Backstory: a novel

Review\nBackstory is an "exciting thriller...that compares rewriting the past to bolster one's own narrative to the concept of fake news," as a series of "betrayals, alliances, lies, and secrets show how the past is never truly past." - BookLife Reviews\n"An original and deftly crafted novel that is an inherently riveting read from cover to cover, Backstory showcases author William Michael Ried's genuine flair for the kind of narrative storytelling style that brings his characters to life and holds the reader's rapt attention from first page to last." - Midwest Book Review\n"Backstory is a smart, fast-paced, edgy whodunnit/ whodiditagain that keeps the reader guessing until the very end." - BookLife Prize Critic's Report\n"A deftly written and fully engaging novel that showcases the author's genuine flair for originality, Backstory by William Michael Ried is an unreservedly recommended." - Small Press Bookwatch Review\nBackstory displays "exemplary writing style and near-perfect pacing. While the story is unique in topic and theme, it will still have strong appeal for most readers of mysteries." - Judge, 29th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards\n"Backstory is a masterpiece, an intriguing read with a perfect blend of anger, resentment, love, hatred, excitement, and displeasure." - OnlineBookClub Review\nBookLife Prize Critic's Report:
Ried's Backstory is a smart, fast-paced, edgy whodunnit/ whodiditagain. The novel features the kind of overprivileged New Yorkers it's a pleasure to detest as readers turn yet another page to see just how entitled and amoral they can possibly get.Ried is as smooth and confident a writer as any of his well-educated characters. He writes with the certainty of one who knows just this world and just these people.The device of a professor of "revisionist history" who is continually revising his own somewhat murky past is a happy one, particularly in the era of "fake news." The novel keeps the reader guessing until the very end.A murder mystery with elements of a modern-day Liasons Dangereuses, the fun of this book lies in judging the narcissistic, entitled villains. While these are, in a sense, stock characters, there's a reason for that; this version of NYC is a town filled with the ostentatiously successful who are simultaneously deeply shallow.\nMidwest Book Review:\nAn original and deftly crafted novel that is an inherently riveting read from cover to cover, "Backstory" showcases author William Michael Ried's genuine flair for the kind of narrative storytelling style that brings his characters to life and holds the reader's rapt attention from first page to last.\nAnsel Tone has been named “The Golden Boy of Popular History.” He teaches propaganda at Columbia University and writes Redux Revisionist History best-sellers. His looks and family wealth help him to hawk his books on late night talk shows. He speaks to packed auditoriums. Undergraduates are said to swoon over his lectures. The public sees a professor who drives fast cars and runs with glamorous women, but his personal life is poised between an overbearing father and a son he hardly knows. Ansel spent his junior year at Trinity College in Dublin, on a campus cloaked in four centuries of student pranks and mayhem. Twelve years later a classmate comes to New York and organizes a reunion. Ansel attends mostly to see how time has treated the beautiful Tess, his girlfriend that year who married their classmate, Charlie. Charlie and Tess live in “Mountain House” in the Hudson Valley. She’s a big-firm lawyer. He’s trying to replicate the success of his first novel and overcome the train-wreck of his second. At the reunion Charlie announces he will fictionalize the story of how he won Tess away from Ansel. He’ll change the facts to improve the story, but he first wants help remembering what really happened. Ansel panics. Digging into the past could reveal secrets that could overturn his life, and so he sets out t