I'm always up for a female protagonist solving a murder. After not getting accepted in art school, Jenny St. John gave up art and moved to LA and starred into a film that never made it to the theaters, which was the end of her acting career. The story begins 20 years later when she's a fraudulent psychic barely making ends meet. She learns that the director of the film she was in has been murdered and his wife, who looks exactly like Jenny and claimed she was the actress in Jenny's movie, is missing. It is a good mystery with interesting characters. My only complaint is that some significant loose ends are left at the end of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Jenny St John left her Midwest hometown at 18 and went straight to Hollywood. Unlike many others, she was successful in getting cast in the movie, The Divide...until it was abruptly canceled before it hit the big screen. Now, 20 years later, Jenny is a bottom of the barrel 'psychic life coach' who is barely scraping by.

The news of the murder of Serge, Jenny's former director, and the disappearance of his wife, Gena puts Jenny in the spotlight as Gena had claimed that SHE was the star of The Divide, in the role that Jenny herself was playing. To make matters even stranger, Gena and Jenny looks alike, like...scary alike. So much so that the police think Jenny IS Gena and she has to prove that she isn't. All the while, she wants to find out what happened to Gena.
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Morgan Richter's professional experience clearly influenced this book, and that's not a bad thing. They are able to take an inside look at the Hollywood machine while adding twists and turns to what should be a mistaken identity story.

While there were some parts that left me hanging, and wanting more details, this was still an enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Jenny St. John, the star of one single, unreleased movie by a now famous director, is living illegally in her clinic/psychic office space, where she gives pragmatic advice couched in the platitudes that her customers want to hear. She’s almost come to terms with her current situation, although her lack of any psychic ability nags at her and she wonders if she’s nothing more than a con woman. That is until the police show up, investigating the murder of the director of her shelved film THE DIVIDE…and the disappearance of his wife, Gena Santos, a woman who looks so much like Jenny that she had claimed the starring role in that shelved film. A film about multiple universes and divergent paths, in which Jenny, by all accounts, navigated wildly different characters.
Who is Gena and why would she be conning everyone, even her director husband? And where did she go? And what does it all have to do with Jenny and the movie?
The plot is very intricate and ambitious in its layers. At times, Richter gets caught up in the complexity, but the Hollywood Noir mood is consistent and enjoyable.

Jenny is a failed movie star who had a one hit wonder. Living off the fame of her one movie, she finds herself a doppelgänger, who she has never met, but causes her a lot of trouble. Is Jenny looking for a secret twin? Or, is she really just chasing herself around town?

Do you have someone that looks like you? Jenny was a one movie wonder. And it never made it to release. Now later her look alike is claiming it was her. The story surrounds her life and how people that barely touch her life start dying. Not a bad story but just okay.

Jenny St. John's only claim to Hollywood fame is an unreleased movie she starred in years ago. But now someone else, Gena Santos, is laying claim to it. Gena is apparently Jenny's doppelganger and now that she's missing, people are wondering what, if anything, Jenny has to do with it. Who is Gena? Why is she taking credit for Jenny's work? And how come they both look so identical?
The Divide was a captivating thriller set in the Hollywood world of glamour, excess and intrigue. This was quick read that I enjoyed a great deal. Great writing, interesting characters and a gorgeous setting make this a must read.

Jenny St. John had one great moment in her life, she was once an actress. Never mind that it was a just one role, in one movie, that never made it into the theatres, she is still proud of that time in her life. It is a happy memory that carries her through the dreary days.
Jenny's life is totally changed when a police officer visits her office and tells her that the director of that movie is dead. And to make it worse, a woman who looks just like her is missing. This woman, the director's ex-wife Gena, also has claim to the same role as Jenny in the move, The Divide.
Jenny is determined to get her claim back to her movie role and clear herself of any ideas that she is the murderer. As Jenny immerses herself back into the movie world, and into those in Gena's life she finds more questions than answers.

This was a mystery thriller with all the aspects of a great book. The plot was intriguing, characters were well defined and realistic and unexpected twists kept the reader completely invested in the book.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Buckle Up!

Thank you NetGallary for an early review copy of The Divide!

This is a TOP read for me this year! EPIC mystery that kept me on my toes from page one! This book was so good!

You know a book has you hooked when you are thinking about it when you’re not reading it and can’t get back to reading it quick enough! Well, this is that book 💯.

