S. Freeman Martin
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Character-driven thrillers about money, power, and the institutions that shape modern life.
Three Little Birds
–She reads lips. They erase lives.
When an investigation into a blue-chip Wall Street firm turns deadly, a reformed, lip-reading forensic accountant must expose a multimillion-dollar fraud and stop the men who will kill to keep their secret.
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Launching on Amazon -- April 28, 2026
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Back Cover:
Sally Raines sees the truth in a way others can’t.
A childhood spent in silence taught her to read lips—and people. It kept her alive, but there were consequences. After prison, she rebuilt her life with a master’s degree and a small forensic accounting firm, a quiet second chance she refuses to waste.
Hired to vet the most prestigious investment firm in Washington, D.C., Sally and her partners—Navi, a brilliant hacker, and Cricket, her former cellmate and a street-born protector with a big heart—peel back the polish and find rot underneath: duplicate ledgers, falsified returns, and a cover-up protected by money and power.
But the fraud is only the beginning. Their discovery triggers a ruthless retaliation: a mentor’s home ransacked, a professor stabbed, a kidnapping gone violently wrong. With a corrupt probation officer tightening the noose around Sally’s past, the trio must rely on their skills, their wits, and the fragile community they’ve rebuilt to survive.
In a city built on wealth and power, they must decide: stay hidden and survive, or step out of the shadows and become the reckoning for an empire built on deceit.
Three Little Birds is a story about truth, redemption, and the strength of found family.
Perfect for readers who love gritty resilience, brilliant underdogs, and thrillers with heart.
S. Freeman Martin
S. Freeman Martin writes character-driven thrillers set in the world he knows well—Wall Street, Washington, and the powerful institutions that shape modern life. A New Orleans native, he spent many years inside major financial firms and brings an insider’s eye for detail to his fiction.
His debut novel, Three Little Birds, introduces Sally Raines, a brilliant investigator whose childhood deafness taught her to read people in ways most can’t. She survives not by force, but by noticing what others miss.
Martin volunteered for over a decade at the Lighthouse of the Blind, where he was inspired by the resilience and quiet strength of the people he met. That experience helped shape Sally’s character and the emotional core of the series.
After decades inside the financial world, Martin turned to fiction to explore power, accountability, and what happens when someone who has learned to navigate the margins challenges the system itself.
He splits his time between Charleston and New Orleans. Married with three children, he can usually be found on a racquet court when he’s not writing. He is currently at work on the next Three Little Birds thriller.
Contact S. Freeman at: sfreeman@sfreemanmartin.com
Waterthrush Press is a small independent imprint for sharp deeply felt, socially aware thrillers.