Kill Show : A True Crime Novel

Riveting, original, and chillingly plausible, Kill Show is both an urgent reckoning with the ethics of true crime and a tense mystery in its own right. I couldnt turn the pages fast enough.Flynn Berry, Edgar Awardwinning author of Northern Spy

When sixteen-year-old Sara Parcell goes missing, its an utter tragedyand an entertaining national obsessionin this thoughtful and addictively readable novel that offers a fresh and provocative take on whodunits and true crime.

Sara Parcell disappeared without a trace on a crisp April morning in Frederick, Maryland. Her tragic story was a national obsession and the centerpiece of a controversial television docuseries that followed her disappearance in real time. But is it possible that everyone missed the biggest secret of all?

Ten years after these events, the people who knew Sara best are finally ready to talk.In this genre-bending novel, Daniel Sweren-Becker fashions an oral history around the seemingly familiar crime of a teenage girl gone missing. Yet Kill Show, filled with diabolical twists and provocative social commentary, is no standard mystery. Through interviews with family members, neighbors, law enforcement, television executives, and a host of other compelling characters, Sweren-Becker constructs a riveting tale about one familys tragedyand Hollywoods insatiable desire to exploit it.

By revealing the seedy underbelly of the true crime entertainment machine,Kill Showprobes literary territory beyond the bounds of the standard whodunit; its a thoughtful exploration into Americas obsession with the mysteries, cold cases, and violent tales we turn to for comfort. Groundbreaking, fast-moving, and informed, this is a novel about whos really responsible for the tragedies we love to consume.