“A gripping account of a murder between friends”—I couldn’t ask for a better highlight from Foreword Clarion Reviews, which gave The Jacklighter 4 out of 5 stars this week 🎉
Likewise, I couldn’t have scripted the reviewer’s opening line any better either: “A thorough and compassionate book, The Jacklighter covers a troubling murder trial at the start of the true crime boom.”
The start of the true crime boom … I’ve been waiting for someone to notice. That was my world in the mid-1990s when I first started covering this story as a young journalist. At the same time, the O.J. Simpson trial played on every TV in America, and the Dillon-Scher case was being called the “O.J. trial of the East.” The media circus around Montrose isn’t just a backdrop in The Jacklighter—I was in it, and I’m delighted the reviewer called it out:
As a parallel to the Dillon case, the book also explores the US’s burgeoning late-twentieth-century fascination with true crime, court television coverage, and tabloid investigations. The Dillon murder’s elements of small-town drama, extramarital passion, and fatal betrayal attracted hordes of reporters to the Montrose area in time with this cultural explosion. In the chapters concerning the trial proceedings, the tensions between invasive media representatives and members of the insular community are explained.
For those who don’t know, Foreword Reviews is a magazine and review outlet devoted to independent and university press books. Clarion is its paid review service with no guarantee about the outcome. And unlike some services, Clarion reviews carry a byline, which means I get to thank reviewer Meg Nola by name for reading so closely and so generously.
Here’s another portion of Meg’s review that resonated deeply with me:
“… the book maintains compassionate sensitivity toward Marty Dillon as a murder victim, as well as relating the continued anguish experienced by his parents, siblings, and stalwart friends.”
I teach victim-forward storytelling at writers’ conferences, and my mantra is: the characters at the center of a true crime story are real people, not stereotypes or plot elements. Marty Dillon was a son, a father, a brother, and a friend. Larry and Jo Dillon, his parents, spent two decades refusing to let the world forget him. If a reviewer finishes this book thinking about Marty first, I did my job 🥹
In addition to Meg Nola, I want to thank the team at Foreword Clarion Reviews for championing independent books for as long as they have.✨
Read the full review at Foreword Reviews.
The Jacklighter releases Oct. 27, 2026. Hardcover, paperback, and ebook preorders are live now.
