Not in This Small Town

(Previously released as "The Preacher.")

Welcome to Layton, Alabama. Population: 11,000. Where the sweet tea runs through our veins, the air smells of cobbler, and the secrets lie so deep that not even the confessionals are safe anymore.

They say evil can take many forms . . .

I learned that first hand at the age of seventeen. My mother's third husband was the preacher . . . a man of the cloth who had a secret agenda within our small Southern community.

My name is Sunny Gardner. And Layton, Alabama is my home, or least it had been until the preacher came into our lives. A minister who preached the Word, but lived a lie. But the folks in this town had closed their eyes and ears to the truth once they fell under the preacher's spell. As it turned out, I'm the one they believed was evil. I'm the one who was shamed into leaving town.

This is my story. A story of struggle and triumph and, ultimately, a story of how I saved myself and my community from the devil himself.

(Inspired by an actual event.)

Adult Content 18+

© 2025 Andrea Smith (Audiobook): 9798347776740

Release date

Audiobook: June 18, 2025