Transference

by T.J. McClannahan

A terrorized writer running from a shadow,

A private eye desperate to find a killer,

A man caught in the middle of it all.

Hamlin, a small rural city with a dark past rocked by murders and mutilations, has known a time of relative peace. Until now, with murder and corruption on the horizon. As the authorities attempt to cover up the evil of the city, will it end? Or will it burst through the surface?

Author L. Travis Rodgers awakes in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, and he remembers a line he heard in his dream. He writes it down, and it is the seed of a new novel. As he navigates a troubled relationship and mines local crimes for story ideas, a shadowy figure follows him.

Across town, Diane Harland investigates the murder of a young woman and finds similarities to a crime committed years ago. Reluctantly, she agrees to help the city one last time but is sucked back into the violence of the city of Hamlin.

360 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication September 29, 2026

Reviews

[Pranav Bhatnagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transference is a wonderfully unsettling psychological mystery that slowly pulls the reader into a world where memory, identity, imagination and reality begin occupying increasingly uncertain territory. Travis immediately fascinated me because he is a writer whose mind is already accustomed to creating stories, yet the strange experiences beginning to surround him force him into a situation where he can no longer comfortably separate what he creates from what he experiences. I loved the way his writing process becomes intertwined with the mystery, particularly when ideas begin appearing in his notes in ways that make him question where they came from. His relationship with Brooke also gives the story an important emotional grounding, because beneath the unsettling mystery is a very human connection that makes everything happening around Travis feel more personal. The recurring dreams and disturbing fragments of memory create an atmosphere of uncertainty that kept me constantly questioning what Travis should believe, while the investigation surrounding the deaths in Hamlin gradually adds another layer of tension. Gabby and the people involved in pursuing the case also bring a compelling investigative perspective, especially as patterns begin emerging that are difficult to dismiss as coincidence. I particularly enjoyed how the story moves between different characters and perspectives, because each viewpoint reveals another piece of a much larger picture without making the answers too easy. The concept of transference itself becomes fascinating as the story explores the boundaries between one person's thoughts, memories and experiences and those of someone else. What affected me most was the psychological uncertainty. Travis is desperately trying to understand what is happening to him, but every possible explanation seems to create another question, and that made his journey incredibly absorbing. There is also a wonderfully dark sense of place throughout Hamlin, with ordinary locations becoming increasingly unsettling as the characters discover that something is very wrong beneath the surface. T.J. McClannahan has written a gripping and atmospheric mystery that trusts the reader to pay attention, question what they are seeing and remain patient while the pieces gradually come together. I genuinely loved the combination of psychological tension, mystery, crime and the strange relationship between creativity and reality. Most importantly, I became deeply invested in Travis and the people around him, and I found myself wanting to understand not only what was happening, but why it was happening. This is the kind of story that leaves you thinking about its central ideas even after you have finished reading, and I genuinely appreciated that experience.