by Faye Hollow (Author)
A mutilated deer. A voice in the pines. An old case that never stayed buried.
Natural Resources Police officer Caleb Boone trusts evidence: tracks, wounds, photographs, and chain of custody. But a carcass found in a fogbound West Virginia clearing leaves behind coarse white hair, warped hoofprints, and a sound that whispers his name.
Reporter June Merritt hears the same impossible bleat beneath a recorded interview. Her search through frightened witnesses and buried public records points to Hollow Ridge, Caleb's father, and Blue Elk - an abandoned mine whose access road is still being maintained.
As Caleb and June follow the record underground, they uncover cages, missing files, and the remains of a project that exploited something older than the mine itself. The deeper they go, the less certain the difference becomes between victim and threat, inheritance and choice, evidence and warning.
Some secrets are buried to hide the truth. Others are buried because they are still alive.
The Bleating in the Pines is an atmospheric adult folk-horror novel of cryptid terror, institutional cruelty, and two investigators determined to name only what the evidence can prove.
Number of Pages: 166
Dimensions: 0.42 x 9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: February 25, 2026
