Some thrillers end when the final page turns. Others leave the door open just wide enough to reveal that the danger is far from over. Dutch Haid’s The Bitch Farm belongs firmly in the second category and that is exactly why readers should experience it before stepping into the forthcoming sequel, The Deed.
Published in 2024, The Bitch Farm introduces a dark and unsettling crime story centered on James Alfred Zachary, the owner of Time Everlasting Cemetery in Florida. Beneath his public identity lies a far more complicated inner world involving the personalities he knows as Zac and Jessie. The novel gradually reveals how James’s past, his violent impulses and his inability to cope with rejection become intertwined with a growing trail of disappearances and murders.
The title itself is more than provocative. Within the story, “The Bitch Farm” refers to a secluded area of cemetery property connected to James’s darkest secrets and the concealed fate of multiple victims.
At the same time, Haid builds a parallel law-enforcement storyline that gives the novel its cat-and-mouse tension. FBI Special Agent Brad Ashley becomes deeply involved after his sister Gwendolyn disappears. What begins as a personal search soon expands into a much larger investigation involving other missing women and disturbing similarities between crime scenes.
Brad joins forces with FBI agent Jack Baird, Detective Sue Gunther and a dedicated task force working to identify the individual they increasingly associate with the name “Jessie.” The investigators gather clues and develop theories, but proving who is responsible becomes much harder than suspecting him.
That tension is precisely what makes The Bitch Farm important reading before The Deed. By the closing chapters, law enforcement has begun focusing on James Zachary, yet hard evidence remains frustratingly out of reach. James has disappeared, the killings in Florida have stopped and the investigation appears stalled.
Then everything changes.
A report arrives from Slidell, Louisiana, describing a missing woman and a crime scene with eerie similarities to the Florida cases. The stripped bed, strategically arranged objects, strong smell of cleaning products and the word “BITCH” written in blood immediately capture the task force’s attention.
That final development is not merely a cliffhanger. It is the bridge into The Deed.
The forthcoming novel reveals that James has left Florida and begun living under a new identity: Hershel Liam Daquin. His appearance has been altered through plastic surgery and counterfeit personal documents help support the transformation.
But while the face and name may be different, the psychological conflict remains. Hershel attempts to create a fresh life while Jessie and Zac continue to exist within his internal world.
Meanwhile, Brad and the investigators follow the trail beyond Florida. Their pursuit stretches across new locations as identities change, evidence becomes harder to follow and the suspect attempts to stay ahead of the people determined to stop him.
That is why The Bitch Farm should come first. It establishes the characters, the psychological dynamics, the crimes and the investigation that give The Deed its full impact.
For readers who enjoy dark crime fiction, psychological suspense, serial-killer investigations and long-running pursuits, Dutch Haid’s story is only beginning.
The Bitch Farm is available now, while The Deed is coming soon.
