📘 Brandon Cloud’s Amazon Author Page
👉 Read The Town Lake Killer on Amazon
The police said it was an accident.
The media called it a mystery.
But The Town Lake Killer—Book 3 in my Lining’s Edge series—refuses to look away.
What began as a legal thriller evolved into something far more personal: a fictionalized reckoning with a real, decades-long mystery that’s haunted Austin’s queer and brown communities. Young men have been found drowned in Lady Bird Lake—again and again. But official silence has been the loudest constant of all.
This book asks: what if the pattern isn’t imagined? What if someone’s counting on the silence?
A Legal Thriller That Hits Too Close to Home
I didn’t set out to write a conspiracy novel. I set out to write grief.
In The Town Lake Killer, defense attorney Cole Oliver is back—and this time, he’s defending a man the city desperately wants to see locked up. A body has surfaced in the lake. The accused has a record. The public wants a villain. But Cole’s team sees something else: the eerie parallels between this death and too many others no one ever investigated.
“Every city buries its sins. Austin just chose water instead of dirt.” — The Town Lake Killer
The deeper Cole digs, the more terrifying the connections become: unsolved drownings, redacted reports, deleted surveillance. The killer may not just be in the shadows—he might be protected by them.
Based on the Real-World Mystery: Who’s Dying in Lady Bird Lake?
For nearly two decades, young men—many queer, many brown—have been found dead in Austin’s iconic Lady Bird Lake. Some disappear after nights out. Others were walking home. Most are dismissed as accidental drownings. But families, activists, and local residents have noticed a pattern that city leaders continue to deny.
This book doesn’t offer answers. It offers what fiction does best: clarity through story. A space to feel the rage, confusion, and devastation of a community that’s been gaslit by official indifference.
“You think it’s a coincidence? The same profile, the same stretch of water, the same closed cases? No. It’s permission.” — The Town Lake Killer
Austin Is a Character Too
The city of Austin pulses through every page. Not the polished skyline or curated quirk of real estate brochures—but the riverwalks, dive bars, courtrooms, and corroded corners that don’t get a PR team.
This is a story about what gets erased. Not just victims, but places. Neighborhoods. Cultures. And how even progressive cities will look away when the water stays quiet.
The Lining’s Edge Series: When Justice Isn’t Neutral
The Town Lake Killer is the third installment in the Lining’s Edge series—a gritty, character-driven legal drama that follows Cole Oliver and his team of deeply imperfect truth-seekers. Each book focuses on a different case that cracks open the myth of neutral justice:
- Book One: The Lining’s Edge – A wrongful conviction, a state-sanctioned coverup, and the toll of chasing redemption.
- Book Two: Plea Deal with the Devil – When a high-profile prosecutor is murdered, the secrets behind the badge begin to unravel.
- Book Three: The Town Lake Killer – The pattern is real. The silence is louder. And this time, Cole’s team is in the killer’s path.
The series doesn’t hand out justice neatly. It asks what justice even means when the system was never designed to protect everyone equally.
“In this city, the only people who get the truth are the ones who can afford to ignore it.” — The Town Lake Killer
Why I Wrote This
Because real families are still grieving unanswered questions.
Because silence is a luxury marginalized communities were never afforded.
Because queer trauma doesn’t have to be sanitized or performative to matter—it just needs to be told.
Because fiction can do what press releases won’t: name the ghosts.
“He wasn’t lost. He was erased. And the city just kept jogging past.” — The Town Lake Killer
Final Thought:
The Town Lake Killer isn’t a whodunit. It’s a why-do-we-still-not-care? It’s about the bodies in the lake, the ones we write off, and the quiet complicity that lets them disappear.
The system has a pattern. So does the killer.
And sometimes, they look too much alike to tell apart.
📘 Brandon Cloud’s Amazon Author Page
👉 Read The Town Lake Killer – Free with Kindle Unlimited.