The Night Evelyn Vanished (Book 1)

Some towns keep their history in museums. Havenridge keeps some of its history hidden.

When historical collections conservator Claire Monroe accepts a six-month job cataloging the contents of Lantern House, she expects old furniture, dusty records, and a quiet place to recover from a professional disappointment.

She does not expect a hidden compartment.

Inside is a 1969 guest register, an old photograph, and an empty envelope addressed to a woman with the same name as Claire’s late mother.

Then Claire learns the woman in the photograph is Evelyn Bell—her grandmother—who vanished from Havenridge more than fifty years ago on the same stormy night a prominent young man was presumed dead.

The town has always believed Evelyn abandoned her eight-year-old daughter and disappeared after tragedy struck.

The evidence tells a different story.

With the help of restoration contractor Micah Bennett, Claire begins following a trail of hidden letters, altered records, family secrets, and choices made by people who believed silence was safer than the truth. But each discovery raises another question—and reveals how many lives were shaped by what happened that night.

As Claire searches for the truth about Evelyn, she must also decide what forgiveness really means, whether love can survive painful honesty, and whether the place she came to temporarily might become the home she never expected to find.

The Night Evelyn Vanished is a clean Christian small-town mystery filled with family secrets, gentle faith, slow-burn romance, heartfelt humor, found family, and the hope that even after decades of silence, truth and grace can still bring light.

Book One in The Havenridge Secrets series.