Hollow Point Paperback – March 9, 2026

Hollow Point is a small Vermont town built on tradition, reputation, and the quiet understanding that some families are protected more than others.In 1937, while Clara Ann Hale’s parents are in the hospital awaiting the birth of their second child, four-year-old Clara is left in the care of her aunt and uncle. That is where she is when her body is found in the icy brook behind the family's house. The town moves quickly to explain it. The banks are soft in the spring, children wander, and life moves forward. It is called a tragic accident, and for most, that is enough.But Sheriff Walter Reed begins to see details that do not fit the story everyone seems eager to accept. As the children who were present that afternoon begin to speak, their accounts shift in small but unsettling ways. What Reed uncovers places him in quiet opposition to powerful families, long-standing loyalties, and a community determined to protect its own version of the truth.Inspired by true events, Hollow Point draws from one of the most unsettling chapters in Vermont history, involving children at the center of a tragedy and one of the youngest murderers ever recorded. It is a haunting story about small-town loyalty, buried history, and the quiet ways communities decide which truths are allowed to surface.Some stories disappear. Others settle into the water and wait. Read more