© 2026 Jonathan Cook
Read Harlan’s Yard, the free prequel to the Handler's Inventory series — a supernatural mystery set in the American Midwest.
Tom Salk was a paramedic for eighteen years before the work hollowed him out. Now he's running his dead uncle's estate sale business in a small Illinois river town — and discovering that some of the objects in the warehouse carry more than sentimental weight. Some carry danger.
Handler's Inventory is a supernatural mystery series about old things, inherited obligations, and a good man finding his way back.
Handler’s Inventory — Book 1
Some inheritances come with instructions. Some come with warnings.
When Tom Salk inherits his uncle’s estate sale business in a small Illinois river town, he expects dusty furniture and old paperwork. Instead, he finds a coded ledger, a warehouse full of objects that shouldn’t exist, and a community that knows more about his uncle’s work than they’re willing to say. The first full-length novel in the Handler’s Inventory series.
Two companion stories that expand the world of Handler's Inventory — one for newcomers, one for readers who've finished Book 1.
A Handler’s Inventory Prequel · ~9,000 words
Summer, 1984. Twelve-year-old Tom Salk spends a week with his Uncle Harlan in a small Illinois river town, sorting inventory in a warehouse full of other people’s things. One brass candlestick feels different from the rest — warmer, heavier, present in a way he can’t explain. Harlan notices. He doesn’t explain it either.
“It sat in my hand with a seriousness that the other candlesticks hadn’t had, as if it had opinions about being held and was concentrating on them.”
A Handler’s Inventory Bonus Story · ~6,000 words
You’ve read the dampening scene through Tom’s eyes. Now hear it through Mo’s — the expert on the other end of the phone, listening to a man she trained attempt the most dangerous procedure she’s ever witnessed, with three weeks of practice where her mentor had forty years. A story about skilled hands with nothing to do, fear managed through discipline, and the cost of staying on the line.
“The specific restlessness of skilled hands denied their function.”
Available to newsletter subscribers who’ve finished Book 1. Contains spoilers.
Read Mo’s Side of the Story
Jonathan Cook writes about old objects, small towns, and the things people leave behind. He lives in the Midwest. Handler’s Inventory is his first series (in a long while).
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