Set in small-town Wenton, Mississippi, in the year 1978, THERE USED TO BE PEOPLE HERE follows Samuel, the only Black detective in a southern police department. When a mailman is found gutted in a gay bar, Samuel is forced to work with Harvey—his immature, indifferent, ridiculously strange partner—to solve the unusual murder case over the short course of a single week.
Kennedy Cole is a speculative author born and raised in North Carolina. Her debut horror novel, THERE USED TO BE PEOPLE HERE, will be published with Berkley at Penguin Random House in November 2026.