Pete Duggan wants to disappear. Board his boat and sail away from a world he’s become less and less accustomed to. After years working as an F.B.I. agent, he no longer has faith that his efforts are making a difference. To him, the world is collapsing in chaos, and a solitary life on the open sea is calling him away.

But before he can escape, he’s forced to take a case he doesn’t want. Jun Hou Fung, a Chinese National, has been brutally murdered in Oregon. His cause of death has been ruled an accident by local officials, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Complicating matters, Jun is the son of a Chinese Communist Party official, making the case politically volatile. Pete is tasked with secretly reinvestigating the circumstances of Jun’s death to provide an explanation as to what really happened.

Paired with Special Counsel Mei Chen, a sharp but strange operative from the Chinese Consulate, Pete begins to retrace Jun’s final months. The two work in tandem to track Jun’s movements from Stanford University to Seattle, where his brief employment with a mysterious company, Saisei Gaming Incorporated, comes under scrutiny.

Pete and Mei quickly determine that Saisei is not what it seems. Claims that the company engages in illegal surveillance are brought to light, and as they dig for proof, the company begins to fight back. Drones begin to monitor their physical movements, while inaccurate information is fed to them via social engineering scams. This forces the investigation underground, where the two have to reanalyze their ideas of perception to separate fact from fiction.

Eventually, all roads lead to Grady, Oregon, a planned development where Jun’s body was found. The town is picturesque, billed as a modern utopia, but they suspect Saisei is using it as a front for more illegal activity. After meeting the former police chief, Pete and Mei learn of an additional murder. A local teenager was killed in an identical manner to Jun, and the powers that be who run Grady are no doubt involved.

But the deeper Pete and Mei investigate Grady, the more turbulence they encounter. What’s hidden within the town is something much more secretive and sinister than either could have ever imagined. A threat that will challenge all of their preconceptions and push them to stand in the way of a force that has the potential to throw all of humanity into turmoil if left unchecked.

An avid outdoorsman, Ben’s life was nearly perfect until a giant bull moose viciously attacked him in the mountains. Not only did the animal nearly take his life, but it incredibly spoke to him as well, uttering a set of simple words that have endlessly tormented him. He hears them whispered in his head almost daily, and nearly a year removed from the attack, he’s become a shell of the man he once was.

As a result, his once vibrant relationship with wife Robin has deteriorated to the brink of divorce. Ben fervently insists his encounter with the moose happened just as he says it did, but Robin openly questions his mental health. She’s a rational and calculated thinker, unable to readily accept the impossibility of her husband’s claims.

But despite that key difference of opinion, both of them desperately want to save their marriage. To do so, they decide to hike back to the spot in the mountains where Ben was attacked. Ben believes that visiting there once more will provide an explanation for the words, while Robin hopes it will finally help Ben to understand that it was all in his head.

Their journey together forces Ben to confront buried parts of his past that Robin believes are relevant to his plight. The secretive death of his fraternal twin brother years prior seems like the most likely culprit, but the deeper the two of them dig and reconnect along the way, the louder and more forbidding the words become to keep them away.

Tim Kauffman is searching for a legend he doesn’t know how to find. Tasked posthumously by his brother Bob, a once-famous music producer, Tim must track down a reclusive musician who some say authored the greatest album ever recorded.

His name is Billy Emhoff, and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since 1992. He played one mysterious show in Portland, Oregon, leaving hundreds of people in awe of his talent. The experience was described by many as paranormal, and even so many years later, numerous showgoers are still shell-shocked by what they witnessed.

The only record of Emhoff’s music is a set of 7-inch reel-to-reel master tapes that Bob recorded weeks before the show. They were left to Tim by Bob when he died, and Tim must return them to Emhoff at all costs.

That effort draws Tim back into a world he intentionally walked away from ten years prior. Once a prominent music journalist, his career ended after a very public breakdown caused by his history of drug addiction. After entering recovery, he’s built a new life with his wife Jules, and son Ethan. He’s fiercely protective of them and is hesitant to open the past for fear his old self could reappear and cause him to relapse.

But the opportunity to investigate the legend of Billy Emhoff is too hard to ignore. Especially when mysterious entities are vying to obtain the Emhoff record to try and capitalize on its potential. Those forces will stop at nothing to get their hands on it, and after several break-ins and threats to his family, Tim has to race to find Emhoff before it all spins out of control.