Two years ago, Midwest Book Review Senior Reviewer Diane Donovan wrote a review of Chained Birds that still makes me a little teary. This fall, she read The Jacklighter, and her first sentence made me smile, because she nailed something I’ve had trouble explaining to people:
“Readers of Carla Conti’s previous crime memoir saga Chained Birds will appreciate the dovetailing of character, history, and intrigue represented in its prequel/sequel The Jacklighter …”
Prequel/sequel is exactly right 🥹
The Jacklighter is where my true crime story began, in 1995, as a young journalist chasing a book deal on the Dillon-Scher case. It’s also the book I came back to finish three decades later, after Chained Birds. Diane is the only reviewer who has read both books, so she’s the only one who could see the full arc, and she called it out in the first line.
She also caught on to my not-so-little cameo:
“Readers won’t anticipate many of the twists and turns that emerge as Conti’s exploration evolves, but prior fans will delight in how she reappears as another investigator under a new light (jacklight?) in this story.”
(jacklight?) I love a reviewer with a sense of humor 😄
Here’s a fun callback. In 2024, Diane wrote that Chained Birds reads “with the drama of fiction, delivered with the one-two punch of reality.” This time she found the same quality in The Jacklighter:
“The investigation and open-secret affair read with the drama of fiction and the reinforcement of true crime as black-and-white photos of individuals and settings pepper the story, bringing these circumstances to life.”
Those photos and collages were a labor of love, some of them restored from 50-year-old newspaper clippings, so I’m thrilled they made an impression.
And here’s a passage worth taping above my desk:
“Libraries either seeing popularity with Chained Birds: A Crimemoir or coming in fresh to The Jacklighter will find it a powerful review of small-town politics, writers’ challenges, true crime, and community involvement. It’s a compelling story that grabs attention from the start and needs no prior introduction to Pennsylvania’s social enclaves to prove thoroughly engrossing.”
A quick word about Midwest Book Review … Founded in 1976, MBR champions small presses, self-published authors, and public libraries. Print books are reviewed free of charge. For digital review copies like mine, the volunteer reviewer receives a $50 reader fee, which guarantees a review but not a rave. MBR’s reviews also go into Cengage’s Book Review Index, which reaches libraries across the U.S. and Canada, and that matters a lot to an author who loves library events as much as I do.
Diane, thank you for reading both books, and for seeing how they fit together. Having one reviewer with you from the first book to the second is a rare gift ✨
I’ll link to the full review when it’s posted on the Midwest Book Review website in November.
The Jacklighter releases Oct. 27, 2026. Hardcover, paperback, and ebook preorders are live now.
