My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Long Shadow On The Stage is a debut work by author Nichole Heydenburg and is the first book in the Long Shadow Trilogy.
The blurb of the book left an exciting impression so as usual, I couldn’t resist overburdening my TBR. Reading it now, one can’t help but feel how true the author’s work was, the recent accidental death of a cinematographer on a movie set reinforcing the need for gun safety practices to be followed during shooting, well, honestly anywhere.
Jackson Birkman the star of the Dispatching David show is a desperate man. Of course, the world sees him as a lucky devil with all his dreams turning true, but what his near and dear ones do not know is that he is knee-deep in debt, have no savings left in his bank, has commitment issues, and until forced by his girlfriend of six years, he had no wish to get married. But life has its own tale to play. The story has multiple POV’s and sometimes one single event is shown from 2 perspectives and clearly depicts the re-writing of the situation in one’s own mind.
The author deftly handles the pace giving us one incident after another thru flashbacks and different POVs and thus getting the reader to fly thru its pages. Officer Delia Wilson’s tenacity to get to the truth was admirable and her frustration at the unexpected results was felt brilliantly. The ending is open which would probably disappoint many readers as we are so conditioned to that “the murderer will out” at the end of climax but there’s no need to fret as the author has another 2 books coming up in the series which I’m surely going to grab. There are one or two instances in the story that I felt the emotions of the characters were kind of not close to reality, for example, when Edgar relay the news of Jackson’s death to Clara, I never got that shocking grief to feel. This is not adrenaline fuelled edge of the seat thriller but Nichole Heydenburg surely ramps up the thrill with that ending and holding the readers in abeyance.
Fascinating 4 stars☔☔☔☔
Many thanks to the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
Jackson Birkman has the perfect life: the lead role on the popular detective show “Dispatching David,” millions of adoring fans, celebrity status, and a beautiful girlfriend. After five seasons, “Dispatching David” has just been canceled. With the final episode quickly approaching, Jackson is worried about more than just his future acting career. His once massive fortune is dwindling and his girlfriend Clara is pressuring him to propose.
When Jackson unexpectedly dies on the set of the TV show during filming, everyone speculates whether it was suicide or murder. Why would Jackson commit suicide? If it was a setup, who would want Jackson to die? And most importantly, what was the motive of the murderer? As the investigation continues, Officer Wilson inches closer to the truth, uncovering Jackson’s secrets. She begins to think no one really knew Jackson at all, but is determined to solve the case, no matter the cost.
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