Chasing Corpses

Genre & Type: Speculative, Dark Academia Novelette

Word Count: 15-17k

Stage of completion: first draft revisions

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My current work in progress is a dark academia mystery set in a university library that has secrets it will kill to protect. This is the first story featuring librarian and researcher, Dr. Rosalind Ashcroft. 

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Scholar and skeptic, Dr. Rosalind Ashcroft, has put everything to right in the university library. Circulation is up, and there hasn’t been a haunting since she took over as Interim Head. Despite restoring the library's scholarly reputation, Rosalind knew the post was temporary; she hoped it wouldn’t be. But with only four days left until the tenured Head Librarian returns, the son of an influential patron vanishes among the towering stacks of bound pages. Concerned by whispers of otherworldly involvement, the university council presents Rosalind with a proposal: debunk the rumours before next term and they will make her position permanent.
 

Rosalind is determined not to let pseudo-metaphysics undermine her hard-earned reputation, but the shadows she has spent her career illuminating seem to linger in every corner of her library, while a secretive group of archivists thwart her efforts to uncover the truth. If Rosalind wants to keep her position and academic integrity, she must unequivocally dispel all hints of supernatural drivel by finding out what really happened to Thaddeus Orm.

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