A Dark Noir Thriller About Violence, Identity, and the Monsters We Become

THE DARKNESS HAS ARRIVED

RELEASE DATE: October 15, 2025

FORMAT: eBook

AVAILABLE: Amazon Kindle

Detective Deborah Samson thought she left Afghanistan behind. Three tours, an IED that toppled her Humvee, ten minutes of gunfire that felt like an hour—she built mental fortresses to contain those memories and came home to rebuild her life as a detective in a West Coast city.

But war doesn't stay buried.

When brutal raiders begin terrorizing the city with savage, ritualistic violence, Deborah recognizes something familiar in their tactics. The carnage in supermarkets mirrors the Afghan villages she can't forget. The men responsible have abandoned their names, their identities, their humanity—led by a former sporting goods manager who now calls himself Temujin and preaches a gospel of primal power.

As Deborah hunts these men who've declared war on civilization itself, she discovers that the line between detective and soldier, between justice and vengeance, between human and monster, is thinner than she ever imagined.

Some wars never end. Some soldiers never stop fighting. And sometimes, to stop a monster, you must become one.

WHAT READERS SHOULD KNOW

TO MAKE THE WORLD OBEY is dark literary fiction that doesn't flinch. It's noir soaked in blood and gunpowder. It explores PTSD, violent transformation, moral compromise, and the cost of survival in a world that rewards force over compassion.

This book sits at the intersection of crime fiction, psychological thriller, and horror. It asks uncomfortable questions about identity, power, and what we're willing to sacrifice—or become—to make the world bend to our will.

Key Themes:

War trauma and its lingering psychological effects
The death of identity and rebirth through violence
Moral degradation in pursuit of justice
Primal masculinity versus institutional authority
The thin line between civilization and savagery

CONTENT WARNING

This novel contains:

Extreme graphic violence
Disturbing psychological content
Sexual violence (not gratuitous, but present)
PTSD and trauma
Morally complex characters who make horrific choices

This book is not for everyone. If you need your fiction comfortable, redemptive, or hopeful, this isn't it. But if you want something raw, unflinching, and real—something that respects your intelligence enough to let you sit with darkness—then this might be exactly what you're looking for.

WHY I WROTE IT

I've always been fascinated by transformation—how people change, break, evolve, or devolve under pressure. TO MAKE THE WORLD OBEY explores two parallel transformations: Deborah Samson, who was transformed by war and struggles to maintain her humanity in a world that punishes it, and Temujin, who actively destroys his humanity to escape the prison of modern life.

Neither character is entirely right. Neither is entirely wrong. Both are deeply human in their monstrosity.

This is also a book about America—about violence as a language we speak fluently, about war coming home, about the boxes we're forced into and the damage we do trying to escape them.

It's the darkest thing I've written. I hope it disturbs you. I hope it makes you think. I hope you can't put it down.

GET YOUR COPY

TO MAKE THE WORLD OBEY is available now on Amazon Kindle. Paperback coming soon.

ORDER ON AMAZON: https://a.co/d/8xEJpum

WHAT'S NEXT

This is just the beginning. I'm already deep into my next project—The Hanged Man series of horror novels—but that's a story for another day.

For now, I invite you into the darkness. Detective Deborah Samson and the man who calls himself Temujin are waiting.

The world doesn't obey kindness.

It obeys force.

— Derrick Heisey

TO MAKE THE WORLD OBEY — AVAILABLE 10/15