Alter Ego: A Jonathan Stride Novel

Thriller Award–winner Freeman’s excellent ninth Jonathan Stride novel (after 2017’s Marathon) finds the Duluth, Minn., police lieutenant revisiting difficult memories when a movie based on a serial killer case that left Stride emotionally scarred begins filming in Duluth. Stride only caught the killer, reporter Art Leipold, after he starved three women to death inside a cage. An intern on the film set, Haley Adams, disappears, only to be found shot to death, apparently by an unidentified hit man who himself has been killed in a freak accident. The mystery deepens when Stride and his team learn that Haley was using a stolen identity and spying on Hollywood megastar Dean Casperson, who’s playing the role based on Stride. The dramatic developments unfold naturally, and Freeman doesn’t shy away from giving his lead character feet of clay. A cleverly constructed, page-turning plot and fleshed-out primary and secondary characters make this a winner. Agent: Deborah Schneider: Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents. (May)