The Critic

She thought losing her job to her rival was going to be the worst part of her day. Then the FBI showed up.

Pittsburgh, 1995. Jessica Greer just lost her theater column to the most feared critic in town. Hours later, on his first day at the paper, he collapses after eating a ricin-laced brownie—and she becomes the FBI's prime suspect.

The evidence points to Jessica. The press dredges up her psychiatric history and dubs her The Mail Murderess. She even finds an empty box of brownie mix in her kitchen—and no memory of baking them.

Staying quiet would be smart. Instead, Jessica starts hunting for another suspect, with her mother and best friend refusing to stay out of it. But every lead makes her look guiltier.

Someone is selling Jessica as the killer.

Can she find out who before Pittsburgh buys the lie — and the real killer makes it true?

"Kirchner blends Pittsburgh's gritty theater backdrop, red herrings galore, and nonstop '90s nostalgia in this entertaining, clever thriller.… A bona fide win." —Jaime Lynn Hendricks, Their Double Lives

A darkly comic historical mystery for readers of Listen for the Lie, All the Other Mothers Hate Me, and Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.