Shadows & Light

by Tanya Anne Crosby

Genres: Family Life; Women's Fiction; Siblings; Gothic; Romance

Synopsis

"Until the lion tells the story, the hunter will always be the hero."

At thirty-two, wildlife photographer Cassie Eskelson has perfected her exit strategy, leaving every relationship before the walls close in. Labeled "unstable" by her family and "broken" by a string of exes, she has spent her adult life behind the lens, where the world is manageable one frame at a time.

But when she breaks into her deceased father's home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she triggers a war with her half-brother Kevin—a politically ambitious lawyer who treats her as a problem to be managed. To him, the house is an asset. To Cassie, it's the last place she saw her mother alive.

When Detective Kai Mitchell enters her life, he doesn't try to fix her or explain her to herself. He simply doesn't flinch. And for a woman who has built her life around leaving before she can be left, that's the most disorienting thing of all.

As the desert light strips away thirty years of gaslighting and family silence, Cassie must decide whether to build one last exit—or stop running long enough to see the truth that’s been buried in plain sight.

A novel of trauma, attachment, and the merciless clarity of truth, Shadows & Light is Upmarket Women's Fiction with a Southwestern Gothic edge — for readers who loved Where the Crawdads Sing, The Great Alone, and The Mad Wife.

Perfect for readers who love:
— Psychological fiction with dark family secrets
— Gaslighting and unreliable family narratives
— Heroines learning to trust themselves
— Slow-burn romance
— Emotionally intense stories of maternal loss

Release date: October 6, 2026

Publisher: Oliver Heber Books