DIVIDED FLAME: Book One: The Balance Isn’t Stable

Balance isn't peace. It's a ledger. And the universe is a ruthless accountant.
Slade Mercer is an out-of-work diesel mechanic operating on raw survival instincts, stale tobacco, and bottom-shelf whiskey. He knows how to diagnose a failing engine. But when a 12mm wrench vanishes into thin air, a stray dog starts walking backward, and letters arrive from a wife who shouldn't exist, Slade realizes his grief isn't just haunting him.
It's corrupting the local physics.
Reality isn't mystical. It is a rigid, mechanical system constantly trying to paper over its own missing time and memory leaks. And right now, the system is trying to edit Slade's past to balance the cosmic books.
To find out what really happened to his life, Slade isn't going to fight a ghost. Armed with a heavy black canvas notebook, wire constructions, and a half-inch Craftsman socket wrench, he is going to map the blind spots of the universe, sabotage the timeline, and force a localized reality crash.
Divided Flame is a mind-bending, blue-collar cosmic thriller. It's an investigation into the architecture of reality, perfect for readers who like their sci-fi grounded in grease, grit, and absolute psychological dread.