Servant

The much-anticipated follow-up to the breakout best-seller Caretaker, R.J. Halbert’s Servant plunges deeper into the Goodpasture legacy—where dark secrets, chilling curses, and unbreakable hope collide. Fans who were “hooked from the start” will find even more suspense, emotion, and haunting twists in this gripping continuation of The Goodpasture Chronicles.

A child vanishes. A family unravels. Ancient powers stir.

When Zach disappears overnight, his family begins to fracture under the weight of grief and unthinkable possibilities. Ian Keane, Professor of Ancient History, becomes obsessed with cryptic symbols appearing around their New England property as his wife Lyana experiences visions that blur the lines between madness and revelation. Caught between her disintegrating family and her own supernatural awakening, daughter Ariel grows increasingly suspicious of Marshall, the enigmatic caretaker who seems to know more than he’s willing to reveal about their property’s dark history. As the Keanes grapple with how far they must go to recover their son, they discover that some homes demand more than just caretakers—this home demands a servant.

R.J. Halbert is a sixteen-time award-winning, and best-selling husband and wife team who have collaborated as authors of The Goodpasture Chronicles, a supernatural fantasy trilogy that blends mystery, suspense, endurance, and triumph into an epic adventure. Book one in the series, CARETAKER, received the 2025 Bill Fischer Silver Award, and book two, SERVANT, received the coveted Blue Star from Kirkus Reviews.

Jason Halbert, one-half of R.J. Halbert, is an Emmy and Grammy Award winning producer and songwriter. His songs have reached millions of listeners worldwide through multiple #1 and Platinum selling albums. In addition to his 23+ year career as Music Director and Producer for Kelly Clarkson, he has left his creative mark on numerous works in film and television, and as well as a copious amount of recording artists over the years. When not creating music, he loves bee-keeping, Sci-Fi, and is known to be quite a storyteller.

After homeschooling their two children around the world on a tour bus, Rhonda Halbert, the second half of R.J. Halbert, has spent the past 15 years as a successful music and television manager, guiding her clients’ relationships with labels, networks, and producers. She is also a published photographer, music supervisor, passionate cook, garden enthusiast, and spiritual practitioner.

Together, Jason and Rhonda have woven their 33+ years of life together into a riveting story, based somewhat on truth and experience, but even more so, brimming with imagination.

Husband and wife team Halbert’s second installment of their Goodpasture Chronicles blends domestic suspense with supernatural undertones as a family’s unfolding grief collides with an ancient curse. The novel opens with the mysterious disappearance of middle-schooler Zach, the youngest in the splintering Keane family. Barely recovered from their supernatural trials in Caretaker, the Keanes are ripping at the seams, pushed over the edge by Zach’s disappearance and the strange happenings in their recently renovated old house. Meanwhile, Zach wakes up in an otherworldly kingdom thousands of years in the past, his sister Ariel is convinced the house is trying to kill them, and the house’s caretaker, Marshall, seems to be hiding plenty of his own secrets.

Halbert’s strongest writing lies not in the realm of fantasy but in the tense, claustrophobic portrayal of the Keane household. Ian and Lyana, stretched thin by grief and denial, read like parents barely treading water, fumbling to maintain their careers, marriage, and sanity. Their teenage daughter Ariel, however, steals the spotlight. Her diary entries crackle with resentment and vulnerability, giving the narrative its sharpest emotional edge as she voices what the adults cannot. Parallel chapters follow Zach in Akolo’s kingdom, where Halbert introduces a rich mythos of symbols, guardians, and shifting loyalties. While intriguing, these passages sometimes lack the urgency of the primary narrative. That contrast can feel uneven, but it’s Ariel’s voice—and her growing suspicion of the enigmatic Marshall—that grounds the story and keeps the tension taut.

Where Servant succeeds most is in its riveting atmosphere: creeping symbols, visions that blur madness and revelation, and the ever-present dread of a family being hollowed out by forces they can’t explain. Though the fantasy arc could be more fleshed out, Halbert balances the fragmented realism of grief with enough supernatural menace to keep readers hooked.

Takeaway: Moody, unsettling thriller that thrives on family tension.

