In this sixth novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club series, all the world's a stage, and Rachel, Al, Lauren, Joe and Sunny find themselves playing parts scripted for them deep in the past, forced into acting when all they want is a quiet, content summer after an eventful fall and winter that saw many of their number injured and out of commission. A new tragedy, the passing of Joe's father, has them reminiscing and looking at old pictures in Al's photo albums, and a series of pictures Al's never seen before has them on a new case, trying to find more information about Sadie T. Diamond, the author of a chalk message claiming to have committed the perfect murder.
What none of them know yet is that Sadie is closer than they think, and inordinately interested in them, why, they have to figure out, and quickly, because other revelations are coming at them fast and hard: Val, wife of Johnny, Joe's brother, has walked out on her husband after discovering he cheated on her, leaving her phone behind and going off the grid; Omar, Rachel's first boyfriend, walks back into her life when he hires Lauren's firm to investigate a colleague; and Rachel gets the shock of her life when she attends a play and discovers one of the actors shares a name with a boy she hasn't seen in over thirty years, a boy who's supposed to be dead.
With no time for an intermission, because a triple murder has them all on their guard, they must find out why these events are happening, and what their connection is, because, though they don't know it yet, they're all going to be on the stage for the final act that has them travelling to a place from which they might never return, to do a deed that will change things forever...
***This story is gruesome, descriptive, and for mature audiences. Reader's discretion is advised***
Jazlyn Wildheart was a simple girl, living with her parents and working under her father to become Wolfsbane Union's next best healer. Injured as a young child because of the dark color of her skin, Jazlyn was taken by her father, who had secluded his family deep into the civilization of a small Pack where no one looks at them even once during the day.
Lycan Alpha King Darrell Hawthorne had to stake his claim as the Ruthless King of Wolfsbane Union the day he became King when one of his people had extremely injured a child because of the color of her skin. After he punished the guilty man, the little girl had just disappeared along with her family. Years later, he stumbled upon the same girl who had grown up into an extraordinary young woman who deeply caught the King's attention with her exceptional abilities that could possibly wipe out the dark enemy.