The Novel
The Confession
A priest. An assassin. One kiss. 84k words of yearning.
Every Saturday, Father Sebastian Marre listens to the same woman confess in the dark. He knows her by her voice, by the shift of the wooden bench, by the silences she leaves between words. He calls her Dove.
He does not know the life she leads outside the booth.
A gothic slow-burn romance about a priest, an assassin, faith, violence, and the dangerous intimacy of being truly heard.
What to expect
The reading experience
This is a long, patient book. The intensity comes from longing, confession, emotional and intellectual intimacy, danger, and impossible choices — not from explicit content. Book One gives you one kiss and makes you wait for it.
- Genre
- Gothic romance / literary dark fiction
- Burn
- Extreme slow burn — one kiss in Book One
- The pair
- A priest and an assassin
- Setting
- Washington, D.C. → Rome
- Series
- Book One of Stillwater
- Length
- 84k words of yearning
Adult readership. Content notes forthcoming.
Held throughout
- Faith and conscience
- Devotion and obedience
- Violence and its cost
- Institutional power
- The intimacy of being heard
- Whether God intends a person to be happy
“You are not more faithful by refusing to ask whether God intends you to be happy.”
From the novel
Where to read
Editions
Physical editions
Paperback & special edition
Print editions and alternative cover artwork will be sold directly here. Nothing is for sale yet.
See what is planned