Shades, Indiana : Valerie
by Pat DempseyPublish: Mar 15, 2026Horror Book Overview
A dead man’s final word, “Valerie”, pulls Deputy Sheriff Tom Nichols back into the shadows of his childhood. In the rural town of Shades, Indiana, no one will admit the campfire legend he remembers was ever real. But as Tom investigates the migrant worker’s death, he uncovers a buried history the town has spent generations hiding: a corrupted Underground Railroad station beneath an abandoned summer camp, exploited escapees who vanished into the earth, and a field of unmarked graves protected by the town’s founding families.
When disappearances begin again and a luxury resort rises on cursed ground, Tom realizes the haunting gripping Shades isn’t just Valerie’s ghost, it’s something older, rooted in the land itself. To stop the pattern from repeating, Tom must face the truth he ran from as a boy…before the land demands another offering.