Six students. One professor. All trained in the art of deception. All with a reason to kill…
THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS
by R.J. Jacobs
Sourcebooks Landmark, September 2023
It’s almost spring break in the university town of Forest, North Carolina. Campus is deserted and the temperature is dropping. Someone is watching and waiting. Someone who has killed before plans to kill again.
Under the direction of Professor Joe Lyons, five graduate students remain on campus. They have been conducting an experiment on the psychology of deception to uncover the science behind lies. But they each have something to hide themselves.
Then, a test goes awry, and an angry subject ends up in handcuffs. The group believes it to be a fluke incident. But when one of them is discovered murdered in Lyon’s office less than twenty-four hours later, they find that their studies may have deadly consequences–and that each of them had a reason to kill. With a local detective on the case and a major snowstorm moving in, the students soon realize that lies can be more dangerous than they ever believed. How do you spot a liar who may be an expert on the psychology of deception?
R.J. Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. He maintains a private practice in Nashville, focusing on a wide variety of clinical concerns. After completing a post-doctoral residency at Vanderbilt, he has taught Abnormal Psychology, presented at numerous conferences, and routinely performs PTSD evaluations for veterans. He is the author of Always the First to Die.
After her husband’s death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys, too many hard memories on the tiny strip of land. Memories of meeting her husband as a teenager on the set of an iconic horror movie shot at the dilapidated manor house. Of being cast as an extra, of watching herself get killed on screen. And of scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate “curse,” until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter insists on visiting her grandfather, legendary horror movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi finally agrees. That’s when a Category Four hurricane changes course, and hits the southern coast.