Hollywood is in Duluth to film a movie about one of Stride's previous cases. The Caged Girls still haunt him. Three women died and he saved another from death while the killer sent tapes of the women saying "Save Me Jonathan Stride". Guilt still plagues Stride. He and Maggie worked the cases years ago that brought on the deaths of more than just the women. Hollywood royalty for forty years, Dean Casperson is playing Stride and his co star Aimee Bowe is playing the survivor. Stride wants no part of the movie but has to question the players when a murder of a local girl and the discovery of a hit man dead in a car wreck are connected to the set along with a missing intern. Stride, Maggie, & Serena start piecing together connections when evidence keeps pointing to Florida, where Casperson, his stunt double Jack, & the intern live. You don't mess with Hollywood so Maggie takes a trip to Florida to further investigate and meets up with Cab Bolton (from Freeman's other series) Together they find more evidence of Casperson and Jack and their nefarious ways. Cab has been investigating for years but knows how Hollywood works and they are hard pressed to find anyone to speak out and speak up. Cab comes with Maggie back to Duluth to help with the investigation. Meanwhile, Cat is trying to help with the only way she knows how when another woman turns up missing. Gripping, suspenseful, and finally another story with CAB BOLTON! Keeps you guessing to the end. Stride is at his finest and I hope for more Cab. ( )

When an author takes a snippet of today's headlines and weaves it into a compelling story, you have a Brian Freeman novel. What a great read! Freeman never lets me down. And for that I am grateful. ( )

This was my third book by this author and it has been a long time since I read the first and second ones. I am officially making a mental note to myself right now - "Read more Brian Freeman".

There were so many plot twists on in this book. It was absolutely wonderful and I loved it!

I just knew early on in this book "who done it", and, of course, I wasn't even close. However, it turns out that my first pick was definitely a bad guy.

I thought through most of this book that we were going to only find a killer, one killer. I was SO wrong (Yay!!). With two or more bad people (nope, not a spoiler) bobbing up out of the water, the crimes are many and truly heinous.

No one without reading this book is going to get this part as it is solely intended for the author - Facebook Live? Way to go!!! I was clapping my hands and pump fisting simultaneously on that one!

An excellent read that truly kept my mind off the big storm that was happening in real life right outside my window as I was mesmerized in this twisting tale of power and corruption.

Thanks to Quercus Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. ( )

JONATHAN STRIDE #9???? Why have I missed out on this series until now? I read this as a stand alone and it can be done easily. But.....WOW I have to read the rest in this series because Freeman's characters are amazing. I know that Jonathan Stride is the focus of this book but the friends, family and colleagues that walk with him are stellar too. ALTER EGO is defined as a different or hidden version of ones personality. Investigations and Evidence emerge as the pages are flipped at a rapid pace. Police drama takes place in Duluth with the temperature under ZERO! Tracks in the snow lead to murder, missing persons, cover-ups and things that are not as they appear on the surface. HEROES and VILLAINS OH MY!! "A copy of this book was provided by Quercus via Netgalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion." ( )