Kill Show: A True Crime Novel

by Daniel Sweren-Becker

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

At a brisk 240 pages, you’ll find yourselves at the cross roads of mystery and true crime — a most excellent pairing to keep you at the edge of your seat.

“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 couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.”—Flynn Berry, Edgar Award–winning author of Northern Spy

When sixteen-year-old Sara Parcell goes missing, it’s an utter tragedy—and an entertaining national obsession—in 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 family’s tragedy—and Hollywood’s insatiable desire to exploit it.

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212697262
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, a television writer, and a playwright living in Los Angeles. He graduated from Wesleyan University and received an MFA from New York University. His play Stress Positions premiered in New York City at the SoHo Playhouse, and he is the author of the novels The Ones and The Equals.

Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and the visual arts. From poignant young-adult fiction to powerful first-person narratives, her characterizations are rich and expressive, and her narrations, evocative and intimate.

Stacy Gonzalez is feisty, bright, and expressive. She specializes in YA, self-help, and romance, especially when the narration calls for a good handle on comedy, wit, and sass. AudioFile magazine has praised her pace and her ability to create bold characters. Stacy, who is half Colombian, speaks conversational Spanish. She has a great love for Old Hollywood-watching the movies and listening to audiobooks about any and every aspect of it.

Fred Sanders (PhD, Graduate Theological Union) is professor of theology in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He is author of numerous books including The Triune God in the New Studies in Dogmatics series; The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything; and Dr. Doctrines’ Christian Comix. He is coeditor of Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology and Retrieving Eternal Generation. Fred is a core participant in the Theological Engagement with California’s Culture Project and a popular blogger at The Scriptorium Daily.

Pun Bandhu is an award-winning actor who has worked on Broadway, off Broadway, in TV, and in film. He is the recipient of the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Henry Award for Best Supporting Actor and New Dramatists’ Bowden Award for his distinguished collaboration on new works.

Megan Tusing is an actress, known for The Beginning and the End, The Share, and Odd Jobs. She has a bachelor’s degree in theatre from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Christine Lakin is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and acclaimed television actress, best known for her roles as Alicia “Al” Lambert on the hit family comedy Step by Step and as Joan of Arc on Showtime’s Reefer Madness.

Winner of the prestigious Audie Award (for History and Audio Drama), veteran actor Robert Fass is equally at home in a wide variety of styles, genres, characters, and dialects. A seven-time Audie nominee with over 100 unabridged audiobooks to his credit, Robert has also earned multiple Earphones Awards, including for his narration of Joe Golem and the Drowning City by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. Robert has given voice to modern and classic fiction writers alike, including Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, John Steinbeck, Carlos Fuentes, Isaac Asimov, Ellery Queen, Steve Berry, Jeffrey Deaver, and Nele Neuhaus, plus bestselling nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, and business.

Melissa Redmond started her love affair with books when she was three. Her first introduction to audiobooks came at about the same time, when her dad, a Navy pilot, would read bedtime stories onto tapes and send them home while he was away on deployment. He did all the voices. Eventually, her love of the written word turned into a love of performance in various mediums. She graduated from the University of California San Diego with a degree in theater and has been working in theater, film, and voice-over ever since.

Her voice has been described as "A little smirk, a little sparkle . . . and just the right amount of smartass." She's interested in a wide array of genres, with special affection for thriller, nonfiction, romantic comedy, and YA fantasy. When she isn't acting, she can be found hiking in the San Francisco Bay Area hills, dancing, and rescuing and rehabilitating injured marine mammals.

Byron Wagner is an audiobook narrator and voiceover artist based in Los Angeles. He began his career in entertainment at age eight, performing as a magician and ventriloquist for children’s parties, then graduated to theater, radio, TV, and film. After living in the UK for several years, his continuing love of acting and reading have happily led him back to the other side of the studio glass, doing voice acting and narrating, directing, and producing audiobooks.

Editorial Reviews

An ensemble of wildly talented narrators elevates this fictional true- crime case told through first-person interviews. The narrators infuse a generous amount of personality and empathy into their portrayals of the community, media, and family involved in the tragic case of missing teenager Sara Parcell. Robert Fass's weary voice portrays Dave, Sara's downtrodden father, as he recollects the case from prison. Fass's narration is made to sound like a telephone call, a device that creates a more immersive experience for listeners. Melissa Redmond's assertive performance embodies a gusty TV producer who turns the case into a media spectacle--to the dismay of Detective Caldron, whose no-nonsense attitude is evoked by Pun Bandhu in a gruff voice. A compelling audio with a winning combination of narrators. J.E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2024 - AudioFile

