An author with roots in Byron is preparing to release his debut novel, “Reflections in the Dark: A Horror-Noir”, on April 21.

Born in Peoria and raised in Pekin, where he graduated from Pekin Community High School in 2001, Jason Garman maintains longstanding family connections to the Byron area on both sides, having spent much of his childhood there visiting relatives and celebrating holidays. His debut novel blends detective fiction with psychological and cosmic horror in a dark and unsettling mystery set in Chicago.

Chicago homicide detective Maria Voss is drawn into a series of brutal murders alongside troubled former professor Dr. Reed Ashland. Together, they become entangled in killings marked by a mysterious symbol carved into each victim. As the investigation unfolds, strange clues begin to point toward something far beyond ordinary criminal motives.

The deeper they dig, the more both investigators are forced to confront the possibility that reality itself may not be as stable as it seems. Strange reflections, fractured time, and glimpses of an impossible place known only as “The Elsewhere Fold” hint that the murders may be connected to something beyond the limits of human understanding.

Part crime thriller and part surreal horror, “Reflections in the Dark” explores themes of perception, identity and the fragile boundary between reality and imagination.

“The original spark came from a case I remembered seeing on ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ when I was younger,” Garman said. “But the story quickly took on a life of its own. It became this strange blend of David Lynch-style mystery, the dark investigative mood of ‘Se7en’, and the paranormal intrigue of ‘The X-Files’, while still being grounded in the classic detective tradition of writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.”

“Reflections in the Dark” will be available in paperback and ebook formats through Amazon, with early review copies currently being distributed to readers and reviewers ahead of the official release. The book is the first installment in a planned series of supernatural mystery stories.