okay wow!! what a creative, fast-paced, and bingeable thriller!! I love unconventional writing in books like this one, using script form and texts to tell the story rather than traditional storytelling!

as a true crime documentary lover, I immediately was engrossed in this one, following a group of detectives solving a twenty-year cold case of a gruesome murder. the large cast of characters was confusing at first, but I appreciated the amount of information that was consistently given to remind the reader what was happening on all fronts. 

and I loved the format of the “episodes” so much that it really felt like I was binging the documentary right along with them!!! while my first theory of the whodunnit did turn out to be correct in the end, the entire story itself was SO mind-blowing!! just when I thought I had part of the story down, it completely shifted in a different direction!!!! 🤯🤯🤯

minor spoiler!! but when nick, the producer, was deliberately toying with the detectives and hiding things that could lead to the solving of the case quicker solely for the “ratings” and “views” - it gave me a real big ick 🙄 it just proves that he’s really not in it for the victims at all and depreciated the value of the story imo

overall, a fast and easy read that kept me on the edge of my seat!

rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: sonoma coast pinot grigio