For a brilliant detective and an avid mystery reader, truth really is stranger--and deadlier--than fiction in a suspenseful and wickedly entertaining novel about the games killers play.

In 1985, Kat McCann was six years old when renowned Austrian detective Alik Lisser solved her mother's murder. And unfortunately proved Kat's father as the culprit.

Ten years later Kat is still obsessed with the heroic criminologist. She's also addicted to the bestselling novels inspired by Alik's ingenious deductions--penned by the grande dame of whodunits, who's a bit of a mystery herself. Kat has devoured them all. Even the one based on her father's crime.

When Kat and Alik fatefully cross paths again, a friendship evolves, and Alik is delighted to share the secrets of his success with such an eager and clever girl by inviting Kat to solve a murder of her very own. One that challenges everything Kat believes about the detective, an elusive author, and Kat's notorious past.

Now, as fact and fiction and truth and deception collide, it's all Kat can do to survive the shocking twist ending to her own life story.