The Silversmith

A mirror never lies. But it can kill.

When the Myth-Chasers-an online ghost-hunting crew built on showmanship, vanity, and viral stunts-book their biggest location yet, the decaying Grand Hotel Gideon, they expect views, not bodies.

Instead, they awaken something ancient behind the glass.

Gideon Slade, once a brilliant Gilded Age silversmith, died in mercury fire and madness more than a century ago. But his final creation-his clockwork Silver-Spinner, forged in pain and obsession-did not die with him.

It became the key that bound him to reflections, allowing him to stalk, reach, and kill through any polished surface that dares to hold a face.

When the team films a mocking "debunk" in front of the hotel's massive Slade mirror, a single flash of the camera tethers them to the legend. One by one, they begin to hear it:

the high-pitched, metallic whir just beyond the glass.

Bodies follow.

Each "correction" is precise. Violent. Intimate.

And always left behind for the survivors to find.

As paranoia erupts, the group fractures under the weight of a secret they buried twenty years ago-the night they watched Gideon Slade take a child and lied to police to save themselves. Their past and present collide as Slade hunts not for attention, but for flaws-the vanity, cowardice, and guilt that fuel his supernatural form.

With every reflective surface becoming a doorway, with every hallway echoing the rising whir of the Spinner, the survivors must face a truth far more terrifying than a haunting:

Slade is not a ghost.

He is a ritual.

A hunger.

A mirror that waits for the vain to look back.

THE SILVERSMITH is Gerald Locke's chilling descent into Hard-R supernatural horror-an atmospheric, character-first nightmare blending the dread of The Shining, the inevitability of It Follows, and the merciless brutality of classic Gilded Age urban legends. Perfect for readers who crave tightly-wound tension, reflective-based horror, and monsters born not of magic, but of human flaw.

Fans of:

Stephen King • Paul Tremblay • Grady Hendrix • Scott Smith • Adam Nevill • The Haunting of Hill House (Flanagan)