Staunton Press | Independent Publishing Imprint

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Staunton Press / Nightwright Files

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JM Tangard Debuts The Whisper and the Runaway, Anchor Title of the Nightwright Files Series

Book Sprout – launching here 04/09/26 for Advanced Reader Copies

Book Funnel– Live 04/08/26 for Advanced Reader Copies

Amazon – Debuting 04/20/26

A classic radio vigilante, reimagined. This time, the story belongs to the witness.

TAMPA, FL, April 08, 2026— Staunton Press announces the Fall 2026 release of The Whisper and the Runaway by JM Tangard, the anchor title of the Nightwright Files, a thirteen-story YA thriller series with strong adult crossover appeal.

Fifteen-year-old Marley Stevenson is a foster kid who notices too much. When she witnesses a city official make an exchange that was never meant to be seen, she becomes a target overnight. What finds her first is not the police, not a teacher, and not anyone she can see. It is a voice that reaches her through a phone app with no icon and no name, belonging to a man who moves through the city’s forgotten infrastructure the way other people move through rooms.

The Whisper has been working in the dark for thirty years. Marley is his newest witness and, though neither of them knows it yet, something more.

The Whisper series draws its inspiration from a golden age of American radio: The Shadow debuted in July 1930, eight days after the assassination of Gerald Buckley on the streets of Detroit. The question at the heart of that archetype has always been what happens when official systems fail and something older steps in. The Whisper asks a different question. Not who is the Whisper, but what does it feel like to be saved by one?

Across thirteen novelette-length stories, each told from the perspective of a different witness, the series builds a complete portrait of a city and the people it works against, connected by a presence that is felt before it is heard and heard before it is seen.

The Whisper and the Runaway launches Fall 2026 in digital format. Individual series stories will follow in six-to-eight-week intervals, with print collection planned for early 2027.

About JM Tangard JM Tangard writes mystery and suspense fiction for the Nightwright Files imprint at Staunton Press. A former law enforcement officer with over three decades of experience, Tangard brings procedural authenticity and a deep knowledge of how cities actually work to every story in the series.

About Staunton Press Staunton Press is an independent publishing house specializing in mystery, suspense, romantic suspense, middle grade fiction, and fantasy across four imprints.