A CRHYME® THRILLER
The killer scores every crime scene.
Only one cop is listening.
Every crime has a soundtrack. Every song is evidence.
A cop’s son is kidnapped. The ransom note is a Lead Belly lyric, and Marshall Cash is the only one in the room who knows the song.
Why did the killer choose him?
{REGULATE_BG}
Most people just aren’t listening.
You know Regulate by Warren G. Most people hear a smooth Michael McDonald sample and Nate Dogg’s cool R&B chords. The song is actually about a robbery and a drive-by shooting.
It made me think — how many other songs are about crimes? And what if I could write a world where the lyrics drove the plot?
Every genre I ever touched has documented crime. Murder ballads. Prison songs. Protest anthems. Truth-telling verses hidden inside three-minute songs we sing along to without ever hearing what they’re about.
— Lorenzo Flores
Detective William “Marshall” Cash catalogs vinyl the way other cops catalog case files. First pressings, rare imports, every sleeve alphabetized to the millimeter. It is the one thing in his life he can keep in order.
Then a cop’s son is kidnapped, and the ransom note is a Lead Belly lyric. “Midnight Special.”
Marshall recognizes the song before anyone else in the room. A cassette of the same track has been planted in the boy’s bedroom — a second signature nobody else clocks. Chief Delacroix orders him to work the forensics and drop the music angle. Marshall nods and does the opposite.
He takes the cassette to his brother Ethan, an underground producer. Ethan pulls the channels apart and finds a third layer buried under the music: a whisper, looped and pitched down. Sins of the Father.
Listen to the tape.
Chapter 2. The cassette from the boy’s bedroom has three channels on it. Marshall’s brother Ethan is the only person in the city who can separate them. Seventy seconds — the clip ends the moment he finds what’s underneath.Chapter 2. Ethan pulls the tape apart channel by channel. There’s something buried under the music, and the clip ends the second he finds it.
0:00 / –:––
Narrated by Will Stauff · 8 hours, 48 minutes
The full audiobook is coming soon.
Hear the opening chapter — get the case file →{AUDIO_SAMPLE_FILE}
The CRHYME® universe
Three books. One world.
Every case in this world turns on a record. A phrase a witness won’t stop repeating. A playlist a mother made for her son. A ransom note in somebody else’s lyrics.
The world is bigger than one cop. Forensic musicologists. Cold case investigators. DJs whose crates hold evidence nobody has examined in decades.
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{GN_COVER}graphic novel cover
CRHYME: The Playlist
Where the world started. Brooklyn. A police shooting nobody will take credit for, and a phrase a witness keeps repeating.
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Composer of Chaos
A cop’s son is taken, and the ransom note is a song lyric only one detective in the room recognizes.
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TBA
The Quiet Room
The next case starts where this one ends.
You don’t have to have read the graphic novel to read the novel. They live in the same universe. They don’t share a plot.
- 450%funded on Kickstarter, 2022
- Project We LoveKickstarter staff pick
- San Diegoshowcased at Comic-Con
- On timeevery backer delivered, first campaign
The book comes out November 3.
This is the only place to get the extras.
Retail is faster because retail is anonymous. The campaign edition goes to press only after the campaign closes — because the backers’ names are printed inside it. A limited run that exists once, and is never reprinted.
If you want the extras, this campaign is the only way.
Nothing exclusive to this campaign will be on Amazon or anywhere else. Not the names. Not the numbered dust jacket. Not the collector vinyl. Not the USB mixtape.
Evidence packet · Case no. 24-11875
The Maestro’s Case File
Everything Marshall Cash worked out before the department would listen. Photocopied out of his own file, coffee rings and all.
- The annotated track list — all nineteen songs named in the novel, in order, and what Marshall reads in each one
- The ransom note, transcribed — with the Lead Belly line marked, and where in the song it falls
- The playlist — the case in order, so you hear it the way he did
- Chapter one — narrated by Will Stauff, before anyone else gets it
Free until the book releases November 3. After that it goes back in the box.
The file arrives straight away. After that, a short run of emails about the campaign — the songs, the case, the deadline — and you can unsubscribe from any of them in one click.
Questions
Everything people ask before they back it.
CASE NO. 24-11875 · SUPPLEMENTAL
Do I need to have read the graphic novel?
No. Composer of Chaos is a standalone.
When do I get it?
Digital rewards go out in early November 2026, before the book hits Amazon on November 3. Physical rewards ship December 2026.
Why does retail get it first?
Because the retail edition is anonymous. The campaign edition prints the backers’ names inside it — every tier from $20 up — so it can’t go to press until the campaign closes and the list is final. That run is made once, with your name in it, and is never reprinted. The December date is the reason to back it, not the cost of backing it.
Are the books really signed?
Yes. Every tier with a physical book includes a signed copy. Lorenzo hand-signs every one before shipping. No autopens, no stamped signatures.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes, worldwide. International shipping is added at checkout based on your country and the weight of your tier. Digital-only tiers have no shipping cost. International customers are responsible for any customs duties or VAT charged by their own country.
The killer went looking for
someone who’d understand.
This is the first Marshall Cash novel. There are more coming. Back it now and your name is printed inside a run that exists once.
Let’s start the record.
Every crime has a soundtrack. Every song is evidence.