A Ring and a Prayer: A Jake Horn Prequel Novella (Jake Horn Mysteries)

Before Jake Horn was on his own, there was his uncle.

Boston, 1969.

The Horn Detective Agency is struggling, and the man who built it knows things are coming to an end.

Jake Horn arrives late one morning, distracted and exhausted—raising his young daughter alone after the murder of his wife.

Expecting to be reprimanded, he’s instead asked to breakfast at a diner, where his uncle Pat shares news that will change the course of Jake’s life.

What follows is a period of uncertainty: an agency showing cracks, loyalty tested, and a young single father forced to decide whether he’s capable of carrying on something he never asked for.

When an elderly man asks Jake for help recovering his late wife’s missing ring, the case seems small—almost trivial. But it becomes a quiet proving ground, and the first moment Jake begins to understand what his uncle saw in him.

A prequel novella about inheritance, loss, and the slow, uneasy birth of self-belief.