Anatomy of a Lie

Modern city with eerie pockets: an old observatory, a derelict library, a coastal morgue, and a string of murders mimicking constellations.

Astrae Quinlan sees stories in the silence of the dead.
As the youngest forensic pathologist in the city, she knows how to follow blood trails like constellations and lately, those stars are aligning in strange, deliberate patterns.

Detective Averyn Locke doesn't believe in patterns. She believes in what she can control. But when she's partnered with Astrae on a string of symbolic murders, even her careful logic starts to crack.

They don't trust each other. They shouldn't. Because one of them is keeping a secret.

And the killer? He might not be working alone.

In a city full of ghosts, obsession, and unsaid truths, two women walk a tightrope between love and betrayal and every answer they find only leads to darker questions.

Some murders are meant to be solved.
Others are meant to be personal.

Tropes:

- Enemies to lovers (initial rivalry)

- Age gap (6 years)

- Dual POV

- Slowburn romance

- Jealousy and obsession

- "Only I understand you" dynamic

- Hidden identity

- Unreliable narrator