5-STAR REVIEW: SOME KIND OF TRUTH by Westley Smith

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Publication Date: February 2, 2024

A mysterious video. A cold case. A reporter hunting for answers to both.

Pittsburgh crime reporter, Steve James, returns home to find a mysterious package waiting outside his apartment door. At first, Steve fears the package could contain a deadly threat from a local mob boss pressuring him to retract his story, which helped put him behind bars. Instead, Steve finds a junior driver’s license belonging to Rebecca Ann Turner, a teenager who went missing from a party twenty-five years ago, and a USB flash drive containing a video of her murder.

Horrified by the contents inside the package, Steve is determined to find out what happened to Rebecca and why someone dragged him into uncovering this mystery. But as Steve sifts through the clues and weaves his way around those trying to prevent him from exposing the truth, he continues to struggle with personal issues stemming from his time as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, where he was filmed being tortured and nearly executed by the Taliban, making what happened to Rebecca all the more personal.

A package dropped on a reporter’s doorstep serves as a catalyst to dig into a case more than two decades old.

Yet it is a story that rekindles bad memories for reporter Steve James. The quest to solve the mystery unfolds in Some Kind of Truth, an action-packed thriller by Westley Smith.

In an industry where breaking the news is often more important than having all of the details, Steve is determined to find out what happened to the young girl tortured in the video. All he has to work with is the USB drive and a junior driver’s license of Rebecca Ann Turner.

His search leads him to Rebecca’s hometown, where a conversation with a fellow reporter reveals a pattern of murders with accompanying videos. They team up, looking for clues, only to have the storyline take an unexpected twist overlapping with one of Steve’s own published stories.

Steve’s character wrestles with the past as he turns to alcohol to help him forget his own story of torture. The tension ramps up when the pieces fall into place, delivering an unexpected surprise.

Some Kind of Truth showcases a reporter’s determination to find answers, only to realize that some stories must remain untold.

Westley Smith had his first short story, Off to War, published when he was just sixteen. Recently, he has had short stories featured in On the Premise, Unveiling Nightmares, and Crystal Lake Entertainment. He was the runner-up contestant in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine’s “Mysterious Photograph Contest,” where his name was featured in the magazine. He sold his debut thriller, Some Kind of Truth, to Wicked House Publishing, it was released on February 2nd, 2024.