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They Heinous
Why Read They Heinous?
A relentless psychological horror about two people crossing the thin line between care and control. They Heinous asks what we owe each other when the system fails—and what we become when justice demands blood.
A Letter from the Author
Dear Reader,
I wrote They Heinous to be more than a scare—it’s a confrontation. It lives where mental illness, addiction, and a failing healthcare system meet real human need.
Sami, our heroine, isn’t a perfect survivor. She’s an investigative reporter with physical challenges and a history of addiction, using sharp instincts and stubborn grace to push back against a world that keeps mislabeling her. Her pursuit of a killer forces hard questions: What would you sacrifice for the truth? What does strength look like when you’re carrying visible and invisible wounds? And what does it mean to “help” when the institutions built for care look away?
This book is about courage, ethics, and the cost of seeing too much. If it stirs anger, empathy, or a desire to fix what’s broken, then it’s done its job.
— James H. Summers
Description
Sami is a hand-capable investigative reporter chasing a string of women found dead around the city—tipped off by an anonymous source who somehow always knows the locations first. Each new scene pulls her deeper into a pattern she can feel but can’t yet prove, and the closer she gets, the more her own morality blurs: is the story worth more than the women behind it?
Across town, Nick is a devoted physiotherapist whose care crosses lines—standards sharpen into judgment, and “follow-up” becomes surveillance. When patients stop coming, he doesn’t accept it. He decides. He intervenes.
Two lives, two codes, one slow collision: compassion turning predatory, justice turning intimate, and the truth refusing to stay clean.
Teaser
Bodies are piling up. Another address pings Sami’s phone—again, before the police are called. She notes the time, swallows the fear, and drives. What begins as a hunt for a killer becomes a hunt for what binds them all together—and a reckoning with the one person she didn’t expect to be connected to any of it: herself.
Excerpts (Curated Moments)
1) Claire’s Signal
A small Nebraska town. A second phone. A templated email with the right logo and the wrong intentions. Claire balances homework, hardware, and quiet manipulation—feeding a pipeline of information that keeps Sami one step ahead of the sirens and one step closer to danger.
2) Chaz & the Coffee Order
A too-specific latte, a smile, a bulletin board card quietly photographed and trashed. Small errands in broad daylight become the gears of a darker machine—money, movement, and message passing wrapped in teenage nonchalance.
3) The Stakeout
Sami’s car becomes an office: notes, soup, a metal cane. She tracks schedules, faces, and patterns. Nick isn’t at work today. Why? She pushes the door, tests the script, and the front desk slips—“He’ll be back tomorrow.” The absence matters more than the answer.
4) The Bowling Alley
Before dawn, Tamara buys donuts and coffee and never notices the headlights that click on behind her. Safety feels like routine—until it’s not. Watching is easy when the world keeps its eyes closed.
5) The Empty Kitchen
Sami wakes late, exhausted, scanning a fridge that’s somehow holding toilet paper and nothing else. She hides her laptop without knowing why, then drives to observe, to eat, to think—to keep moving. She’s already in the current; now it starts to pull.
Themes & Triggers (for Readers Who Want to Know)
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Psychological horror; addiction and recovery
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Disability and resilience; medical ethics and boundary-crossing
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Violence against women (discretion advised)
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Voyeurism, surveillance, and the morality of “care”
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The thin line between help and control
Author’s Note: Lived Context
Throughout my life, I’ve had multiple surgeries and rounds of physical therapy. The clinicians who cared for me changed my life. They Heinous isn’t an indictment of care—it’s a warning about what happens when compassion is twisted by control, when systems fail and individuals decide they know best.
Fun Facts
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Broken tib/fib and torn Achilles? Zero stars. Do not recommend.
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The book’s investigative rhythms were shaped by actual note-taking protocols and real-world clinical follow-up patterns—then pushed into a moral crucible for the story.
Published: September 11, 2024