by Lisa Gardner
Part of Detective D.D. Warren, book 8.5
First published 2016
Detective D.D. Warren walks into a classroom filled with thriller writers eager to learn about actual police work. She has fifty minutes to educate this bloodthirsty audience about the reality behind their fictional crimes. Warren decides to share one of her most twisted cases as her teaching tool. The case centers on a seedy motel room where drugs and prostitution created a dangerous mix. At the heart of the investigation lies a severed leg that leads Warren through a maze of criminal activity. As she recounts the details to her writer audience, the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to blur. The writers want gore and suspense, but Warren must balance their appetite for shocking details with the genuine human tragedy at the center of her case. She faces her most intimidating adversaries yet in these jaded authors who think they understand crime. Warren discovers that teaching about real police work proves more challenging than solving the original case itself.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
46 pages · Kindle Edition · Penguin Publishing Group
Content warnings: drug-use, graphic-violence