The character development which is so important was absolutely on point. This book has a great story line. Jenny’s journey is not one I will soon forget.

I don’t want to give too much away or spoil this book for anyone!

Well done Morgan Richter!

This is a must read for 2024!

My thanks to Net Galley, Knopf, Vintage, and Anchor for allowing me this arc to review.

Serge Grumet, a movie director s murder has already been established. Jenny St. John, fake psychic/former actress was in his movie The Divide. However, Gena Santos, an artist, and Serges ex wife is missing, but she bears a striking resemblance to Jenny and told all.that that was her in the m0vie.. Now everyone thinks Gena was Jenny. The police find out Gena has similar DNA. Is she a relative? A twin? Jenny was not aware of a twin and begins to try to find that answer.

This book was just ok. I was not wowed. The plot seemed a little far fetched with the twin story...

Jenny moved from a small town to Los Angeles to become an actress. She landed a role in a movie called "The Divide". But that was the only movie she could ever get a role in.
Now she's a psychic life coach whose barely scrapping by and living in her office.

The director of her only film had been murdered and a detective stops by to question her. Turns out, Jenny has a doppelganger who married Serge and told everyone she was the one who starred in that movie.

Jenny infiltrates Genevieve's friend circle to try and solve Serge's murder and locate Genevieve whose gone missing. She is a psychic so this should be easy.

Loved the overall story but some parts of the book dragged. I had to reread a few parts to make sure I understood what happened. I don't know what I'd do if I learned someone was taking credit for all the things I'd done in my life. A really fun topic.

Thanks Netgalley for this ARC and Knopf, Borzoi Books, Penguin Random House LLC.

Jenny St. John is a psychic life coach in Los Angeles, barely making a living and living in the back of her shop. Twenty years earlier she made a movie called “The Divide”, that never got released as it was supposed to. The director was unknown back then, but since that time has become quite famous. When the director, Serge, is murdered and his ex-wife Gena is missing, the police come to question Jenny, who is a doppelgänger for Gena. Jenny finds herself in the middle of the investigation trying to figure out what happened and why Gena had told everyone that she was the one who had starred in The Divide. Jenny is an interesting character that I found myself pulling for. The author does a good job describing the characters and keeps the plot moving along. I found a few things unclear about the plot, but overall I enjoyed the book - it was a quick and interesting read. I give the book 3.5 stars out of 5.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. The book is set to be published on August 20, 2024.

Reading this book was like watching a noir film and it felt very different from many mysteries I read which is high praise.

Jenny is a ‘psychic’ who gets embroiled in a murder investigation when she learns the director of her one and only film credit (which was never released) has been murdered and that his missing wife Gena is her doppelgänger.

I liked Jenny and while she’s technically a fraud, she’s bright and intuitive and able to use her skills of reading people to unravel the mystery. I could see the puzzle pieces but never quite make them come together to reveal the killer.

I think this is a terrific debut with good pacing and strong writing. I liked how scrappy and determined Jenny was. The story had this great throwback quality like it could have been the basis for a 90’s Sundance movie.

This is a fun popcorn thriller set in the dramatic world of Hollywood!

Jenny St. John had one role in the movie The Divide, with director Serge Grumet, when she was 18 years old, then never got lucky enough to be in another film. Now, in her forties, she's a grifting psychic life coach. When a detective visits her, asking if she is Gena Santos, Serge's ex-wife. Serge was recently murdered and Gena has disappeared. Everyone says she looks just like Gena, and Jenny finds a way to show the police officer that she's actually not.

Curious about what happened, Jenny gets pulled into Gena's world as she tries to figure out why this woman was pretending to be her, and the secrets she unearths turn out to reveal more about herself than she ever expected.

"A failed actress turned grifting psychic searches for her missing doppelgänger and is plunged into a web of murder and corruption among Hollywood A-listers.

When Jenny St. John was eighteen, she moved to Los Angeles from her rural midwestern hometown and scored the lead role in an independent film called The Divide. Under the intimate direction of young auteur Serge Grumet, Jenny was on her way to becoming the next indie darling. But then the movie tanked, and Jenny never caught a second break. Now, two decades later, after floundering on the fringes of the entertainment industry, she's barely keeping afloat running a low-level grift as a psychic life coach.

