Persephone

In a propulsive sci-fi thriller for fans of Andy Weir and Gravity, six astronauts on a one-way journey to Mars stumble across the impossible right beside their ship. Is it a wormhole, mass hallucination...or something far more sinister?

Psychiatrist Daniel Richland never had what it took to be an elite astronaut, never mind serve as chief medical officer aboard the Ulysses: the fourth ship to ever attempt to reach the Red Planet. What Daniel is, however, is madly in love with his wife, Sarah, and since Mars Now, the private space program funded by eccentric billionaire Alan Burke, chose her to lead the construction of the first human habitat on Mars, Daniel will do whatever it takes for them to be reunited.

But space travel is a perilous business, and during a near-catastrophic solar flare that hits the Ulysses barely a quarter of the way into the voyage, Daniel observes what appears to be a second ship following a trajectory parallel to their own. When that ship turns out to be an exact duplicate of the Persephone—the ship commanded by Sarah that landed on Mars six months ago, Daniel and his crew are thrown into a web of bizarre scientific theories and rumors of a conspiracy to sabotage the entire Mars Now program.

A near-fatal attempt to study the ghost ship soon puts the Ulysses mission in jeopardy and leaves Daniel in charge of a team of astronauts who challenge his ability to command even as they hide secrets of their own. As one disaster after another besets the ship, evidence mounts that Daniel may not be able to trust anyone: not his own crew, not his billionaire boss, and maybe not even the messages he’s been receiving from Sarah.

With only his training, his instincts and his unwavering belief in the woman he loves to guide him, Daniel Richland must find a way to uncover the truth, rescue his crew, and save the course of space exploration for generations to come.

With high-stakes missions, scientific intrigue and a love that defies even the vastness of space, Persephone is that rare, irresistible hard sci-fi thriller—one with heart.