L. R. Dorn

With a Kiss We Die by L. R. Dorn is a very highly recommended investigative mystery/thriller presented in the format of the dialogue/script from a true-crime podcast.

Ryanna Raines is an investigative journalist and the host of The Raines Report, a popular true-crime podcast. Jordan De Carlo and Victoria Berne are both theater majors at UC Santa Barbara and also murder suspects. The two are suspects in the violent, brutal murder of Jordan's parents in their multi-million-dollar estate in show more Southern California. Jordan and Victoria left the country and have been in Mexico for a month.

Now they are coming back and have contacted Ryanna. They want to share their side of the story before their arrest and indictment. Ryanna will have an exclusive inside look into their stories and will be able to record what Jordan and Victoria say for her podcast. She and her producer decide to proceed, which places Ryanna closer to a breaking story than is normal for her show and The Raines Report goes viral.

With a Kiss We Die is written like a script for a true-crime podcast that also includes discussions between Ryanna and her producer, contact with her family, and insight into other events happening around her. I liked the format for this novel and thought it added an interesting dimension to the narrative. It allowed new revelations and twists in the plot to be delivered at an even pace. It also introduces readers to Jordan and Victoria as they tell/perform their story to Ryanna.

The plot was very compelling and I was totally immersed in it. There are several clever twists and revelations along the way. Admittedly, what sent my evaluation to my top rating was the fact that my kindle lost its charge right during the final big twists and I had to frantically grab my phone to open the app and finish the novel. Any novel that has me that frantic to know what really happened is worth the bump up to five stars. (L. R. Dorn is the pen name for Matt Dorff and Suzanne Dunn.)
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of William Morrow via Edelweiss.
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"Is it better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one."

I really enjoyed this book and thought that the fact it was written like a podcast was a nice change of pace. I will admit upfront that I think an audiobook version of this book would be the most enjoyable for that exact reason. However, I really love books that are different and this really met that with the podcast set up. Each chapter was an episode of Ryanna's newest season and was unfolding basically in real show more time as she interviewed both Jordan and Victoria. And let me tell you they do an amazing job of creating a tragic love story for themselves and earning internet fame with #romeoandjuliet. I have to admit that I found the last two parts of the story more fascinating, Ryanna is forced to interview people who knew Jordan and Victoria and begins to question the story they created.

In the final act... the story is full of a ton of explosive truths that you don't necessarily see coming. It was an amazing story because we have two unreliable narrators, telling the story to a third party, who can only fact check so much. It made it hard to trust what really happened that night when the parents were murdered. I'll even admit by the time I finished the book I still wasn't certain what the truth was. I think the book really illustrates the fascination people have with true crime. I will admit at times I wished the book was moving a little faster, but it seems to have saved it all up for the final act, which is mindblowing and full of so many twists and turns. I really think that true crime lovers will find themselves in love with this book. show less

After reading the blurb, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from this book, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It tells the story of the Cleo Ray murder trial, with Cleo being a popular fitness “influencer” on social media accused of killing her girlfriend.

THE ANATOMY OF DESIRE is like a true crime podcast/documentary, and I knew after seeing the format of interview transcripts that I should switch to audiobook. The audio was so well done! Even with 14 different narrators, it show more wasn’t difficult to tell the many characters apart. The performances made the characters seem very real.

A large part of this book is the courtroom drama and ensuing social media circus. Though not usually my thing, I found Cleo’s trial quite fascinating. I kept going back and forth over whether I thought she was innocent or guilty as the trial progressed. The ending took me by surprise, for sure. Recommended to fans of unique and thought-provoking mysteries.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review. show less

Picked up this novel because of its Audie finalist status in the multi-voice performance category.

It's a true crime novelistic account of the murder of a woman on a canoeing excursion in California. The suspect is Cleo Ray, a fitness coach who has created a life as a social media influencer. Or perhaps it is a novel written to sound like a true crime docuseries. I wasn't sure which. At any rate, it is riveting - very well done - if not particularly rewarding to spend any amount of time with show more Ms Ray. show less