But when news surfaces that Serge has been murdered, Jenny's life is turned upside down. Unbeknownst to Jenny, Serge's ex-wife, painter Gena Santos, looks alarmingly similar to Jenny. So much so that when Gena goes missing, the cops think Jenny is Gena.

Jenny finds herself pulled into Gena's world and manages to leverage both her resemblance to Gena and her faux psychic abilities to infiltrate the affluent yet unstable inner circle of friends, which include a Korean pop idol-turned-social media star and an Oscar-winning actress-turned-wellness guru. Soon Jenny's search to find Gena unearths dark secrets about her own past while putting her squarely in the sights of a killer."

A Hollywood version of The Likeness!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on August 20, 2024.

The Divide is a twisty mystery that quickly hooks the reader in an intriguing case. Jenny St. John used to be in movies well really one movie, The Divide. Now she pretends to be a psychic and is struggling to pay her bills. When she is interviewed by the police for the murder of the director of The Divide, Jenny realizes Serge’s wife was her doppelgänger and is taking credit for the Jenny’s only claim to fame. Jenny works with what she has, her looks and her ability to read people to try to solve the case and uncover why her doppelgänger was pretending to be Jenny. Unique and twisted, the case leads Jenny on a merry chase with an interesting technique to solving the murder. Jenny is a weird and compelling detective with an easy to read and suspenseful story. My voluntary, unbiased, and non-mandatory review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

The Divide by Morgan Richter

Fortyish something Jenny St. John is almost at rock bottom. Two decades ago she starred in a movie that tanked. The movie was great, Jenny was great in it, but it never went anywhere. It was her greatest achievement but her acting career never went farther than that. Now she's barely surviving as psychic and Jenny feels great remorse over the fact that she is a grifter. But a grifter with a heart. She's excellent at reading people, their demeanors, their wishes, their hopes, and what they need to hear. That's what Jenny gives them, what they NEED to hear.

Thanks to a detective visiting her workplace to question her about a murder and then reporting her for living in the back room of her business, Jenny is homeless. But also she's found out that a wealthy painter, Gena, ex wife of Jenny's former movie director, looks just like her and has been passing off Jenny's film as one that Gena starred in. Thus starts a strange murder mystery that not only throws us into the world of the rich and famous but pushes us to suspend our disbelief,

For all her faults, I really like Jenny. There is an incident in her past that she keeps remembering and I worried about what happened long ago. Jenny's in danger in the present, she is now homeless and jobless since she lost her place of business where she was living. She's among the suspects for a murder and if someone thinks she is Gena, she could be in even more danger. I really enjoyed this story and it's Jenny that I wanted to see make it through it okay. She's a smart woman, always living in hard times, and now living the hardest times she's ever lived. But she's not going to go down easily, she's going to solve a murder no matter what she has to do.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf and NetGalley for this ARC.

What happens when your doppelganger goes missing and the police come questioning you for murder?

Jenny St. John was only 18 when she starred in a file called The Divide. Unfortunately, the movie was scrapped before if even hit the theaters, and Jenny's acting career was over. But now, her old director Serge is found murdered and his ex-wife Gena is missing, the ex-wife that looks exactly like Jenny.

This story was interesting and stood out. I enjoyed Jenny's psychic perspective as she attempted to figure out what happened. The suspects all seemed genuine on the outside but really made you side-eye as more and more info was unearthed. Overall, a great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC, all opinions are my own.

Interesting read about the almost inner workings of Hollywood in the earlier years, not the true early years, but the 1970s or 80s I suppose and the movie business. How even though you go through the process of making a movie and the process of doing everything needed to have a successful movie, it doesn't mean that anyone will ever see the movie and then someone tries to take credit for your work even though the movie was never released to the public and was not a success. There is a lot more to this book than that, but don't really want to spoil it for anyone.

Whew! The Divide was a journey. Here's what I liked:

-I love the unique premise. The plot didn't feel like a run-of-the mill thriller. Former actress turned psychic solving a mystery? Yes, please.

-Los Angeles and a small town in Iowa play a big part of the story. The author described both places in vivid detail and used the location to develop and explain the characters. For example, the characters that Jenny encounters in LA are your Gwyneth Paltrow style/Goop-ish person, morally grey people in show business, and influencers.

-Jenny is a great main character. She's complicated and interesting.

My only gripe is that the ending didn't feel as wonderful as the rest of the book.

Thanks for the advance review copy.