The Deeper He Digs, The Darker It Gets.

Malevolent Intent

A lee danforth suspense novel: Book 2

After a disastrous fourth tour overseas, Army Colonel Vernon Matheson is forced into civilian life with a barely honorable discharge and a fractured mind. Hoping to rebuild, he returns to Charleston—only to walk into a nightmare: his house trashed, a dead woman on his bedroom floor, and his wife and five-year-old daughter gone without a trace.

As Lee Danforth and Vern Matheson dig deeper into Angela Matheson’s double life and trail of drugs, secrets, and betrayal, they uncover something far darker: a calculating killer who has been stalking this family for months, orchestrating every piece of their destruction.

  • A gripping thriller of betrayal, vengeance, and the fight for redemption.

    After a disastrous fourth tour overseas, Army Colonel Vernon Matheson is forced into civilian life with a barely honorable discharge and a fractured mind. Hoping to rebuild, he returns to Charleston—only to walk into a nightmare: his house trashed, a dead woman on his bedroom floor, and his wife and five-year-old daughter gone without a trace.

    Instead of allies, Vern finds resistance at every turn. His once-steady grandparents are evasive and erratic, the lead investigator seems determined to frame him, and time is bleeding away with every false lead. Into the chaos steps Lee Danforth—a sharp, relentless attorney assigned to his case, and the last person Vern wants digging through his shattered life. But as their alliance deepens, so does the danger.

    As Lee Danforth and Vern Matheson dig deeper into Angela Matheson’s double life and trail of drugs, secrets, and betrayal, they uncover something far darker: a calculating killer who has been stalking this family for months, orchestrating every piece of their destruction. With a hurricane bearing down on the South Carolina coast, Vern and Lee must race to find his daughter, Katie, before the storm—and the man hunting them—brings everything crashing down.

    Because the deeper they dig, the deadlier the truth becomes.

  • Series: Lee Danforth Suspense Novels

    Pages: Check back soon

    Publication Date: January 2026 (TBD)

    Genre Categories: Domestic Thriller, Crime Thriller, Legal Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Women Sleuths

    ISBN Paperback: Check back soon

    ISBN: E-Book: Check back soon

  • Coming soon!

Coming January 2026

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