Rite of Reckoning
(2025)(The third book in the Rites of Passage Southern Gothic Trilogy series)
A novel by Lorna Tedder
(Previously published as Midlife Visions.)
Some secrets refuse to stay buried—and some reckonings come decades late.
She buried her past the night she called on the Old Gods to save her life. She never expected it to resurface through her mother’s failing memory.
When Lauren returns to her rural Southern hometown to care for her aging mother, she hopes to manage the present, not reopen the past. But dementia has no regard for what should stay buried. Her mother begins asking questions about a predator who vanished forty years ago—and about the uncle Lauren was never allowed to speak of.
A seasoned witch and High Priestess, Lauren has long faced down spiritual threats. But this time, the danger is human. Her visions are back, warning of a killer stalking closer, tangled in the same web of secrets that shaped her childhood.
As she walks the tightrope between caretaker and potential suspect, Lauren finds an unlikely ally in Virgil, a childhood friend with the rare gift of Deathwalking. Together, they must navigate fractured memories, prophetic warnings, and long-held silence to confront what really happened—and what justice looks like when it’s decades too late.
Some reckonings ask for forgiveness. Others demand the truth—no matter the cost.
Rite of Reckoning is a redemptive, emotionally resonant blend of Southern Gothic suspense and contemporary witchcraft. It explores midlife power, generational trauma, ancestral magic, and the quiet courage it takes to break patterns that never should have been passed down.
Rite of Reckoning is the final standalone-but-linked novel in the Rites of Passage Southern Gothic Trilogy, where midlife magic, trauma recovery, and ancestral truth collide in stories of spiritual power and second chances.
Genre: Mystery
Some secrets refuse to stay buried—and some reckonings come decades late.
She buried her past the night she called on the Old Gods to save her life. She never expected it to resurface through her mother’s failing memory.
When Lauren returns to her rural Southern hometown to care for her aging mother, she hopes to manage the present, not reopen the past. But dementia has no regard for what should stay buried. Her mother begins asking questions about a predator who vanished forty years ago—and about the uncle Lauren was never allowed to speak of.
A seasoned witch and High Priestess, Lauren has long faced down spiritual threats. But this time, the danger is human. Her visions are back, warning of a killer stalking closer, tangled in the same web of secrets that shaped her childhood.
As she walks the tightrope between caretaker and potential suspect, Lauren finds an unlikely ally in Virgil, a childhood friend with the rare gift of Deathwalking. Together, they must navigate fractured memories, prophetic warnings, and long-held silence to confront what really happened—and what justice looks like when it’s decades too late.
Some reckonings ask for forgiveness. Others demand the truth—no matter the cost.
Rite of Reckoning is a redemptive, emotionally resonant blend of Southern Gothic suspense and contemporary witchcraft. It explores midlife power, generational trauma, ancestral magic, and the quiet courage it takes to break patterns that never should have been passed down.
Rite of Reckoning is the final standalone-but-linked novel in the Rites of Passage Southern Gothic Trilogy, where midlife magic, trauma recovery, and ancestral truth collide in stories of spiritual power and second chances.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Lorna Tedder's Rite of Reckoning