The Old Cedar Chest - Strange Sands, #1

An antique cedar hope chest. A hidden document. A century-spanning vendetta.

The Old Cedar Chest launches a faith-filled suspense novella series following architectural historian Mercedes Annalee Ellison as she uncovers the unexplainable forces tied to historic properties—and her own family legacy.

Mercedes Ellison never expected her great-great-grand aunt's fragile journal and a tattered manila envelope to change her life. Yet the miraculous way they came into her possession—and the unease they stir in her spirit—would give even the most hardened skeptic pause.

Before she can meet her first client or settle into what she hopes will be a quiet summer at a Lowcountry cottage, an ominous shadow stretches across her carefully planned future. Mercedes soon realizes she is the target of a vendetta that goes back more than a century. As the shadows of the past rise to threaten her present, time is running out, and survival may require her to accept a calling she never sought and a destiny bound to the legendary Ellison family.

In this heart-pounding Christian suspense novella, Mercedes must rely on more than her education and instincts. Anchored in faith and surrounded by eerie revelations, she learns God equips ordinary people to stand firm against extraordinary challenges. Filled with mystery, history, and spiritual depth, The Old Cedar Chest invites readers to consider how faith, courage, and divine purpose intersect in life's unseen battles.