A whisper from inside an apartment wall becomes the starting point for a mystery where evidence, fear, and the unexplained collide. In Evelyn Cross: The Iscariot Binding, author Justin Owens brings his highly analytical young investigator back for an atmospheric case that challenges the way she understands reality.
A Skeptical Detective Meets an Impossible Case
Evelyn Cross approaches strange situations with the instincts of an investigator. She studies patterns, considers possible explanations, and prefers measurable facts over supernatural assumptions. Her newest case begins when classmate Emma Clark reports hearing a young female voice coming from inside the walls of her apartment, usually between two and three in the morning. Emma’s attempts to record the phenomenon produce static, including one particularly unsettling recording that appears to communicate a plea for help.
For Evelyn, the obvious explanations come first. She considers auditory pareidolia, medical causes, and psychological factors before agreeing that Emma’s experience deserves closer investigation. That methodical response establishes one of the book’s most engaging qualities. Evelyn has encountered phenomena she cannot fully explain, yet she remains reluctant to assign supernatural labels without evidence. Her skepticism gives the paranormal elements additional tension because every strange discovery has to survive her demanding process of examination.
The investigation soon reaches beyond unexplained sounds in an apartment. An older organization has its own knowledge of artifacts that seemingly should not exist, while the mythology surrounding Judas Iscariot begins opening a much larger mystery. The idea of thirty pieces of silver becomes part of a deeper framework involving buried history, religious lore, and people who discover things others would prefer to keep hidden. Evelyn’s tendency to follow every loose thread places her directly within that dangerous network.
Logic, Personality, and a World Growing Larger
Evelyn’s personality gives the story much of its distinctive character. Now fifteen and living with foster parents Dr. Marcus and Angela Washington in Portland, she evaluates her surroundings with almost scientific precision. Even the family’s German Shepherd receives a detailed assessment. Evelyn decides that Henry is an inadequate name, renames him Miles for reasons she insists are entirely practical, and discovers that a high E-flat played on her flute works remarkably well as a recall signal.
Those lighter observations provide personality within a story filled with unsettling ideas. Evelyn’s literal thinking, sharp pattern recognition, and dry observations make her investigative journal entertaining while revealing how she processes uncertainty. Her new home, school, informal consulting practice, and complicated feelings about previous experiences all contribute to the mystery. Readers get a protagonist who can examine an eerie occurrence as a problem requiring data while quietly confronting emotions that resist such convenient classification.
The Iscariot Binding also broadens the world established around Evelyn. It follows The Haunting of Riverside Academy, the first novel in the Evelyn Cross Mystery Series, which was co-authored with Miles Reed. The universe also includes the prequel novella Olivia Hartwell: Sterling Matters and The Shanghai Tunnels, a standalone point-and-click case positioned between the first and second books. Together, these stories connect haunted locations, family histories, mysterious organizations, and supernatural incidents across a developing mythology.
The book’s appeal comes from the relationship between investigation and uncertainty. Evelyn has already witnessed events that forced her to revise some of her assumptions about consciousness and reality. She still demands explanations. That tension makes her particularly well suited to a mystery involving occult history, hidden organizations, and evidence that refuses to behave according to familiar rules. Readers who enjoy bright young detectives, eerie settings, and gradually unfolding supernatural mythology should find plenty to explore here.
About the Author
Justin Owens is a veteran middle school math teacher with more than 13 years of teaching experience and a background spanning mathematics and computer science. He teaches seventh and eighth grade math along with advanced mathematics classes, and mentoring neurodivergent students helped shape Evelyn as a literal, highly observant protagonist with exceptional pattern-recognition abilities.
Justin’s creative interests grew from a longtime affection for creepy stories, Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The X-Files, and mysteries that combine unusual events with investigative problem-solving. His educational work also includes curriculum materials and Numeria, a sci-fi and superhero-inspired classroom world developed around the idea of making mathematics feel more like entering an engaging game session. His fiction similarly draws upon systems, interconnected clues, real-world events, folklore, religious traditions, and classic mystery storytelling.
A Mystery That Keeps Testing the Evidence
Evelyn Cross: The Iscariot Binding gives its young detective a case capable of challenging even her carefully constructed worldview. With secretive organizations, disturbing apartment walls, buried mythology, and a protagonist determined to follow the evidence wherever it leads, Justin has created a paranormal mystery centered on curiosity, deduction, and discovery.
For young readers who enjoy supernatural cases with intelligent sleuths and mysteries that gradually reveal a larger world, Evelyn’s latest investigation offers an intriguing invitation to start examining the clues. The book is available in Kindle edition on Amazon, along with a paperback.
We had the privilege of interviewing Justin Owens. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Justin, could you tell our readers a little about yourself?
Hi, my name is Justin Owens, and I’m a veteran middle school math teacher. I started off writing curriculum materials and apps like Numeria, and I still do, as well as teach advanced mathematics classes.
What inspired you to create the Evelyn Cross Mystery Series?
I’ve always loved creepy stories, Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and shows like The X-Files. Because I teach advanced mathematics classes, it is not unusual for me to teach and mentor students who are neurodivergent in a multitude of different ways. So I wanted to try writing stories for my students that I would have loved as a kid, and that’s where the Evelyn Cross Mystery Series came from.
What do you enjoy most about writing these mysteries?
I love weaving mysterious timelines, real-world events, and folk and religious cultures into just plain old Scooby-Doo mysteries.
Where does The Iscariot Binding fit in the series, and where can readers find the other books?
This is Book 2 in the series. Book 1, The Haunting of Riverside Academy, is available on Amazon, KU, and Audible. The prequel, Olivia Hartwell: Sterling Matters, is available for free if you sign up for my author’s newsletter.
Thank you so much, Justin, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!