Denver — After writing a bestselling YA urban fantasy series, “Dateline” aficionado and author Wendy M. Barnhart is pivoting to adult fiction with her unnerving first thriller: “Scaled Vengeance,” (Nov. 10, 2026, Camashea Press). 

Cassidy Vickers suspected the “Scales Killer” was a woman, and she was right. As a true crime podcast host, she was obsessed with serial killers, especially when brutal abusers started turning up dead with scales drawn and carved upon them. But after the killer’s capture, Vickers retreated to a quiet life as a reporter, wife, and mother — until now. Convicted of nine murders, Scales Killer and former #vanlife influencer Emerson Kemp, rechristened “Lady Justice,” is weeks away from execution. But brutal abusers are dying again, and Kemp’s signature icon of uneven scales mark the murders. After Kemp reenters Vickers’ life through a podcast livestream, Vickers is drawn into the case, accused of collusion, and even murder by an outraged public. Can Cassidy find the truth? Or will darker secrets leave her world in ruin?

For those fascinated with the female rage in “Killing Eve” and “Bright Young Women,” “Scaled Vengeance" is an emotionally and politically charged thriller facing the question of what justice and punishment looks like when the murdered were themselves brutal abusers.