PUYB Blog Tour for "Dead Reckoning" by Caitlin Rother

Dead Reckoning by Caitlin Rother is a suspenseful and detailed true crime novel about Skylar and Jennifer Deleon. It's a case that's been featured on shows like 48 Hours and 20/20.

You may have heard of the case because Skylar Deleon had been a child actor and had been on a few episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I had not heard about the case and I'm wondering if I had been living under a rock. Of course I was a single parent with 2 small children at the time, so I rarely got to watch the news back then. Basically Skylar and his wife Jennifer (who was pregnant at the time and also had a baby), had purchased a 55 foot yacht from a couple, the Hawkses. They wanted to take the boat out to sea for a trial run before the purchase. No one heard from the Hawkses after that, but Skylar and Jennifer came back with the yacht and money and other possessions.

In this book the author gives us the full background on Skylar and Jennifer and their childhoods. The author has really done a tremendous amount of research and gives us a great background. Then she concentrates on the investigation in detail. I really like the way she builds the background, building suspense before finally telling us what actually happened.

I very highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy true crime! The events and characters are so outrageous that it reads like a novel. It's mind-blowing that to read about this stuff and then think......and this is real! I really enjoy a good true history or true crime novel and I thought this one was great. It's written more like a novel, full of suspense, and it draws you in and hooks you.

(For my blog readers who only read Christian books, this is not a Christian title!)

Be sure to follow along with all the blog tour stops here.


Book Summary:

In Dead Reckoning, Pulitzer-nominated journalist Caitlin Rother tells the chilling, authoritative story of how Skylar Deleon, a former child actor turned conman and hermaphrodite wanna-be, schemes to kill Tom and Jackie Hawks by tying them to the anchor of their yacht and throwing them overboard – alive – near Newport Beach, California. With the help of his pregnant wife Jennifer and their 10-month-old daughter, Skylar charms the Hawkses into taking him and his two cohorts on a sea trial from which the Hawkses never return. Skylar would have done anything to keep his wife happy, but he also wants a sex operation so badly that he is willing to kill to pay for one. Deeply in debt, the Deleons attempt to steal the Hawkses’ yacht and pillage their bank accounts, not expecting to be thwarted by the Hawkses’ loving family and the Newport Beach Police Department’s incredibly thorough investigation, which spans three counties, two states, and goes into Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Even behind bars, Skylar doesn’t stop scheming as he tries to implicate his own father in the murders, then tries to solicit hits on several witnesses, including his father and cousin, to prevent them from testifying against him.





READ THE EXCERPT!

Alonso’s role was to help Skylar get “in” with the
owners, Tomand Jackie Hawks, then hold themdown.
The fifty-five-foot trawler wasmoored in the upscale
community of Newport Beach in Orange County, a
sharp contrast to the sprawling mix of urban, industrial,
and suburban areas of Long Beach, where Skylar
lived with his wife, Jennifer, in neighboring Los Angeles
County.
Unlike the spacious homes in Newport,
decorated in the mute beiges and sandstone of the
wealthy, home for Skylar and Jennifer was a cramped
converted garage behind her parents’ duplex. Space
was so tight, the Deleons had to stack their belongings
on the floor and hang their clothing from a pole that
ran between two dressers right next to the bed.
It was a far cry from the opulent mansions featured on
Real Housewives of Orange County Theand The O.C.Contrary to the story he’d told
Alonso about the$3 million a month he’d earned working with Ditech
Funding, Skylar had been fired from his job as appraiser’s
assistant there, and looked at his wealthier
neighbors in “the O.C.” with envy. He coveted their
waterfront homes, boats, and private planes that he
couldn’t afford, and he lied to persuade folks that he
could. Although he wasn’t anywhere near as smart or
capable as Bernie Madoff in building a complex financial
scheme, Skylar’s scam was just as—if not
more—deceitful. And when it came to lying and
manipulating people, Skylar was pretty damn good at
that, too.
The next time he and Alonso met, Skylar said he’d
analyzed photos of the boat’s interior for radios and
weapons, such as spearguns, and had determined the
best way to overcome the couple. Using stun guns and
handcuffs, Alonso would grab Jackie in the galley,
while Skylar took down Tom in the stateroom, where
no one could hear him scream.
Skylar said he’d considered taking Tom scuba
diving and finishing him off underwater, but he’d realized
that would preclude the Hawkses from signing
over the boat title and power-of-attorney documents
Skylar was going to draw up.
“What I’ll do is just take them out to sea and toss
them overboard,” he said.
They purchased two stun guns together, then Skylar
sent Alonso, a former jail guard he’d befriended while
serving time for armed burglary a year earlier, to buy
a couple pairs of handcuffs.
The next day, November 6, Skylar said it was time
to do the deed. By now, Alonso felt it was too late to
extricate himself from the situation. If twenty-fiveyear-
old Skylar really was a hit man, what would prevent
him from harming Alonso? As they drove to the dock, Skylar stopped a couple
blocks away to scope out who was aboard, then called
Tom to pick them up in his dinghy. The Hawkses were
expecting them.
On board, Tom proudly gave them a tour of his
home, but Alonso could see from Skylar’s tone of
voice and body language that he’d changed his mind.
Skylar seemed far too relaxed to kill anyone as he
chatted with Tom for forty-five minutes about possible
modes of payment. Before they left, Skylar made sure
that Tom and Jackie knew he was definitely interested
in purchasing the vessel and would be back for a
lesson on how to operate it.
Skylar told Alonso afterward that he’d changed his
mind once he’d realized that Tom was too muscular
for the two of them to handle this alone. They really
needed a third man. Skylar also sensed some discomfort
on the Hawkses’ part, so he called Jennifer on his
cell phone as soon as they got back to the car.
“Hey, you need to come down, take a look at the
boat, to make these people feel a little more at ease,”
he told her.
So after sending Alonso on his way, Skylar and his
pregnant wife went back on board, pushing their
ten-month-old daughter, Haylie, in a stroller, to do
just that.

Buy this book here.




Author Bio:

Caitlin Rother is the author of true crime books Dead Reckoning, Body Parts, Twisted Triangle, and Poisoned Love, and the thriller, Naked Addiction. She is also the co-author of My Life, Deleted and Where Hope Begins, soon to be re-released as Deadly Devotion. She is now working on The Makings of a Monster, the story of the rape and murder of beloved teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.

Rother, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, worked as an investigative reporter at daily newspapers for nineteen years before deciding to write books full-time. She is the founder of the San Diego Writing Women blog, and her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Daily Beast. She has appeared as a crime expert on E! Entertainment, the Oxygen Network, Investigation Discovery, Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record,” and America at Night.” She also teaches journalism, narrative non-fiction and creative writing at UCSD Extension in San Diego. She is now working on The Makings of a Monster, the story of how John Gardner grew from a caring troubled boy into an angry man who couldn’t control his compulsions to rape and murder beloved teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.”

You can visit her website at http://www.caitlinrother.com/.

Connect with Caitlin at Twitter and Facebook!


This book was provided for review by Kensington Publishing.



Blessings,