The Still Family

By John Tomaino

Family is forever… even when they’re dead.

Jeffrey Still grew up without love, without roots, and without a family. Orphaned after a drunk-driving crash stole his parents and sister, he spends a lonely life trying to hold on to what was taken from him. His childhood obsession with taxidermy begins with roadkill — but over time, his hunger for preservation takes on a far darker shape.

Now, in a quiet Australian town, Jeffrey prowls the highways listening to police scanners, reaching crash scenes before the authorities arrive. Each victim becomes part of his new “family,” carefully preserved and posed in chilling domestic scenes inside his shed. A mother. A father. A sister. A neighbour. All perfect. All still.

But when Hannah Lorne — daughter of one of Jeffrey’s victims begins to suspect the truth, her search for answers drags her into his nightmare world of obsession and decay. As she closes in, the boundary between hunter and prey begins to blur… and Jeffrey’s twisted idea of family may finally claim its last member.

"A chilling psychological novella, The Still Family drags readers into the twisted mind of a mentally disturbed boy obsessed with control and preservation. John Tomaino crafts a compact yet intense thriller where every moment pulses with dread, every discovery unsettles, and the line between innocence and horror disappears. Short, haunting, and unforgettable."