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.

As they discover a strange “plane” crash that isn’t really a plane and odd occurrences create an unsettling pattern, the two detectives quickly discover that things in Wenton are not what they seem. An adult horror debut, THERE USED TO BE PEOPLE HERE challenges the idea of sameness while asking what would happen if we could change humanity itself.

THERE USED TO BE PEOPLE HERE will be published with Berkley in November 2026.