THE MASKED TRUTH

A weekend therapy camp becomes a living nightmare for a group of troubled teenagers when it is taken hostage by masked gunmen.

Riley Vasquez has suffered from PTSD since the parents of a young girl she was babysitting were brutally gunned down in their home while Riley hid upstairs with the child. Max, recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, is acutely aware that he cannot always trust that his subjective experience matches reality. The two become each other’s best hope for survival as the violence and chaos progressively escalate. The novel begins with a punch of adrenaline, and the pace rarely slows as Riley and Max race to unravel who is truly behind the murderous plot. As they struggle to stay alive, they also grapple with their own psychological conflicts, revealed largely from Riley’s first-person point of view and occasionally from Max’s third-person perspective. The violence in this thriller is not for the faint of heart; there is a substantial body count by the story’s end. However, the dry wit and gentle compassion exchanged between the two protagonists help to keep the tension from becoming overwhelming. Riley’s trauma and Max’s mental illness make them fragile, but the teens are not broken. In each other they find the understanding and the strength they need to survive.

Action-packed suspense from beginning to end.