A Sketch Of You Arrives You've Got 6 Days To Confess The Confession Artist From Christine Carbo
In her acclaimed series of mysteries set in and around Glacier National Park, Christine Carbo explored the perilous intersection between humans and the natural world. In her new standalone thriller, THE CONFESSION ARTIST (Thomas & Mercer; May 5, 2026; $16.99 Paperback), Carbo shifts her focus from the remote Montana wilderness to a vast and virtually inescapable landscape rife with threats from anonymous monsters: the digital world. It began with a pencil sketch of a middle-aged, bearded man. Someone unknown had posted it on several untraceable accounts across social media. Below the photo, in yellow block text, all caps, was a command: CONFESS, OR DIE. YOU HAVE SIX DAYS. At first, few people paid attention. About a week later, a reporter who had been intrigued by the random posts wrote that a man resembling the sketch had been fatally shot just outside of Seattle. Police denied a connection, but the accounts generated a ton of new followers. A month later, a second sketch, paired with the same chilling demand, was posted. It went viral. This time, the sketch was of a woman. By the end of that week, a female mirroring the drawing was found murdered in Santa Monica, California. When the third sketch—another male—dropped, it got global attention. Law enforcement agencies across the US, especially in the West, went on high alert. But after six days passed, no one turned up dead. Had the man fessed up and been spared? A first-year PI in the Flathead Valley, Crosbie Mitchell yearns for something more exciting than tracking down cheating spouses. Still, she has little interest in all the buzz surrounding the killer dubbed “The Confession Artist.” Boredom aside, she doesn’t regret her decision to quit the force. Being the lone woman cop in her precinct was tough even before her coworkers saw her as toxic for reporting sexual harassment. And after Jess, her sister and only family, was raped, she needed to be there for her. The real reason, however, is something Crosbie can barely think about without feeling… slimy, or worse. Yes, Crosbie has skeletons shoved deep in her closet. Yet, she’s knocked for a loop when a fourth sketch goes viral and Jess gasps in horror: “It’s you.” Brushing it off, Crosbie insists: “I’m a nobody from Montana.” Then, her ex-boyfriend calls with a significant detail: the woman in the sketch is wearing the same dangling earrings, in the shape of a feather with a round stone in the center, as the handcrafted pair he gave her. You have six days to confess or die. Crosbie’s heart pounds at the thought. What should she confess first?
Keeping the tension building, THE CONFESSION ARTIST follows Crosbie as she digs into the identity of the online killer and evades a stalker. Before the sketch made her a public figure of wild speculation, Crosbie had been hired to investigate the suspicious death of a Native American journalist about to expose the shady and environmentally destructive practices of a local oil and natural gas company. Could Crosbie be the target of a copycat vendetta launched by Ridgefield’s filthy rich and unscrupulous owner? Or maybe that charming reporter who popped up out of nowhere to interview her is really a serial killer? Oh, and Crosbie can’t shake the hunch that both her ex-boyfriend and her sister know more than they’re telling her.
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Speaker 1: It's actually a pretty cool choice. Arrow.net. A-R-R-O-E.net. One place,
20 different podcasts. One of the most popular ones, Creativity
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on Arrow.net. A-R-R-O-E dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hello and
good morning. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm good. How are you doing?
Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic. I saw that 406 come up and right
away I'm going, I know that number. I grew up
in Montana. I know that 406.
Speaker 2: Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1: I came up in Billings and I was born in
Sheridan and then grew up in Billings. And it's like,
I mean, and you're up there in Kalispell. Oh my God,
that place changed my life up there with Flathead Lake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got a lot of beautiful lakes up here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And for you to be a writer, of course you are.
You can't be in that country and not be an
author or somebody who's putting paint on a canvas. And
what you're doing with your writing is so, so unbelievable
because you write about it. It almost feels like that
I'm reading a newspaper or on CNN. You make me
feel like it's really happening here.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Where did you learn that art of connection? Because not
everybody can do that.
Speaker 4: Well, I'd say just over the years, lots of lots
of practice, lots of studying, lots of reading, lots of
some of it's just kind of natural.
Speaker 2: You know, some people.
Speaker 3: Um have the knack for it and you just kind
of go with it when you do and you know
steven spielberg says that your dreams kind of whisper at
you they don't shout at you that's kind of the
way it was for me i just kind of had
this little whisper that you know that i wanted to
write and i honestly didn't do it for a long
time in my life and it wasn't so much later
that i really really got into it and was in
my um gosh i was in my late 40s when
i published my first novel so yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, to be able to give yourself permission to write,
because all of a sudden now we're getting to see
what you put on that paper or on that computer screen.
And it's like relinquishing control. And I've always wondered about
other authors. How is it you find the strength to
even do that?
Speaker 3: Well, not every day is great with it.
Speaker 2: You know, it's some days it doesn't come at all.
