When a prima ballerina wakes with blood on her hands and no memory of the night her childhood mentor died, she must hunt a killer who might be wearing her face.
Sienna Vale has spent her entire life perfecting control-over her body, her emotions, her past. Now cast as Odette in the role that destroyed her mother, she's ready to prove she can survive what others could not. But when blackouts begin erasing hours from her life, she discovers evidence of a parallel existence she cannot remember: bloody pointe shoes hidden in her apartment, cryptic warnings scrawled in unfamiliar handwriting, and security footage placing her at a crime scene during a night she has no recollection of living.
The death of Viktor Sokolov-the celebrated choreographer who witnessed her mother's fatal accident twenty years ago-should have been ruled a suicide. But the note he left behind is addressed to Sienna, and the rope burns on her wrists suggest she was there when he died. As detectives circle closer and her blackouts intensify, Sienna uncovers a chilling pattern: someone has been using her body to execute a murder she never planned, through choreography she never learned, guided by trauma she's spent decades trying to forget. Her investigation into dissociative identity disorder reveals she isn't investigating a killer-she's negotiating with a system of protective alters who've been shielding her from unbearable truth. One alter holds the memory of her mother's murder. Another has been planning revenge for twenty years. And the ballet company director who's been her mentor and protector may be the architect of both tragedies.
With opening night approaching and police surveillance tightening, Sienna faces an impossible choice: withdraw from the performance that could exonerate her, or take the stage knowing the killer will front during the finale-and this time, the cameras will be watching. In a psychological thriller where memory is evidence and identity is evidence and performance becomes confession, one woman must integrate with the parts of herself she's most afraid of to expose a killer who's been hiding in plain sight for decades. Perfect for readers who crave atmospheric suspense, unreliable narrators navigating dissociative amnesia, and mysteries where neurodivergent protagonists become detectives of their own fragmented minds.
Crime fiction that centers actually autistic, ADHD, DID, and plural protagonists solving cases through-not despite-their neurological differences. No inspiration tragedy. No ableist tropes. Just complex characters using pattern recognition, hyperfocus, and system cooperation to crack cases neurotypical detectives miss.
This is a standalone novel in Neurodiverse Psychological Thriller series. Each book can be read independently.
Tewary, A. B.: -
A. B. Tewary brings a teacher's eye for detail and a storyteller's instinct for suspense to his thriller writing. His two decades in education provided intimate familiarity with human psychology-the contradictions, the secrets, the unexpected depths. Influenced by a lifetime of reading across genres, his work explores the moral complexities that emerge when ordinary people face extraordinary choices. He writes to unsettle, to provoke, and above all, to entertain.
