For every history that is written, another is buried. For every voice that speaks, another is silenced. Elizabeth Moren has built her career as a historian by listening to the echoes of the past. But her unique, involuntary ability to "dreamwalk" into the Azure Veil, a timeless, metaphysical realm where moments too loud to fade are preserved, plunges her into a history she is not prepared for. There, she discovers The Cracked Voice, a mysterious book containing the photographic proof of the brutal, unsolved murder of Elijah Marron, a Black man in 1950s San Francisco whose story has been completely erased.
The ghost's command is absolute: Tell my story. But the story is a poison. As Elizabeth is haunted by visions of Elijah's life and his final, horrific moments, the psychic weight begins to take a terrifying physical toll. Back in the waking world, her investigation into the seventy-year-old crime reveals that the erasure was no accident. A powerful conspiracy, rooted in one of Chinatown's most respected families, is still actively guarding the secret, and they will stop at nothing to ensure their legacy remains pristine.
Threatened by spectral forces that are consuming her from within and shadowed by living enemies who want to silence her forever, Elizabeth is pushed to the brink of ruin. She must confront the keepers of a dark secret and decide what she is willing to sacrifice to tell a story that the world has decided should not be told. A haunting blend of literary horror, metaphysical mystery, and historical fiction, The Cracked Voice is a harrowing and ultimately cathartic journey into the violence of silence and the profound cost of bearing witness.