Acting in the Dark by Jayson Clemmer and Lynette Ingram

About the book

Negotiating a path through the wilderness of a psychological disorder requires an unusual compass. For ex-actor Raymond Deal, the classic black and white movies provide a point of reference as he struggles to make his way back to the career he lost in the aftermath of a random beating in an LA homeless shelter. Released from a psychiatric hospital where he was treated for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, Deal returns to Memphis, where he is reunited with fellow Hollywood refugee Darsha Range.

Desperate to reclaim his career, Deal allows Darsha to persuade him to use his acting ability to take part in a scam orchestrated by PI turned extortionist Ruby Maze. Ignoring the deleterious effect of stress on his PTSD, he agrees to try to find out who is blackmailing social prophet Damian Vandermeer, author of the controversial novel The New Revolutionaries. Within a short time it becomes clear that Deal has become part of a more dangerous production than he bargained for. After finding the body of decadent playboy Mayson Dane spattered with black ink at the bottom of an empty swimming pool, he realizes that he has inadvertently auditioned for the role of prime suspect.

All the branches on the Dane family tree appear to be blighted. Patriarch Wilson Dane, a ruthless womanizer, was shot to death six years ago. His murder was never solved, but it precipitated the disappearance of his disturbed daughter Valerie, who reportedly jumped off the I-55 bridge and was never found. Social Maven Wyla Dane with the help of her niece Julia Vandermeer, carry out the operation of the manor, whose walls are decorated with bizarre black and white drawings of teardrop monsters.

After two more bodies are found, Deal finds himself caught in a vise between Ruby and Wyla Dane, who gives him an ultimatum: Name Mayson's killer or go to prison for burglary. Escalating panic attacks, flashbacks and other PTSD symptoms, including the inability to trust his own perceptions, draw him to the characters of the old black and white movies like Spellbound, in which Gregory Peck returns to the real world after a "breakdown," assesses his normal surroundings, and finds them strangely off-center.

On board an ocean liner taking all the suspects to England, Deal figures out that Valerie Dane killed Mayson and the two others. His only question is: "Which Valerie?" Wyla Dane, who killed her husband Wilson has hidden her missing daughter in plain sight all along, in the person of Julie Vandermeer. Darsha Range, whose burgeoning psychosis found expression in the myth of the abused Valerie, took over her persona and committed the murders. Devastated at the loss of his only friend, Deal gives up his arrogant notions of stardom and heads for New York, where he hopes to get another chance at acting.

About the author

Jayson Clemmer graduated from The University of Memphis and is an amateur historian who has spent much time researching that city's rich history and exploring its landmarks. He has worked at a Nashville public relations firm and as an assistant editor for an American Psychological Association journal out of Vanderbilt University. He has published short stories and poems in college literary magazines and currently writes full time while operating a small export business. Jayson resides in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife Kim, who is a veterinary student at The University of Tennessee.

Lynette Ingram is a former broadcast news reporter, writer and anchor in the Nashville radio market. She has received two Associated Press awards for writing and live reporting. As news director of WLAC am and fm she wrote and produced various news documentaries. Following the FCC's deregulation of radio news, she began a career in Human Resources Management and also works as the fiction critic for The Tennessean. A one-time college professor, Lynette occasionally teaches courses in contemporary fiction and Arthurian Literature at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, where she lives with her husband Sam.