property. But his presence triggers a panic in the men who killed his father. They see a threat. They see a reckoning. And then, the dying starts. As the members of the old mob are picked off one by one in brutal, staged slayings, the town is gripped by a new terror. Has AJ come back for revenge? Is he finishing what his father allegedly started? Or is there a darker, colder predator lurking in the woods—a "Third Man" born from the town's original sin? Framed for a crime he didn’t commit and racing against a corrupt timeline, AJ must unravel a conspiracy that goes deeper than the sheriff’s department and darker than a shallow grave. Perfect for fans of True Detective, His and Her, Mystic River, and heavy-hitting small-town noir. This psychological thriller explores the high price of secrets and the devastating weight of vigilante justice. Comparable works include His & Hers by Alice Feeney