Published: July 19, 2021

Down & Out Books

Pages: 290

Genre: Psychological Thriller

KKECReads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Alan Orloff had an eclectic (some might say disjointed) career. As an engineer, he worked on nuclear submarines, supervised assembly workers in factories, facilitated technology transfer from the Star Wars program, and learned to stack washing machines three high in a warehouse with a forklift. He even started his own recycling and waste reduction newsletter business. Now he writes fiction.

“An uneducated public is a susceptible public.”

Dalton is a dedicated and talented actor who landed a gig as a reenactment actor on a hit true-crime show. As he starts to realize his dreams may be coming true after his prime-time debut- the killer he was portraying is released from prison due to a technicality. Now, Dalton receives strange messages and keeps seeing a stranger watching him. Could this be Dalton’s final curtain call?

I enjoyed this book and the storyline a lot. I found it fascinating because it centers around high school students, and the writing genuinely displayed that.

The writing was well done and very age-appropriate. The thoughts and feelings were well suited for the characters, and I appreciated that.

Dalton was a great leading character. He is a total dreamer, dedicated to his acting career. He is all performing, all the time. He has no “plan B,” much to his mother’s displeasure. Charming, intelligent, and talented, Dalton has a huge opportunity to portray a local young man charged with the murder of his classmate. Dalton is all in.

I enjoyed the character development and the character’s journey throughout this book. The storyline was engaging, entertaining, exciting, and fresh. I was hooked from the first chapter.

I loved that I wasn’t able to guess the twist. And I was surprised when the big reveal happened. This was almost like reading a more mature version of Scooby-Doo.

This is absolutely a must-read for any true crime fan. Fast-paced, original, and very well done, I couldn’t put it down!