A boy. A shadow. A murder.

Or not?

Pathological liar? Sociopathic killer? Or just a troubled kid seeking attention? These are the questions that haunt therapist Selena Harris as she undertakes the most challenging case of her career.

Sitting on a couch two feet across from her is an ordinary-looking teenager who confessed in a text, inadvertently broadcast to his entire school, to murdering an autistic child left in his care. With no evidence to support Leal Porter’s testimony, authorities have referred him to Selena for counseling.

Challenging her professional distance is the emotional bond she develops with this lonely, isolated boy, whom classmates describe as “that scrawny kid who talks to himself at his locker.” Although Selena believes the alleged victim is the product of her client’s fevered imagination, she harbors one major doubt:

What if she’s wrong?

Selena can relate to Leal’s feeling of isolation, especially as she has returned to her small hometown on the heels of a divorce to take care of her father, who has suffered a debilitating stroke. In Leal’s case, however, he’s a school outcast due to his predisposition to tell tall tales to worm his way out of trouble.

Stepping outside the confines of her office in a quest for clues, Selena is determined to separate fact from fiction. But nothing in her experience prepares her for the harrowing revelation of the inner demon that lurks beneath the surface of Leal’s confession.

An End to Etcetera is a psychological thriller from debut author B. Robert Conklin. Told from two POVs, in the third person, and from an unreliable narrator, this book will have you questioning everything you are told the whole way through.

Set in the small town of Ovid, our first main character is thirteen-year-old Leal Porter who is a troubled young teen. We never quite know whether Leal lives in a fantasy world, is deluded, or is a psychopath. Leal has been in serious trouble with his school and as part of being allowed to continue to be enrolled there, he has to see a therapist.

Our second main character is therapist Selena Harris who is pregnant and on the verge of getting a divorce. She has recently moved back to Ovid to help care for her father after a stroke and relies on the help of her mentor Henri to make sense of her cases. She has just been assigned a new patient – Leal.

An End to Etcetera is a slow burn of a novel that plays with your head. Now, I’ve read a lot of psychological thrillers in my time and normally I can work out pretty early on what is going on. With this book, I was constantly confused and conflicted but the ending didn’t come as a shock.

The book pretty much revolves around the therapy sessions as Leal talks about drowning his friend Thuster, a silent child, though there are no police charges. He also talks about a woman called Diana and her husband Saul who have taken the boys under their wings – or have they? Do they even exist? Does anything Leal says really happen?

This was a tense read. It drove me mad having to wait for so long to see whether Leal was telling the truth or not. The characters are plentiful but many are not around for long and those that are there for the duration I can’t say I particularly liked or trusted.

An End to Etcetera was one of those books that when you get to the end you are not sure whether you have loved every minute of it or are glad that it is over. It is certainly different, breath-taking, and dark. Overall, if you love psychological thrillers then this is definitely one to pick up.

B. Robert Conklin (he/him/his) lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he enjoys the unpredictable moments of family life with his spouse, three kids, four cats, and two ferrets. His credits include stories in Blue Moon Literary & Art Review, THAT Literary Review, and Kestrel, with another accepted for inclusion in The Strong Stuff: The Best of Fictional Café, Volume II.

With a teaching background in composition and literature, he has also co-authored a college textbook to help emerging writers connect with their world. In a different medium, he practices the craft of cartooning. An End to Etcetera is his debut novel, which has placed as a finalist in the suspense category of the 2023 National Indie Excellence Award contest.