Grim, atmospheric, and impossible to put down.
Steeped in dread, Melby’s latest is a gothic tale of grief, obsession, and the dangerous power of storytelling. Still reeling from personal tragedy, novelist Stu Harvey takes on the task of telling Simon Hollis’s story—a country music legend freed after decades in prison. What begins as a chance for redemption spirals into a dangerous psychological duel where truth, lies, and identity blur beyond recognition.
Melby builds his story around dual portraits of loss. Crushed by sorrow and worried about his professional career, Stu becomes susceptible to Simon’s magnetic but sinister pull. What begins as an opportunity soon becomes a dark struggle for influence, where grief opens the door to exploitation and truth becomes ammunition. Detective Rossi adds procedural weight as well as moral clarity. Her skepticism and rigor counterbalance the psychological games between Stu and Simon.
Melby’s prose is crisp and cinematic. He evokes both the storm-lashed chaos of Florida and the decaying grandeur of Hollis’s Nashville estate. The narrative moves between psychological dread and sudden bursts of brutality. Rather than relying on cheap thrills, Melby builds a creeping dread that crescendos toward an inevitable reckoning. At its core, this isn’t just a sharp thriller; it’s also a meditation on stories and who controls them. Stu tells fictional stories to make sense of the world. Simon demands his story be told. Rossi digs for the true story buried under years of lies and legal missteps. And Lisa realizes that no story—no narrative of redemption or fate—can reconcile her pain. The result is a thriller that’s as thought-provoking as it is unsettling.
A taut page-turner.
Pub date October 3, 2025
ISBN 979-8989851942
