Book

The Quiet Place Below

by Steve Pardue

Some people survive the past. Others bring it home with them. Three years after losing the boy he loved to a brutal conversion therapy camp in rural Texas, Lucas Thorn arrives at Purdue University desperate for one thing: a fresh start. No questions. No memories. No Leo. Then Cooper Benton answers his roommate's listing. Cooper is charming, attentive, and impossible to ignore. Living together feels easy at first — almost safe. Until Lucas notices things inside the apartment beginning to shift. Appointments disappear from his calendar. Personal belongings move when he isn't looking. Messages arrive in the middle of the night, signed with the name Lucas fears most. Leo. As paranoia consumes him, Lucas becomes convinced someone knows the truth about what happened in Texas. But the closer he gets to the answers, the more dangerous Cooper becomes — and the more Lucas realizes the past never stayed buried at all. The Quiet Place Below is a dark psychological thriller filled with emotional suspense, trauma, obsession, manipulation, and devastating twists. Perfect for readers who love: slow-burn psychological suspense dark academia thrillers unreliable relationships emotionally intense LGBTQ+ thrillers domestic suspense with shocking twists Perfect for readers of dark academia suspense, emotional psychological thrillers, and slow-burn LGBTQ+ suspense novels.

Publication date: May 21, 2026