A short bio:
Elias Crowl (born 1986 in New York) is a Manhattan-based author of urban psychological thrillers known for close character perspective and deep immersion in psychological processes. He’s less interested in spectacle—bloody murders or explicit violence—than in the quiet, incremental shifts that lead someone to cross an irreversible line. His central fascination is transformation: what happens inside a person before they kill, without softening the act or searching for excuses.
Before turning fully to fiction, Crowl worked as a night porter, a sound engineer for off-Broadway productions, and a library assistant—jobs that trained his attention on patterns, routines, and the invisible textures of everyday life. He once studied English and psychology in New York, then dropped out to “listen to the voices of the city.” His early short stories appeared in independent literary magazines.
Crowl’s work circles urban rituals, the limits of perception, and the question of how much reality a person can endure before inventing a new one. When he’s not writing, he collects found objects—coasters, scraps of paper, old transit tickets—cataloging the timbres of his apartment building. He lives with his books and a cat in a small apartment near the Lower East Side, writes early mornings with the window cracked, and swears by two cups of coffee, rum balls, and Danish apple pie.
KLEIO II – Residuum (KLEIO Trilogy, Vol. 2)
Tagline / Hook (1 line)
In a city where interfaces don’t just show reality—they rewrite it—Emily Carter learns that “offline” is only a word. (elias-crowl.com)
Logline:
Investigative journalist Emily Carter tries to sever her ties with KLEIO, a system designed to “organize” the human mind. But when unauthorized mirror sessions trigger and a term called Residuum starts burning its way into her awareness, Emily realizes memory itself has become a weapon—and someone is quietly editing the world around her. (elias-crowl.com)
Short Pitch
KLEIO II: Residuum is the second volume in Elias Crowl’s KLEIO Trilogy—an urban, fast-paced psychological tech-noir thriller centered on the most dangerous currency of the future: your memory. As Emily digs into anomalies that shouldn’t exist—records that appear without origin, experiences that feel “smoothed over,” emotions that don’t fully belong—she gets pulled into a tightening web of oversight and corporate correction layers. The deeper she looks, the clearer it becomes: this isn’t just a story being revised—she may be part of the experiment. (elias-crowl.com)
Series Note:
KLEIO II: Residuum continues Emily’s arc from KLEIO I and is designed as Volume 2 of the KLEIO Trilogy. (elias-crowl.com)
Retail Links
- Amazon: “My book on amazon …”
- English edition: “Order in english …”
- German edition: “coming soon”
- Press Kit – Featured Title (Bullets)
- Title: KLEIO II: Residuum
- Series: KLEIO Trilogy — Volume 2
- Formats: eBook + Paperback
- Release date: February 15, 2026
- Genre / Vibe: Urban psychological tech-noir thriller; character-close, mind-focused tension over gore
- Protagonist: Emily Carter, investigative journalist
- Core hook: A system built to “organize” the human mind begins producing anomalies—memory, perception, and reality feel quietly rewritten.
- Themes: Identity under surveillance, manipulated memory, psychological transformation, the price of “optimization”
- Best read: After KLEIO I: External Access (Series continuity)
- Comp range: KLEIO I: External Access + other modern tech-noir / near-future psychological thrillers
- Retail / Order links: Add your primary retailer button(s) + one “Read excerpt” button on the book page
KLEIO I – External Access (KLEIO Trilogy, Vol. 1)
A near-future New York. A mind-management system with too much access. KLEIO I: External Access is the first installment in Elias Crowl’s KLEIO Trilogy—an urban psychological tech-noir thriller where the real crime is what gets edited out of your memory.
In KLEIO I: External Access, Emily Carter discovers that the most dangerous breach isn’t in a network—it’s in perception. Elias Crowl opens his tech-noir trilogy with a psychological thriller about surveillance, identity drift, and the quiet mechanics of becoming someone else.
- Title: KLEIO I: External Access (elias-crowl.com)
- Series: KLEIO Trilogy — Volume 1 (elias-crowl.com)
- Formats: eBook + Paperback/Print (elias-crowl.com)
- Release date: February 5, 2026 (LovelyBooks)
- Genre / Vibe: Urban psychological tech-noir thriller; paranoia, control systems, close POV (elias-crowl.com)
- Protagonist: Emily Carter (introduced here) (elias-crowl.com)
- Core hook: A memory-ordering system becomes more than a tool—Emily starts seeing signs that her mind (and records around her) can be influenced from the outside. (elias-crowl.com)
- Themes: Digital control, manipulated memory, identity drift, “who decides what you remember” (elias-crowl.com)
- Best read: Start here (entry point to the trilogy) (elias-crowl.com)
- Comp range: Modern tech-noir / near-future psychological thrillers; sets the baseline for KLEIO II: Residuum (elias-crowl.com)
- Retail / Order links: Use your primary “Order now” buttons (e.g., Amazon / Thalia / “choose your bookstore”) on the book landing page (elias-crowl.com)
The Permission
In The Permission, a New York writer builds a life of immaculate routines—until intimacy starts to feel like compliance. A slow-burn psychological thriller where control hides in politeness, and the narrator is convincing for far too long.
A city that drowns out conscience. A man who mistakes order for truth. The Permission is a dark psychological slow-burn about obsession, gaslighting vibes, and the moment knowledge becomes something you need permission to hold.
- Title: The Permission
- Series: Standalone psychological thriller (fits alongside your NYC-set work)
- Setting / Mood: New York–noir, slow-burn domestic dread; tension built through routine, atmosphere, and unease
- Protagonist: Harvey, an author obsessed with precision and “perfect surfaces”
- Core dynamic: Harvey and June share a carefully ordered apartment life that starts to feel less like love and more like a system
- Core hook: What begins as “research” turns into ritual—until the line between knowing, controlling, and being allowed quietly shifts
- Tension style: Psychological pressure over violence — no splatter/gore, horror-by-implication and an increasingly unreliable perspective
- Themes: Manipulation, obsession, control dynamics, gaslighting vibes, moral grey zones
- Best for readers who like: Slow-burn psychological thrillers with noir atmosphere and an antihero you trust for too long
- Retail / Order links: Use your primary “Order in English / Order in German” buttons (Books2Read) on the landing page
The Fair of Shadows
In The Fair of Shadows, a Manhattan writer clings to routine until his own manuscript begins to feel strangely interactive. A slow-burn psychological thriller with literary bite—where the city watches back, and control becomes the first illusion.
A quiet New York story that turns uncanny by degrees: stairwells, radiators, hallways—and the creeping sense that the narrative isn’t staying on the page. The Fair of Shadows is dread built from small choices, not shock.
- Title: The Fair of Shadows
- Status: Debut novel
- Setting / Mood: Manhattan-set, urban slow-burn; dread builds through atmosphere, routine, and the “city as a living signal”
- Core hook: A writer’s carefully controlled life starts to fracture when elements from his own manuscript seem to push back—turning authorship into a confrontation
- Story engine: Meta-mystery + psychological city-portrait: small decisions ripple into escalating unreality
- Tension style: Quiet, insinuating suspense with a subtle horror edge (more lingering than loud)
- Themes: Perception under pressure, urban ritual, the limits of control, reality vs. invention
- Best for readers who like: Literary psychological thrillers, metafiction, uncanny Manhattan atmosphere
- Languages / Formats: Available in English & German, as Paperback & eBook
- Retail / Order links: Use the page’s “Order in English / Order in German” buttons
