Sleeping Evil
About
Across the country, children are disappearing. Claire Lalich knows it is not random.
Claire’s hidden valley was built to survive the collapse everyone else refused to see coming. Families have found shelter there. Trusted friends have become a community. Supplies are growing, defenses are ready, and for the first time in months, safety feels possible.
Then two starving boys are found hiding in an abandoned bookstore.
Their story exposes a darker truth. The same forces tearing the country apart are targeting children, stripping families of their rights, seizing homes and businesses, and hiding cruelty behind official letters, black SUVs, and words like safety and reeducation.
Claire and Clayton Lalich can no longer wait behind the valley’s gates. With Jonathan’s former SEAL team, loyal K-9s, and a growing circle of determined allies, they must act before more children vanish into a system designed to erase them.
But every rescue risks exposing the valley.
Every child saved draws the enemy closer.
And somewhere behind the red shield and black hand, a larger power is watching.
Saving the Children is Book Three in the Sleeping Evil series, a dystopian survival thriller about courage, chosen family, and the people willing to stand between evil and the innocent.
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Praise for this book
Karen's "Saving the Children" is a gripping emotionally charged near-future thriller that blends political collapse, child-centered survival, and community-based resistance into a narrative that feels disturbingly plausible. What makes this book stand out is how grounded it is. There are no supernatural forces, no magical systems, no speculative fantasy elements. The "evil" in the title is entirely human - the kind that emerges when governments fracture, ideologies harden, and vulnerable people become targets. West writes this world with a steady hand, focusing on emotional reality of children and families trying to survive in a country that has turned hostile overnight.
West's "Saving the Children" pulled me in right from the opening chapter. I expected an action-packed dystopian story, but what surprised me most was how emotional it was. The danger and suspense are constant, but it's characters and their determination to protect the innocent children that stayed with me long after I finished the book. Chip completely broke my heart. The opening scenes, where they're are hiding beneath the kitchen floor while armed men tear through their home, had me on edge.