The Alchemist's Secret (2019)

Publisher's blurb:

Jarvis Orsten was an alchemist and necromancer fascinated with transmutation and change. Turning a solid into a liquid, a plant into an animal, the living into the dead into the undead, all of this was a mystery Orsten was driven to solve.

Using his vast wealth, Orsten built a manor on the cliffs overlooking a bay. In this manor he conducted all manner of experiments, alchemy and necromantic rites. His most daring involved the ancient and obscure tome: The Transmutive Properties of Base Ores. This manual, if properly decoded, could allow its owner to change the very nature of an item’s makeup. Orsten secluded himself in his tower, becoming more and more reclusive as the years went on.

One day, Jarvis Orsten disappeared completely. The town grew up around his manor, but no one came out to greet it. The City Fathers eventually took over ownership of the home, boarded up the windows and locked the doors. Over time, Orsten Manor became a local legend; a haunted house. Children told stories of old Jarvis Orsten, still walking through his home, of strange noises in the night and strange lights in the sky.

No one enters Orsten Manor now. But that is about to change…