Across the Vanishing Sky Stars Sons of a Serial Killer Who Now Protect the Innocent — See the Cover! (Exclusive)

Catherine Cowles is starting a new series with the release of her upcoming novel, Across the Vanishing Sky.

Out March 3, 2026, the novel introduces readers to the new Starlight Grove series, which centers on the Archer brothers, described as the “haunted sons of a serial killer who’ve become protectors of the lost.”

Across the Vanishing Sky kicks off by telling Dex Archer’s story, setting the scene for a small town romance with Braedyn Winslow.

Per the official synopsis, “Braedyn Winslow never expected to return to Starlight Grove — the town that took everything from her. Not after her best friend, the one who’d sacrificed so much for her, vanished without a trace. But with a young son to raise and a past that won’t stay buried, Brae is back … and determined to uncover the truth.”

Her return brings her face-to-face with her “brooding, reclusive mountain man” neighbor — Dex.

Despite his local reputation, “Brae sees through the scowl and his parentage to the man beneath: fiercely loyal, unexpectedly kind … and just dangerous enough to protect her when someone starts warning her off her search.”

“The closer she gets to the truth, the harder it is to stay away from Dex. And as things get more perilous, Brae realizes the only person she can rely on is the one man who swore never to trust again,” the synopsis teases, noting that Dex will “do anything to save her, even slip back into the dark.”

“For me, Across the Vanishing Sky is about finding love in the places you might least expect. Like with your broody, next door neighbor nemesis, who might just be the key to finding your missing best friend. But also about finding a chosen family in the unlikeliest places too,” Cowles, a USA Today bestselling author of books like Fragile Sanctuary and Further to Fall, exclusively tells PEOPLE.

“I can’t wait for readers to meet this group of brothers who all deal with their emotional damage in different ways, their hilarious great-uncle who has a Bigfoot obsession and raises alpacas, and our feisty single mom, Brae, who turns our hero’s life upside down in the best possible way,” she adds.

The author explained that her latest saga was inspired by her interest in true crime podcasts. However, she noted that the podcasts don’t really tell the full story about the secondary victims of the killers — their families and loved ones.

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“I started imagining five brothers and all the different ways they might deal with that trauma and how the outside world might treat them,” she says. “And being a romance author, I also couldn’t help wondering what it would take for them to trust someone enough to fall in love.”

Across the Vanishing Sky is on sale March 3, 2026 and is available now for preorder, wherever books are sold.