Brilliant Disguise is the newest episode in the adventures of Riley King and it’s arrived just in time for summer beach reading, if you have a beach you can visit safely, given the restrictions we must impose on ourselves.
In this book, Riley struggles with forces that are tearing his life apart. He can’t let go of Jaime, even though the odds are against them getting back together. She calls to seek his help when one of her celebrity clients goes missing and he is powerless to refuse, hoping against hope that it will bring them together.
His investigation places him squarely inside the world of reality TV, a place he hates. He quickly confirms his belief that whole enterprise is fake. The only authentic person might be a killer, a big bear of a man named Boomer Purdy. Boomer loves his actress wife, a California blonde who barely knows which end of the hammer to swing. When she vanishes, he’s the logical suspect. Riley relates to him — a man tied to a woman he can no longer have, mirroring his relationship with Jaime. But in this world of lies, no one is who they appear to be.
It’s not all darkness. Bosco the dog pops in to brighten the narrative, and Moses Ginn and Alexandra Tomey have found domestic tranquility. And there are lots of rock music references that are keys to the plot lines.
It’s a love story, a murder mystery and a web of political intrigue set in a tropical paradise. I hope this story helps you escape your day to day travails for a while.
