Synopsis

A failed actress turned grifting psychic searches for her missing doppelgänger and is plunged into a web of murder and corruption among Hollywood A-listers.

When Jenny St. John was eighteen, she moved to Los Angeles from her rural midwestern hometown and scored the lead role in an independent film called The Divide. She was working with the young auteur Serge Grumet and was on her way to becoming the next indie darling. But then the movie tanked, and Jenny never caught a second break. Now, two decades later, after floundering on the fringes of the entertainment industry, she’s barely keeping afloat running a low-level grift as a psychic life coach.

But when news surfaces that Serge has been murdered, Jenny’s life is turned upside down. Unbeknownst to Jenny, Serge’s ex-wife, painter Gena Santos, looks alarmingly similar to Jenny. So much so that when Gena goes missing, the cops think Jenny is Gena.

Jenny finds herself pulled into Gena’s world and manages to somehow leverage both her resemblance to Gena and her ersatz psychic abilities to infiltrate the affluent yet unstable inner circle of friends, which include a Korean pop idol–turned–social media star and an Oscar-winning actress–turned–wellness guru. Soon Jenny’s search to find Gena unearths dark secrets about her own past while putting her squarely in the sights of a killer.

Amazon * B&N * Bookshop * Kobo

This book will be released on August 20th, 2024.

Review

I enjoyed this upcoming new release from this author. This is the first book I have read by her, but it may not be the last! She can weave a tale that will leave you guessing from start to finish.

Jenny had one role as an actress and is not a psychic life coach. She can do what a good life coach can do by redirecting an individual’s expectations and pointing them in the direction they want to go. All is going okay, but not great, until she receives a visit from a detective informing her that the original director from the film has been found dead and his wife is missing. And she is a dead ringer for Jenny. From then on, Jenny is determined to figure out what happened to Gena and why she looks so much like her.

There is a limited cast of characters, so the truth lies with one of these people. Jenny has some joyful reunions with those she worked with on the film, but there are others who have a lot to hide.

I really liked following along as various clues were revealed. Jenny does find herself in some harrowing situations, but she puts the pieces together to reveal what really happened that night.

One situation is never really explained, but I won’t go into details because it would spoil part of the story. Despite this one fault with the book, the story is engaging and kept my mind jumping back and forth between potential suspects. The actual killer was quite a surprise because I never suspected this person. It made sense, but I still never suspected them.

Overall, enjoyed this book, and we give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

MORGAN RICHTER is a graduate of the Filmic Writing program at the University of Southern California’s film school and has worked in production on several television shows, including ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos and E! Entertainment Television’s Emmy-winning comedy series Talk Soup. An avid popular culture critic, she is the author of Duranalysis: Essays on the Duran Duran Experience and has amassed a cult following on her analyses of classic Duran Duran videos. She has self-published five novels, but The Divide is her first foray into traditional publishing. Richter currently lives in Seattle.

Website * X