Red Clay Lantern PressGeorgia • Independent publishing

Author

K.A. LeVan

Historical crime fiction shaped by the American South, with an interest in evidence, memory, institutions, and the long consequences of the stories people choose to preserve.

K.A. LeVan author emblem with a Southern landscape and speculative imagery
K.A. LeVan • Merritt Franklin novels

About K.A. LeVan

K.A. LeVan writes the Merritt Franklin novels, a series rooted in historical crime, procedural investigation, and the ways old decisions continue to shape the present.

Born in Alabama, with time spent in Tennessee and a childhood shaped primarily by Georgia, LeVan brings a lifelong familiarity with the American South to the series. Its towns, roads, institutions, landscapes, and complicated sense of history are more than backdrop—they are part of the stories themselves.

The novels follow investigators who have to separate what is known from what is assumed, especially when official records, personal loyalty, and memory point in different directions.

Every Past Has a Name, the first Merritt Franklin novel, is set in Georgia in 1978 and is available in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover editions.

The work comes first

K.A. LeVan keeps the public focus on the books rather than on the person behind the name. Red Clay Lantern Press will share new releases, historical research, publication notes, and occasional glimpses behind the Merritt Franklin stories.

Where the stories begin

The Merritt Franklin novels draw on Southern places where the past rarely disappears cleanly. Small towns, county offices, old industries, military histories, family loyalties, and official records all leave traces. The central question is often not whether the past survives, but who gets to decide what version of it remains.

Explore the books