In crime fiction, catching a killer is difficult enough. Catching one who can disappear, reinvent himself and leave investigators questioning whether they ever truly knew their suspect is something else entirely. That is the unsettling territory Dutch Haid explores across The Bitch Farm and its forthcoming continuation, The Deed.
Together, the two novels form a dark psychological crime saga built around murder, deception, fractured identities and a determined law-enforcement team trying to connect clues before the killer slips away again.
A Suspect Hiding Behind an Ordinary Life
At the center of The Bitch Farm is James Alfred Zachary, a seemingly respectable businessman connected to the Time Everlasting Cemetery. Beneath that ordinary exterior, however, lies a far darker existence involving the personas of Jessie and Zac, violent acts referred to as “the deed,” and a series of missing women.
As investigators begin linking disappearances and suspicious deaths, Brad Ashley, Jack Baird, Sue Gunther and their task-force colleagues gradually focus their attention on James.
The problem is evidence.
By the closing chapters, Sue is convinced James could be the killer known to investigators as Jessie, yet the team still lacks the physical proof needed to take decisive legal action. They have patterns, coincidences, behavioral clues and growing suspicion but not enough to make the case.
Then James disappears.
A Carefully Planned Escape
Rather than simply running, James undergoes a complete transformation.
With help from Mrs. Oliver, better known as Franie, a detailed plan is created to move him out of Florida, provide him with new identification and establish him under the name Hershel Daquin. The plan even includes altering his appearance and using another man to impersonate James temporarily, creating further confusion for investigators.
It is a chilling development because the task force is not merely pursuing someone who has fled. They are pursuing someone who has effectively been rebuilt.
That escape becomes the narrative bridge into The Deed.
The Hunt Begins Again
The Deed picks up with the Florida task force still searching for answers. Their suspected killer has vanished, but the crimes have not necessarily ended.
A disturbing missing-person case in Slidell, Louisiana, begins to resemble the Florida investigations. Soon, the possibility becomes impossible to ignore: Jessie may have moved his activity to another state.
Meanwhile, James is now living as Hershel Liam Daquin, complete with a new face, documents, vehicle and life. But changing his identity does not erase what exists inside him. Jessie and Zac remain part of his psychological world, waiting beneath the surface.
That tension gives The Deed its central question: Can someone truly escape his past when the most dangerous part of that past exists within himself?
One Story, Two Stages of the Hunt
Readers who begin with The Bitch Farm experience the creation of the mystery, the growing body of evidence and the task force’s frustrating pursuit. The Deed expands that story into a larger chase involving new locations, identities, victims and investigators.
Dutch Haid turns the transition between the novels into more than a simple sequel setup. The disappearance of James changes the entire nature of the hunt.
The police no longer have only a killer to find.
They have to determine who he has become.
The Bitch Farm is available now, while The Deed is currently in the publishing phase and will be available soon. For readers who enjoy dark psychological thrillers, serial-killer investigations, shifting identities and relentless cat-and-mouse suspense, Dutch Haid’s interconnected novels offer one disturbing question after another and answers that only lead deeper into the hunt.
Read the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0DJHFKCD4/allbooks
