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Deadly Serious
Deadly Serious by A. J. Thibault is a darkly comic spy thriller about Dan Goodis, an anxious would-be stand-up comic whose ordinary life gets pulled into a dangerous web of Cold War secrets, murder, romance, family history, and strange science. The book moves between 1980s Los Angeles and later consequences, mixing comedy clubs, intelligence operations, anti-gravity intrigue, and personal unraveling into a genre-bending thriller that is part espionage novel, part mystery, and part dark comedy.
This book feels restless in a good way. One minute, I was in a violent, snowy opening that feels almost cinematic, and the next, I was with Dan and his sheepdog in Los Angeles, watching his life veer between awkward humor and real danger. Thibault makes a bold choice by letting comedy and brutality stand close together. Sometimes that contrast is sharp enough to make you wince. Sometimes it works like a pressure valve. The jokes are not just decoration. They are part of how Dan survives, or tries to.
I also found myself thinking about how much of the book is really about fear beneath performance. Dan wants to be funny, but he is also exposed, insecure, and often overwhelmed by forces he barely understands. That gives the spy-thriller machinery a more personal edge. The author’s choices can feel big, strange, and occasionally messy, but the ambition is clear. This isn’t a neat little thriller that follows one clean track. It swerves. It piles on conspiracies, odd characters, romance, violence, and satire until the whole thing starts to feel like a feverish backstage tour of power and paranoia.
I would recommend Deadly Serious most to readers who like thrillers with personality, especially people who enjoy espionage stories that are willing to get weird, funny, and emotionally jagged. Readers who appreciate dark comedy inside a mystery-thriller will likely enjoy its nerve and unpredictability. It’s a book for someone who wants a plot with bite, a little chaos, and a main character who keeps trying to laugh while the world keeps raising the stakes.
Pages: 342 | ASIN : B01I92QGRQ
The Rest Was Imagination
Through mystery and supernatural suspense, Identity weaves a tale of a gender-fluid teenager battling the guilt of surviving the attack that ripped his best friend from his life. What was the inspiration behind this novel?
Driving through Menlo Park one morning after dropping my kids at school, I heard two high school students shouting and arguing. They were so loud and hostile, I wondered what it was about. I kept driving. The rest was imagination.
Were there particular experiences or ideas you wanted to represent that you felt were missing in other stories?
Unsolved missing persons cases, the search for gender identity, which had been in the news, and the extreme transfer of consciousness all contributed to my interest in the challenge of blending these elements into the story.
How do you balance the expectations of a mystery with the more abstract, emotional questions you’re asking?
The mystery the detective is solving provides the platform on which everything else stands. Solving the murder was the key.
What do you hope readers feel or question after finishing Identity?
I tried to balance several aspects of a sensitive subject and give readers both sides of complex issues, with the hope of continuing the story in books 2 and 3, which have terrific new surprises.
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Veteran detective Al Esposito knows this isn’t a simple murder. As whispers of strange figures in the mist and unexplained nights along the coast surface, the case begins to point toward something darker—and far more dangerous—than anyone is prepared to face.
At the center of it all is Tommy, a gender-fluid teenager struggling to understand who he is while grappling with guilt, fear, and a past he can no longer remember. As the investigation deepens, long-buried secrets rise, the town’s calm exterior fractures, and a malevolent force tightens its grip.
Blending supernatural horror, a gripping whodunit, and a powerful coming-of-age story, Identity is a haunting exploration of friendship, trauma, self-discovery, and the cost of buried truths. Atmospheric, emotionally resonant, and deeply unsettling, this is a novel that lingers long after the final page—culminating in a shocking, revelatory ending readers won’t forget.
Perfect for fans of supernatural thrillers, dark mysteries, and character-driven stories with LGBTQ themes.
