A winding supernatural thriller with a memorable cast…
A gender-fluid teenager finds himself at the center of a murder investigation after his best friend gets killed under suspicious circumstances in Jett’s deeply engrossing novel. Tucked away along the California coastline, the seaside town of Full Moon Cay is just a normal place until stories of mysterious nights and strange figures floating out of the fog along the coast begin to surface. When two teenagers, Tommy Jurczyk and Bobby Portilla, go missing, Detective Al Esposito is assigned the case. The stakes rise after Tommy is found alive with his memory wiped clean. Soon after, a fisherman finds Bobby’s brutally tortured body in the ocean. Esposito knows there’s something sinister at work. Jett effortlessly entwines an atmospheric and spooky tale with a mystery, pulling off some very effective scares. Tommy and Lakeland, both of whom have their own vulnerabilities, fears, and insecurities to deal with, are well developed, rounded characters. Esposito is a highly relatable and authentic character who, though old-fashioned, is refreshingly willing to adapt to the new ways. Shangri-La is equally compelling. The other secondary characters are well fleshed out, adding to the sense of place. There are three different narratives here: a whodunit mystery, a horror story, and a coming-of-age story with threads of LGBTQ woven in. Each is compelling in its own right. Jett skillfully handles all the different narratives, bringing everything together to make it a complete whole. The ending is both shocking and revelatory. A richly evocative story that deftly explores friendship, fear, guilt, spur-of-the-moment decisions, sexual and physical abuse, and self-discovery.
IDENTITY
A.C. Jett
Coming soon
