Identity Thief
by J.P. Bloch
Genre: Mystery/Crime Fiction
Publisher: Bacon Press Books
Cover Designer: Al Pranke, Amp13
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Out of work, down on your luck, desperate for cash. What if you could get rich with a few strokes of the keyboard? All you have to do is become someone else.
But nothing’s that simple in this fast-paced, psychological thriller. While the thief builds a new life, his victim’s world begins to unravel. As the story dangerously snowballs downhill, the characters discover how losing themselves can lead to duplicity, blackmail, and sometimes murder.
JP Bloch’s darkly comic, edgy exploration of the mystery of the self will keep you guessing until the last word. You’ll come away agreeing with the narrator that “the biggest mistake you can make is thinking you know who you are.”
Advance Reviews:
"JP Bloch’s Identity Thief careens through a spiraling labyrinth of stolen identities reminding one of Churchill’s riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. After his identity is stolen, Dr. Jesse Falcon goes from the frying pan, into the fire, into the endless quicksand of identity theft, until you just want to ask, as they did on the old TV show, ‘Will the real Jesse Falcon please stand up?’ But like Bloch says, the real identity thief is life itself. Identity Thief is an audacious and cleverly plotted, intriguing mystery that opens up new layers of deceit at every turn, like an endless trove of Russian nesting boxes, with one surprising twist after another. Definitely looking forward to his next."
Paul D. Marks, Shamus Award-winning author of White Heat
"This is a fun ride. Despite featuring deeply troubled characters, Bloch treats them with a sense of humor that softens some edges but dangerously sharpens others. There are times when you'll chuckle at a name or a seeming coincidence, then be blindsided with an unexpected—sometimes unsettling—turn. As the main players lose and find identities, you'll be pulled into their fragmenting worlds where truth is temporary and few are whom they seem—to others or to themselves."
Frank Tavares, author of The Man Who Built Boxes and other stories
4 out 5 stars Review Copy
Who thought stealing someone’s identity could turn your own
messy life even messier than your own life?
Even worse when fate manages to come full circle colliding the real and
fake person.
The fake appears to be a normal guy, married with a cheating
and a young son leading the typical life until he finds himself out of his
computer job. In debt with a mortgage as
they live like most people living paycheck to paycheck while the wife keeps
spending more money.
Out of a job for a while, his wife asks for a divorce as she
moves in with his best friend Biff who comes from a privilege lifestyle. Betsey admits that she has always been
sleeping with Biff even minutes before their wedding and that their son Scotty
is really Biff.
He goes one day to confront Biff especially after he hears
that he been sexually molesting his son Scott,
Before he confronts him, he and his son ends up killing him
accidentally. As they clean up the
body, he takes him to his mom for safe keeping.
He manages to steal money from a Dr. Jesse Falcon a
psychiatrist at first $20,000 to cover his mortgage on the house that his wife
is living in. When he tries to cash the
certified check at the bank, he ends up in the middle of a bank robbery where
he managed to take several bullets and survives.
He ends up after being released meeting up with a woman who
he saw at the robbery. She lets him move
in temporary and they fall in love. He
then steals more money to set up an online site as help line and makes money
from it.
Meantime the real Dr. Jesse Falcon life is a mess as he
compulsively have sex with his female clients and others except with his
wife. He has a college daughter whom he
adores and dotes on. He has one female
client who is obsessed with him and she becomes pregnant with his child as he
tries not to have anything to do with her.
She later tries to commit suicide but survives and gives birth premature
to their child.
Slowly their world begin to clash, when the real Dr. Falcon
gets hire by the fake ex-wife Betsey to find the missing boyfriend Biff and he
realizes who stole his identity. Things
quickly go out of hand for the both of them when all comes tumbling down.
A mystery that you think you know the answers but all is not
what it seems as each gets their own ending.
How one lie can slowly snowball quickly,
Doc Bloch, as he affectionately calls himself, teaches criminology, gender, and other things. He has appeared on TV and radio numerous times. Having grown up in different households, he became interested at a young age in the fragility of self-identity. On his own since age 15, he also developed a lifelong interest in finding food and shelter. Thus he hopes you will buy this book. He has discarded many identities himself over the years before sticking with chocolate mint chip. JP is also a victim of identity theft, which is ironic since he has no money.
He enjoys people who have gained wisdom from hardship and ask questions more than they assume answers. His turn-offs include Brussels sprouts, bigotry, and people who think life is simple.
Besides novels, he writes poetry, nonfiction and scholarly articles. JP’s paintings have been hailed as naïve folk art. Tumultuous skies are preferred over sunny ones.
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