Stain on the Mind: He dug for answers. They buried the truth in minds.

Elias Rook is a man haunted by the shadows he's chased too long, a cynical private investigator carving out a grim existence in the perpetually rain-slicked streets of post-war Port Crimson. The city is his cage, its pervasive corruption a familiar comfort. But when Genevieve Dubois, an elegant socialite with secrets as deep as her family's wealth, walks into his office demanding discretion, Rook is reluctantly drawn into the disappearance of her sister, Isabella, a seemingly fragile heiress who vanished without a trace. What begins as a desperate missing person's case quickly unravels into a labyrinthine conspiracy thriller that threatens to consume the entire city.

Rook's investigation plunges him into Port Crimson's dark underbelly, from smoky jazz clubs haunted by traumatized musicians to abandoned wartime facilities. He unearths chilling revelations of a secret historical project: the "Midnight Bloom," a psychological manipulation drug designed not just to extract truth, but to erase free will. He discovers a totalitarian control plan decades in the making, spearheaded by Victor Castellan, a charismatic industrialist and mayoral frontrunner who believes ultimate order justifies absolute mental enslavement. As Castellan's corrupt network tightens its grip, Rook finds himself hunted, his path littered with bodies, and the city itself descending into a creeping paranoia.

With the help of unexpected, morally ambiguous allies, including Genevieve Dubois (whose family holds a dark secret at the heart of the Bloom's creation), and a few honest souls clinging to a battered code, Rook races against time. He must decipher the "Genesis Code," the chemical blueprint for ultimate control, and expose Castellan's horrifying plan before Port Crimson becomes a city of puppets, its citizens' thoughts owned, their souls silenced. A Stain on the Mind is a relentless, hardboiled detective novel that challenges the very nature of truth and identity in a world where secrets are poison, and freedom is the ultimate, most dangerous secret. He dug for answers. They buried the truth in minds.