Comparable Titles: Karen Marie Moning’s The House at Watch Hill, Lexi Elliott’s The Missing Years.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

An American kid travels back in time to an ancient society while his family fruitlessly searches for him in Halbert’s historical fantasy adventure.

It’s 2010, and the Keane family—mom Lyana, historian dad Ian, snarky teen daughter Ariel, and son Zach, a neurodivergent boy who obsessively counts things—are ensconced in a spooky old Tudor house in Littleton, Massachusetts. One night, Zach starts climbing the staircase and somehow ends up in an ancient society, where he befriends Akolo, a young boy brought to the city by the king after his village was raided. The king also brought back a chest. The two boys have ouroboros-shaped amulets that glow prettily near the chest, and the voice of God duly pronounces them “servants.” (Zach also miraculously gains the ability to speak the native language.) The king wants Zach and Akolo to harness the chest’s power for him, and is delighted when Zach figures out that objects placed beside the chest during a lunar eclipse—a blood moon—become imbued with divine mojo. Meanwhile, as months go by, the distraught Keanes refuse to entertain the likelihood that Zach is dead. Ian pursues seemingly unhinged theories regarding his disappearance while Lyana perceives whispering voices and unsettling visions of a blood-drenched girl. Their suspicions fall upon Marshall, the house’s informal caretaker, who lives in a cabin filled with rare ancient books and has an ouroboros tattoo; their misgivings heighten when Ariel discovers a photograph of him from the 1800s. Zach is working from his end to find a way back to the 21st century before the king takes him and Akolo back to Akolo’s village to help rebuild the temple, which will sever Zach’s access to the time-travel portal.

In this second installment of their Goodpasture Chronicles series, husband-and-wife authors Jason and Rhonda Halbert (writing under the pen name R.J. Halbert) create a richly textured portrait of an ancient society. Zach adroitly navigates palace intrigues, the king’s despotic whims, and the potentially fatal chest, portrayed by the Halberts in punchy, mordant prose. (“The sound was a muffled scream, as if the man was being strangled,” they write of a soldier forced to approach the chest as an experiment. “Akolo leaned forward to get a better look, then wished he hadn’t when he saw the man’s face—it was white as a tunic and frozen in fear. This man was dead.”) The contemporary branch of the narrative is a tense study of a family disintegrating under pressure, then struggling to regroup, written in evocative prose that strips bare the characters’ weaknesses and comforting delusions. (“Some of his best academic insights had come with a glass in his hand, the whiskey warming his thoughts until patterns emerged from chaos,” Ian tells himself as he hits the bottle. “Just one, he rationalized, already rising from his chair. Just enough to think clearly. For Zach.”) The result is a page turner with real literary depth.

An entertaining occult thriller that mixes captivating magic with bracing psychological realism.

drenched girl. Their suspicions fall upon Marshall, the house’s informal caretaker, who lives in a cabin filled with rare ancient books and has an ouroboros tattoo; their misgivings heighten when Ariel discovers a photograph of him from the 1800s. Zach is working from his end to find a way back to the 21st century before the king takes him and Akolo back to Akolo’s village to help rebuild the temple, which will sever Zach’s access to the time-travel portal.

In this second installment of their Goodpasture Chronicles series, husband-and-wife authors Jason and Rhonda Halbert (writing under the pen name R.J. Halbert) create a richly textured portrait of an ancient society. Zach adroitly navigates palace intrigues, the king’s despotic whims, and the potentially fatal chest, portrayed by the Halberts in punchy, mordant prose. (“The sound was a muffled scream, as if the man was being strangled,” they write of a soldier forced to approach the chest as an experiment. “Akolo leaned forward to get a better look, then wished he hadn’t when he saw the man’s face—it was white as a tunic and frozen in fear. This man was dead.”) The contemporary branch of the narrative is a tense study of a family disintegrating under pressure, then struggling to regroup, written in evocative prose that strips bare the characters’ weaknesses and comforting delusions. (“Some of his best academic insights had come with a glass in his hand, the whiskey warming his thoughts until patterns emerged from chaos,” Ian tells himself as he hits the bottle. “Just one, he rationalized, already rising from his chair. Just enough to think clearly. For Zach.”) The result is a page turner with real literary depth.

An entertaining occult thriller that mixes captivating magic with bracing psychological realism.