Played: A Jack Gilbert Slow Burner Thriller

About the book

About Played: A Jack Gilbert Slow Burner Thriller

A quiet neighborhood. A careless driver. One small confrontation that was never small at all. Caroline Morgan thought her worst problem was the looming deadline for her next book launch—until one reckless encounter with a rude moving-truck driver sets a dangerous chain of events in motion. When that same young man, Dwayne, loses his job shortly after their argument, anger festers in the shadows. But behind his fury lurks someone far more calculated… someone watching. Someone who already knows Caroline’s name. And her daughter’s. Across town, a new geocaching app begins circulating among teens and service workers. Sleek, addictive, and brilliantly coded, it promises adventure and mystery. What no one realizes is that the game isn’t just tracking players—it’s choosing them. Testing them. Separating leaders from followers. When Caroline’s daughter, Bailey, scans a simple black card with a QR code, she unknowingly enters the game… as do her friends. Each puzzle draws them deeper into the city’s forgotten corners—old mining sites, abandoned businesses, remote parks. And when two former classmates are found dead near one of the game’s “destinations,” the tension tightens like a snare. People are disappearing. Puzzles are turning sinister. Someone is orchestrating it all. In the dim glow of The Ember Room lounge, pianist Jack Gilbert begins to notice patterns too—QR cards shared among the college crowd, odd chatter from the waitstaff, and the sudden disappearance of a server he sees every week. The music never stops, but the rhythm of the city has changed. As the game escalates, Caroline, Bailey, and Jack find themselves pulled into a slow-burn nightmare where every clue might be a trap. Every player, a pawn. And every move… a test designed by a mind far more dangerous than they imagine. A chilling psychological thriller, PLAYED unravels the quiet moments where danger hides—in a family emergency, a missing girl, a scanned code, or a single decision made at the wrong time. Nothing is accidental. Not anymore. Fans of Lisa Jewell, Gillian Flynn, Riley Sager, and slow atmospheric dread will devour this intelligent, layered thriller that proves the smallest choices can turn deadly.

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