The drought didn't just empty the lake. It woke up everyone it drowned.

Eight years ago, Nathan Rell's son called him one last time. Nathan let it ring.

Now Graywater is disappearing ? the worst drought in sixty years pulling the lake back inch by inch, exposing a church steeple that shouldn't exist, a road that hasn't seen daylight since 1964, and a town called Covenant that the county flooded on purpose and never spoke of again.

The water isn't just dropping. It's rising back into the lives of everyone who thought they'd buried what it took.

The voices come through phones that aren't ringing. Through radios tuned to nothing. Through a bell no one has touched in decades ? a bell that somehow knows your name, your grief, and exactly what you'd give to hear someone you lost say it one more time.

Sheriff Elise Corran has a missing-persons file she can't close and a county that's starting to panic. Nathan's daughter Audra has spent eight years watching her father talk to a phone that never rings back. And somewhere beneath the mud, something that sounds exactly like Nathan's son is waiting for him to finally pick up.

Graywater Rising is a slow-burn supernatural horror novel about grief, guilt, and the terrible mercy of being given a second chance to answer ? for fans of The Haunting of Hill House, Bird Box, and The Fisherman.

Some calls should stay unanswered.