Kill Show, Daniel SwerenBecker
Kill Show, Daniel SwerenBecker
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Kill Show
A True Crime Novel

Author: Daniel Sweren-Becker

Narrator: Megan Tusing, Desmond Manny, Pun Bandhu, Melissa Redmond, Byron Wagner, Christine Lakin, Stacy Gonzalez, Xe Sands, Fred Sanders, Sara Morsey, Chris McLinden, Robert Fass

Unabridged: 7 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 10/03/2023


Synopsis

“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 SpyWhen 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. 

About Daniel Sweren-Becker

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Melissa (Semi-hiatus for Work) on October 02, 2023

FYI to everyone: this is classified as "true crime" but it is a fiction book. Ten years after teenager Sara Parcell goes missing, a documentary is produced to dissect what happened during and after that event. Each of the key players is interviewed and the shocking events of that situation are broug......more

Goodreads review by Blair on July 16, 2023

(3.5) True-crime novels are having a big moment, and Kill Show wades into this increasingly crowded field with a relatively underused hook: a documentary TV series, the fictitious Searching for Sara. The show, broadcast in real time, became a phenomenon. It changed the lives of everyone involved: th......more

Goodreads review by Kimberly on September 08, 2023

Publication date: October 3, 2023 What an interesting and engaging concept. A young girl's disappearance is told years after the event via interviews with the people involved. It would seem to be a dry way of developing interest in the characters, but it works. Put this one on your "gotta have it lis......more

Goodreads review by Brent on December 17, 2023

Kill Show is a unique look at our current obsession with anything involving true crime and the documentaries that exploit it for ratings. A fast paced read, presented in an interview format; it looks at the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a young girl from her high school, ten years e......more

Goodreads review by Madison on October 09, 2023

Kill Show was an unexpected surprise! Told in interviews, this fictional true crime book was completely engrossing. I had to know how it all played out and what really happened to Sara. The audio was phenomenal and had a full cast. It was the perfect October read! Highly recommend you check this one......more