The Paradox Club brings us a mystery that is packed with cryptic puzzles to work out. Tess has to delve into the world of a covert organization that goes by the name of the title of the novel. Scholars guard the knowledge of power that could reshape all of human history behind what seems to be an unremarkable Manhattan brownstone. That’s the perfect way for a secret organization to hide, right?
This is more than a mystery. It’s a story of scientific intrigue and buried histories. If you love the likes of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons then you’re going to adore The Paradox Club, which is out on Sept. 1, 2026.
Parade has been fortunate enough to reveal an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming novel from Hyperion Avenue. We just into the start of Tess’s life, as she remembers back to when she knew that something bad was going to happen. As we get a look at how Tess is sure she needs to write the alphabet backward 20 times and line up 15 pencils perfectly, we get just the start of the mystery that is set to unfurl years later for this child struggling to figure out how to do what the voices tell her to do.
Courtesy of Hyperion AvenueFire on the Island
She and Harry hadn’t gone to the dock that night because a front had swept through and dark clouds filled the sky, threatening rain and lightning and obscuring the stars. Nights when she couldn’t see Harry’s star made her nervous. The wind whistled through the pine trees and blew hard enough that twigs and small branches occasionally thwapped against the roof, making Tess jump in her chair. The air felt electric, as it often did before a summer storm, but this time Tess tingled not with excitement but with unease. The whole universe seemed on edge and the voices knew it.
Marie had gone to bed early. “Don’t stay up too late,” she had told Tess as she kissed her good night in front of the fireplace where Tess had been reading. Even then the voices had been warming up, but Tess kept reading for another hour or so until they became too much of a distraction. Then she said good night to Harry and Vivian—each in a chair with a book—and went to her room to arrange Legos, write alphabets, and sharpen pencils. Never had the voices been so demanding.
Tess loved Vivian like a second mother, but she loved Marie, too. She didn’t like Harry and Vivian having secrets from her mother. Especially when those secrets involved sitting so close to each other in the dying light of a fire. Tess tiptoed back to her room and slid under the covers, praying for sleep. Thunder began to rumble outside, and she considered closing her window against the coming rain, but the fresh air soothed her. Besides, if the rain blew in the window maybe it would wash away all the pencil shavings and in the morning the voices, and all evidence of their existence, would be gone.
Tess watched the bouncing beam of Vivian’s flashlight and when that beam stilled and she realized where Harry had taken Vivian, she became more convinced than ever that they were about to do something that would tear her family apart.
But one spot on the island had always been forbidden: A circle of trees a short distance to the north of the house surrounding a clearing about twenty feet wide. The trees were tall, slender pines ringed by laurel bushes which almost enclosed the space, leaving a gap on the side facing the house just wide enough for an adult to pass through. This clearing was Harry’s sanctum sanctorum—the one place on the island where not only Tess but also Marie and Vivian were forbidden to set foot. Harry himself only ventured into what he called his “private circle” occasionally. Sometimes a whole summer would pass without him slipping through the laurel bushes and disappearing for an hour or so.
She watched as the flashlight moved around within the laurels and then heard, in between the claps of thunder, the sound of music coming from Harry’s radio. Romantic music, thought Tess. Some love song from the days when young men took their girlfriends to secret spots in the woods.
Even as these questions tore at her, she saw the flashlight extinguished and she fell back into her desk chair. She was too late. In front of her, the uneven ends of her colored pencils stood silent witness to the fact that this was all Tess’s fault. If she had only obeyed the voices. They had told her something bad would happen. If she didn’t sharpen the pencils properly, something bad would happen. And she hadn’t sharpened the pencils properly and now her happy childhood was over, her family rent apart, and the man she had loved and trusted most in the world stood at the center of that betrayal. She threw her head down on the desk and cried, finally falling asleep in the chair to the smell of pencil shavings and the rumble of thunder.
Hence then, the article about tess knows something bad will happen in this excerpt of the paradox club by charlie lovett exclusive was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Tess Knows Something Bad Will Happen in This Excerpt of ‘The Paradox Club’ by Charlie Lovett (Exclusive) )
Also on site :
- USWNT to Receive Cut of USMNT& 039;s $16 Million World Cup Prize Money: Report
- Elon Musk’s judge has ‘significant misgivings’ about $1.5 million Twitter settlement—but approves it anyway
- Quiet Luxury Is Trending, and Nordstrom Rack Has ‘Beautiful’ $23 Pearl Drop Earrings That Radiate Old-Money Charm