Sladké sny – Markert J. H. (2026)

This Czech-language thriller is set in the town of Twisted Tree, where a series of murders coincides with the disappearance of several children. A spectre known as Father Mlčoch appears in the streets. When the police finally find his “house of horrors”, they discover the remains of earlier victims and the bodies of the missing children, except for one who manages to escape. Father Mlčoch is captured and never speaks again. Almost twenty years later, he is sentenced to death and executed at exactly midnight. The following morning, however, the detective who arrested Mlčoch years earlier is found dead alongside his wife. The murder appears to be the work of a new serial killer who calls himself the Outcast. Tess Claibourne, the murdered detective’s daughter, follows in her father’s footsteps and is now a respected police inspector. Although she appears fearless, the inexplicable deaths of her parents shake her deeply. Could the events be connected to a mysterious sect whose members wear animal masks and blindly worship Father Mlčoch’s legacy? Then the Outcast kidnaps Tess’s daughter. The search for her child and for her parents’ killer brings Tess back to her hometown of Twisted Tree, where she visits a boy who escaped the house of horrors and is now an adult resident of a psychiatric institution. What connection does he have to the Outcast, and what further secrets will he help uncover?