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Contour: A Novella
Bridget Kessler draws faces for a living. Freelance forensic sketch artist, formerly FBI, she spends her days in small-town police stations translating the memories of frightened witnesses into graphite. She is meticulous. She is disciplined. She has driven 140,000 miles across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri with a flat file case in her trunk holding every composite she has ever made.
Forty-six sketches. Forty-six different witnesses describing forty-six different suspects.
All forty-six are the same face.
When Des Moines homicide detective Margaux Arden discovers the pattern, the two women launch an investigation that dismantles everything Bridget believes about her work, her mind, and the line between observer and observed. The face matches no one in any database. The witnesses, who described entirely different people, all confirmed the sketch was exactly right. And the deeper Bridget looks into the history of forensic art, the more she learns about the artists who came before her. Artists who drew the same face. Artists who are now dead, or silent, or drawing on walls with their fingertips in rooms they will never leave.
Something has been using Bridget's hand for fifteen years. Now it wants the rest of her.
Contour is a psychological horror novel about perception, identity, and the terrifying possibility that the tool you trust most, your own skill, was never yours to begin with.
Forty-six sketches. Forty-six different witnesses describing forty-six different suspects.
All forty-six are the same face.
When Des Moines homicide detective Margaux Arden discovers the pattern, the two women launch an investigation that dismantles everything Bridget believes about her work, her mind, and the line between observer and observed. The face matches no one in any database. The witnesses, who described entirely different people, all confirmed the sketch was exactly right. And the deeper Bridget looks into the history of forensic art, the more she learns about the artists who came before her. Artists who drew the same face. Artists who are now dead, or silent, or drawing on walls with their fingertips in rooms they will never leave.
Something has been using Bridget's hand for fifteen years. Now it wants the rest of her.
Contour is a psychological horror novel about perception, identity, and the terrifying possibility that the tool you trust most, your own skill, was never yours to begin with.
108 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 9, 2026
About the author
Ayman Hamadeh
28 books1 followerI write dark, intense fiction. The kind that crawls under your skin and stays there. Psychological thrillers, dark fantasy, and the occasional story that doesn't fit neatly into any box. But I don't like staying in one lane. I write a bit of everything, and I go wherever the story takes me.
What I care about most is making every page earn your time. I want you hooked from the first line and still thinking about the ending days later. That's the standard I hold myself to.
If you're here, you probably like stories with teeth. Pull up a chair. I think we'll get along.
X: @ayman_writes
Instagram: @author.ayman
Website: Aymanwrites.com
What I care about most is making every page earn your time. I want you hooked from the first line and still thinking about the ending days later. That's the standard I hold myself to.
If you're here, you probably like stories with teeth. Pull up a chair. I think we'll get along.
X: @ayman_writes
Instagram: @author.ayman
Website: Aymanwrites.com
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