THE GIRL IN THE RAIN HAS RETURNED.
When a bone necklace bearing the words "amor du lac" arrives at Gwenn Chapel's door-identical to her late husband's fevered journal descriptions-everything changes. Unearthed from French soil near Rouen, it vindicates John Chapel's supposed madness, transforming his ravings into revelation.
Abandoned by those men who labeled her husband delusional, Gwenn aligns herself with unlikely allies: Dr. Henry Marshall-James Campbell's bitterest rival-and Father Hal McDonnell, the priest who guides her through her crisis of faith. Their pursuit of John's unfinished case spirals back eight centuries to the Third Crusade, where a Norman soldier, John of Rouen, seeks absolution in bloodshed beneath Richard the Lionheart's banner at Acre. Haunted by the lives he's taken in his bloody past, he seeks redemption in holy war-only to uncover a secret that reaches the Crusade's highest echelons. As the brutal siege of Acre unfolds, this medieval John stumbles upon a truth powerful enough to echo across time.
What begins in the blood-soaked sands of the Third Crusade continues in the present, as James Campbell grapples with the weight of his failures-to his former student, to the friend he couldn't save, and to the widow left adrift in grief. Haunted by his own dark past, Campbell retraces Chapel's final steps, finding himself reluctantly partnered with someone from John's life he never expected to trust. This uneasy alliance pursues the spectral adversary John claimed had stalked him for decades-an enemy who may now have them in its sights.
TwoJohns.Twotimelines.Oneancient conspiracy**.**
As the connection between these men separated by eight hundred years emerges from shadow, Gwenn realizes a chilling truth: Her husband's investigation didn't end with his death.
It merely crossed to the other side.
This second chapter of The Epic Forgotten saga draws us deeper into the mystery as well as showing love's second of three faces. Here, beyond passion's bright flame lies the darker territory of sacrifice-where what we surrender for those we cherish creates echoes that resonate through the corridors of time, binding souls across the centuries in ways neither history nor death can sever. An epic tale for fans of the eerie psychological tension of I Am Legend , the atmospheric crime drama of Heat , and the sweeping crusader epic of Kingdom of Heaven .
J Christopher Wickham currently lives in Michigan, where he spends much of his time thinking up clever plots to entertain his fans and "dad jokes" to entertain his children. His writing has been compared to Grisham, a bit of Bradbury, and even Stephenie Meyer by the ambitious Book Genome Project. His first novel, The Girl in the Rain , received the Gold Book Award from Literary Titan.
