Do you really trust those closest to you? What would it take to make you wonder about them, to question their motives, to begin to suspect that the life you share with them is a lie? What if you uncovered convincing evidence about their plotting against you? What if you confronted them with the evidence and they denied it.

If they were in fact innocent, they would deny any such conspiracy against you, right? But, what if if they were guilty? They would deny it then, too, right?

What if it was all a game, and someone outside your circle of trust was manipulating the facts and events, weaving a masterful deception, testing your mettle?

The Greeks loved to have their gods do stuff like that to people. Their gods were connivers, terrible, powerful, fickle beings who put people in impossible situations to see how they would react, to see how much heat they could stand before they melted down.

Linda L. Barton, in her fine thriller, NEXT MOVE, YOU’RE DEAD, plays on these highly charged psychological themes to craft a story of intrigue, murder and betrayal.

Jim Thompson, famous American pulp fiction writer of the 1940s and 1950s and author of such classics as The Grifters, The Killer Inside Me and Savage Night,  said there were a thousand ways to tell a story, but there was only one plot:

Things are not what they appear.

In Barton’s story, the reader wonders about the game. Who is lying? Who is the killer? Will the detective crack the code and see how the pieces fit together, or will the game crack him?

If you want to see how it works out, you’ll have to pick up a copy of NEXT MOVE, YOU’RE DEAD.

But remember what Jim Thompson said.  And remember those fickle gods.