This stylish, darkly funny psychological debut thriller set in New York City is about a struggling writer forced to play detective in a real-life murder mystery plot, after a convicted serial killer—who claims to be innocent—hires him to write his memoir. All Harry Bloch knows about catching a serial killer is what he has learned from his own books. An unknown writer, Harry churns out pulp novels under a variety of pseudonyms. But Harry’s life takes a sudden dramatic turn and begins to resemble the plot of one of his crime novels when a convicted serial killer known as the Photo Killer asks Harry to write his memoir. Soon, several women are murdered in the Photo Killer’s signature style, just hours after Harry interviews them, and he becomes a suspect. Or is he the killer’s next target? The novel follows his quest to find the real killer, a search that turns up much more than he could have imagined.

David Gordon is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Columbia MFA program and also holds a Masters in English and comparative literature from Columbia. He has worked as a screenwriter and a magazine editor. He lives in New York City.