★ 08/07/2023

Sweren-Becker (The Ones) tackles America’s obsession with true crime in this searing whodunit. Written in the form of interviews with family, friends, neighbors, police, and the film crew that arrives in Frederick, Md., after 16-year-old violin prodigy Sara Parcell vanishes, the novel is presented as a straightforward work of true crime. After a viral video brings a spike of national attention to Sara’s disappearance, her parents agree to let a Hollywood production company film a reality show about the case—her dad says yes for the money, while her mom hopes that a wide audience will lead to Sara’s safe return. When Searching for Sara becomes an overnight hit, it causes a chain reaction of unintended consequences: detectives start reluctantly taking their cues from the show, an innocent man receives death threats after producers insinuate he might be a suspect, residents of Frederick have their own secrets unwittingly exposed, and two more murders occur. But nothing is as it seems in this wily mystery, and Sweren-Becker delivers a double twist that will leave readers shocked. His sharp plotting and expert understanding of true crime tropes elevate the proceedings from clever gimmick to slam-dunk. The latest in a long line of contemporary thrillers interrogating the public fascination with private tragedy, this scorching indictment stands out. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A truly modern morality play, in a unique and compelling style, that reflects on the uncomfortable connections between greed, ambition, and violence. Kill Show takes a sleepy, suburban town and turns it into a true-crime battlefield as events careen out of control. Smart, twisty, satisfying.” — Andrew Gross, New York Times bestselling author

“Daniel Sweren-Becker’s Kill Show is both an entertaining mystery and a bracing examination of how true crime has warped real-life investigations. It’s also a provocative reminder of how people behave differently, and often disastrously, when they’re in the spotlight.” — Sarah Lyall, The New York Times Book Review

"Riveting, original, and chillingly plausible, Kill Show is both an urgent reckoning with the ethics of true crime and a tense, twisty mystery in its own right. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough." — Flynn Berry, Edgar Award-Winning Author of Northern Spy

“Sweren-Becker tackles America’s obsession with true crime in this searing whodunit . . . . Nothing is as it seems in this wily mystery, and Sweren-Becker delivers a double twist that will leave readers shocked. His sharp plotting and expert understanding of true crime tropes elevate the proceedings from clever gimmick to slam-dunk. The latest in a long line of contemporary thrillers interrogating the public fascination with private tragedy, this scorching indictment stands out.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A fun, clever twist on our obsession with true crime. I loved it." — The Observer (London)

"With a unique and compelling narrative style, Kill Show is both a mystery and a reckoning of the 'siren song of true crime' that has us hooked like junkies craving our next fix. But at what cost? Absolutely unputdownable." — Amazon Best of the Month Pick

"Sweren-Becker succeeds in telling the story entirely through interviews, slowly revealing the truth about Sara’s disappearance. This is a fun, clever twist on our obsession with true crime. I loved it." — The Guardian (UK)

“Gripping. . . . Sweren-Becker has crafted a clever, fast-paced, utterly absorbing tale that feeds into audiences' fascination with true crime even as it explores the complex ramifications.” — Booklist (starred review)

“A swift, twisty read. Sweren-Becker’s tight plot and expert tension building makes for a searing tale that raises questions about public obsession and intervention without being too on the nose.” — Seattle Times

"Sweren-Becker crafts a compelling, character-driven crime novel. This intricate story of exploitation and duplicity is both engrossing and disturbing." — Library Journal

"Kill Show's major plot mysteries are unguessable till the end and overshadowed by its conscientious characterisation. A lot of writers think they have something insightful to say about our toxic and exhilarating relationship with crime media. Sweren-Becker actually does." — Reviewing the Evidence

"Gripping . . . . So smartly written you will be sucked in . . . . There are so many twists it will leave you gasping." — The Montecito Journal

"The story of a missing girl that doubles as a critique of the burgeoning multimedia industry around true crime, Kill Show’s unexpected, genre-hopping premise is unlike any other thriller." — Paste Magazine

"In this ambitious, genre-bending little miracle of a novel, Daniel Sweren-Becker muses on the complex machinations lurking behind the rise in popularity of the true-crime genre and its exploitation from television producers—an issue raising timely moral questions and dilemmas . . . . Sweren-Becker’s take on the subject provides an explanation for the phenomenon while at the same time crafting a riveting story that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. It is a rare book, combining cultural criticism and genuine entertainment." — The Big Thrill

From the Publisher

2023-07-13
Two dozen people reflect on a decade-old tragedy, documentary style.

A Maryland suburb’s sense of security is shattered when 16-year-old Sara Parcell takes the bus to school one morning but fails to report for class. The principal’s office calls her parents, Dave and Jeannette, who can’t reach Sara by phone or text. Her friends haven’t seen or heard from her since before the first bell, so when Sara still isn’t home come nightfall, Dave summons the police. Det. Felix Calderon starts interviewing Sara’s peers, but the investigation doesn’t gather much steam until her younger brother, Jack, surreptitiously records his mom and dad consoling each other and uploads the video to YouTube. When Jack’s post goes viral, ambitious reality TV producer Casey Hawthorne sells her boss on Searching for Sara, a show chronicling real-time efforts to find the teen. Dave and Jeannette sign on; the more folks looking for their daughter, the better, and they could use the hefty per-episode payout Casey promises. That decision has avalanching consequences, however, which in turn sets up Sweren-Becker’s premise: Ten years after the fact, 26 in-the-know individuals have given interviews that an editor transcribed and intercut to create a comprehensive oral history of what actually happened—i.e., this book. Frequent foreshadowing fosters tension and drive, while keenly rendered characters with distinct voices and unique perspectives add dimension and verisimilitude. What begins as an affecting slow burn regrettably falters thanks to a rushed, convoluted denouement, but on balance, Sweren-Becker delivers a riveting work of fiction that doubles as scathing social commentary about America’s true-crime obsession.

A far-fetched mystery with an ingenious narrative conceit.

Kirkus Reviews