The Confessions of Jonathan Flite (The Jonathan Flite Series Book 1) by Matthew J Beier @NetGalley #BookReview

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jonathan Flite claims to have memories he can’t explain. Seven layers of them, to be exact, all belonging to a group of teenagers who disappeared from a place called Idle County in 2010—ten years before his birth. Seventeen years of anxiety, violent outbursts, and refusal to admit he is lying have landed him at Crescent Rehabilitation Center, a seaside juvenile center for rich kids, and nobody has ever dared to believe his memories might be real.

Until now. On a blustery November day just three months after a nuclear terrorist attack in Geneva, Switzerland, ex-CIA psychiatrist Thomas Lumen arrives at Crescent to interview Jonathan for a book about Idle County. Fueled by his personal connection to the disappearances three decades earlier, he asks Jonathan to share what he knows—anything and everything.

By reigniting this thirty-year-old mystery, however, Jonathan inadvertently becomes a target of the very same religious terrorists who attacked Geneva, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the secrets of Idle County under wraps. Jonathan must then make a choice: to continue telling his story, or risk the safety of everyone he loves

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The Confessions of Jonathan Flite

MY THOUGHTS

I had not realised that this was book one of a series when I began reading it. It is somewhat complex and travels between 2010 and 2034. At age seventeen, Jonathan Flite is sent to a facility for troubled wealthy children. His mother has had enough of his violent outbursts and what she sees as his continual lies. Jonathan swears that he has memories of seven children who went missing ten years before he was born.

His mother researches his stories and finds that they link to a cold case in Idle back in 2010. When Jonathan kills a nurse at the facility, he is transferred to a rehab centre where he will serve a life sentence.

Thomas Lumen enters the story and shows an interest in what Jonathan has to say about the missing children. But he isn’t the only one that wants to know just how much Jonathan knows. A group of terrorists are drawn into the mix, and things become very deadly for anyone close to Jonathan.

It is a strange and fascinating story aimed at a teenage audience, but I was hooked. I liked how the characters developed through the story. The core of them is still recognisable but changed with the years too. Not everything was as first thought, and I had an uneasy feeling about how things were developing. It will be fascinating to see where this is going in the coming series. It is an excellent introduction.

I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book that I have reviewed honestly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matthew J. Beier is a novelist, screenwriter, photographer, and graphic designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His first novel, The Breeders, was published in 2012. He attended film school at Chapman University in 2003, where studied screenwriting, film production, and English before spending a final semester abroad at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. When Matthew isn’t working, he enjoys tea, exercise, watching films, and spending time with his friends and family. He is currently working on Book 2 in the Jonathan Flite series, “The Release of Jonathan Flite

Twitter: @MatthewBeier

matthewbeier.com