Episode Details

In her acclaimed series of mysteries set in and around Glacier National Park, Christine Carbo explored the perilous intersection between humans and the natural world. In her new standalone thriller, THE CONFESSION ARTIST (Thomas & Mercer; May 5, 2026; $16.99 Paperback), Carbo shifts her focus from the remote Montana wilderness to a vast and virtually inescapable landscape rife with threats from anonymous monsters: the digital world.     It began with a pencil sketch of a middle-aged, bearded man. Someone unknown had posted it on several untraceable accounts across social media. Below the photo, in yellow block text, all caps, was a command: CONFESS, OR DIE. YOU HAVE SIX DAYS. At first, few people paid attention. About a week later, a reporter who had been intrigued by the random posts wrote that a man resembling the sketch had been fatally shot just outside of Seattle. Police denied a connection, but the accounts generated a ton of new followers. A month later, a second sketch, paired with the same chilling demand, was posted. It went viral. This time, the sketch was of a woman. By the end of that week, a female mirroring the drawing was found murdered in Santa Monica, California. When the third sketch—another male—dropped, it got global attention. Law enforcement agencies across the US, especially in the West, went on high alert. But after six days passed, no one turned up dead. Had the man fessed up and been spared?        A first-year PI in the Flathead Valley, Crosbie Mitchell yearns for something more exciting than tracking down cheating spouses. Still, she has little interest in all the buzz surrounding the killer dubbed “The Confession Artist.” Boredom aside, she doesn’t regret her decision to quit the force. Being the lone woman cop in her precinct was tough even before her coworkers saw her as toxic for reporting sexual harassment. And after Jess, her sister and only family, was raped, she needed to be there for her. The real reason, however, is something Crosbie can barely think about without feeling… slimy, or worse. Yes, Crosbie has skeletons shoved deep in her closet. Yet, she’s knocked for a loop when a fourth sketch goes viral and Jess gasps in horror: “It’s you.” Brushing it off, Crosbie insists:  “I’m a nobody from Montana.” Then, her ex-boyfriend calls with a significant detail: the woman in the sketch is wearing the same dangling earrings, in the shape of a feather with a round stone in the center, as the handcrafted pair he gave her. You have six days to confess or die. Crosbie’s heart pounds at the thought. What should she confess first?
Keeping the tension building, THE CONFESSION ARTIST follows Crosbie as she digs into the identity of the online killer and evades a stalker. Before the sketch made her a public figure of wild speculation, Crosbie had been hired to investigate the suspicious death of a Native American journalist about to expose the shady and environmentally destructive practices of a local oil and natural gas company. Could Crosbie be the target of a copycat vendetta launched by Ridgefield’s filthy rich and unscrupulous owner? Or maybe that charming reporter who popped up out of nowhere to interview her is really a serial killer? Oh, and Crosbie can’t shake the hunch that both her ex-boyfriend and her sister know more than they’re telling her.           

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