From the mind of Chase Austin, who brought you thriller series like Sam Wick and Axel Monk, comes a groundbreaking new series where patterns speak louder than words.

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The FBI's Records Division basement isn't where careers flourish—it's where they go to die. Special Agent Aria Hunt knows this better than anyone. After the controversial Denver Incident left two dead and twelve saved, the Bureau buried her in the basement, surrounded by forgotten files and flickering fluorescent lights.

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They meant it as punishment. She made it her kingdom.

Meet Aria Hunt—brilliant, methodical, and perpetually underestimated. Where others see her direct communication style and precise routines as limitations, Aria harnesses her unique neurodivergent perspective to see patterns no one else can detect. While the Bureau may have exiled her to the Records Division, they've unwittingly given her access to decades of cold cases crying out for resolution.

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THE BASEMENT FILES follows Aria as she sifts through America's most perplexing cold cases—the ones deemed too complex, too old, or too strange for conventional investigation. A missing girl who vanished on paper but lived in plain sight. A serial killer who returns to the same campsite every nine years, regardless of how many times they rename it. A trunk purchased at an estate sale that holds the key to a decades-old disappearance.

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In each standalone mystery, Aria applies her extraordinary pattern recognition abilities to find connections others have missed for decades. No social politics. No institutional roadblocks. Just pure, relentless analysis that gives voice to the forgotten and justice to the abandoned.

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As she builds unlikely alliances within the Bureau and accumulates quiet successes, Aria transforms her basement exile into the most effective cold case unit the FBI never officially created. But some patterns, once recognized, can't be unseen—and some truths are dangerous to those who prefer comfortable lies.

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THE BASEMENT FILES is perfect for readers who loved Austin's signature blend of meticulous research and psychological tension in the Sam Wick series, but are ready for a fresh perspective on crime fiction. Austin brings his trademark pacing and twist endings to a procedural series that will change how you see patterns in your own life.

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Discover why early readers are calling this series "Austin at his absolute best" and "a masterclass in pattern-based storytelling." Join Aria Hunt in the basement, where cold cases come to die—or in her hands, come back to life.