Speaker 3: And, you know, you devote your time to just the
professional end of it with the emails and the social
media and your research or different things. And then other
days it comes and it comes, you know, effortless, effortlessly,
and you can do it for hours and you just
feel so great. And other days all you can get
down is a, couple paragraphs or go in and just
revise stuff you've already done, you know, just to stay
busy with it, just to stay part of it, of
the story. But it doesn't always, like I said, the
creativity part of it is kind of waxes and wanes
for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, in The Confession Artist, you bring up things that
are so everyday. And my father would be so proud
of you because that's how he got a lot of
his headlines, was by reading books from authors. Because he
always believed that you guys had your ear to the
ground more than just a regular journalist. And you do.
You cover so much stuff here that is so real
that I get wrapped up inside the story. And it's like, okay,
I'll do one more page. Oh, wait a second. I'm
going to do one more.
Speaker 3: Oh, wait.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do one more.
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I want to hear. So that's great.
That's fantastic. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's, you know, I wanted to, I mean, part
of that just comes naturally for me because I am
an engaged person in the world kind of that way.
Speaker 2: And I think most writers, all writers are, like you said.
Speaker 3: And so it just comes natural to get some of
that onto the page without trying to be preachy about
any of it or anything. you know, pedantic about any
of it, but just kind of be an observer of
some of the things that are going on and, and
getting them down. And, um, I have all these, these,
you know, so in the confession artist, there's this serial
killer who is basically putting out a sketch of their
victims about six days ahead of time and saying either confess,
you know, or you're going to die. And so since
they're kind of almost composite sketches or sort of vague,
a lot of people feel like.
Speaker 2: It looks like them.
Speaker 3: And so, it ends up going viral and it becomes
this national phenomenon where people, after a sketch drops, people
think it looks like them and people are confessing online
and all this stuff. And so it was really rich
ground to just tap into the kinds of things that
are going on in America or around the world today
that you could confess, you know, things of that nature.
Speaker 1: So But what's so fascinating about it though, is that
it's like you, you, you, as a reader, you go,
you go, I like both sides of it because if
you're holding onto something that you should be confessing about it,
I get it. But at the same time, that's a,
that's a, whoo, kind of a way to, to go that,
you know, if you didn't confess, you got the picture, dude,
you got, you got it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, yeah.
Speaker 3: And you bring up an interesting point. I think, um,
you know, confessing and revenge and that whole thing. It's so, it's,
it's actually pretty much part of most crime fiction. I mean, right.
You know, there's, there's some kind of like finding out
who did it or why they did it or, you know,
and often it comes down to revenge or, you know,
some kind of, um, passion of the heart kind of,
you know, heat of the moment crime or, but both, um,
both confessions and revenge are sort of like a release valve,
you know, depending for either the person who's confessing their
sin or for the perpetrator who's, you know, out seeking
some kind of revenge, which they perceive as their own justice.
Speaker 2: It may not be.
Speaker 3: Society's justice, but it's justice for themselves. And so it's
kind of like it's such a release valve.
Speaker 2: Either way you go with it.
Speaker 1: So, well, you sure got Crosby's attention. My God. I mean,
come on. I mean, we all have skeletons in our closet,
but when all of a sudden that sketch shows up
and I don't want to spoil it for readers, but, uh,
we're going to see ourselves in a, in a situation
many times in this book.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope so.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And she, uh, she Crosby's.
Speaker 3: Yep. She's my protagonist and she's an ex cop from Montana. And,
you know, I kind of like to write where the, uh,
about Montana because it's just, I live here, so I'm
so comfortable with it.
Speaker 2: It's so beautiful. Why wouldn't I write about it?
Speaker 3: And so anyway, so she's one of the victims that
is in the sketch and, or, you know, she thinks
she is anyway. She's not sure if she is at first.
So there's that whole dynamic of, is it me?
Speaker 2: Is it not? I don't know.
Speaker 3: And as she comes to think, really think it might be,
then she's, yeah, under that pressure cooker.
Speaker 2: Do I....
Speaker 3: She's got some skills as an ex cop. So it's like,
do I try and find this person myself or do I, um, confess?
Speaker 1: I was going to ask about that. What, what the
transition of, of being a, you know, a PI and
stuff like that for, for Crosby Mitchell, only because it's
one of those situations where it's like, okay, I left
this all behind me, but I'm being called to this situation.
And to me, I mean, I liked a little, um,
you know, conflict that, that, that has to go on
with Crosby's life as well, because it's, It really does.
We're all in situations like that. And I think that's
what draws people to a story is that we always
think that we know who the character is because I
met them obviously over at Starbucks or it could have
been some sort of Kroger store.
Speaker 2: Right, right. Yeah. So she's, yes.
Speaker 3: And, you know, I just, I wanted her to be
kind of, um, have some of her own baggage, of course,
for why she left the force in the first place.
Speaker 2: And yeah. And, um, and I also wanted her to.
Speaker 3: Have, you know, some, it'd be a little bit of
a polarizing character herself in the sense that maybe not
everybody would like her maybe, you know, I mean, cause
she's got some stuff and she's also, you know, she's
also got some anger.
Speaker 1: Well, she's also got the strength to pull that lens
back and see that there's a much bigger picture here.
Because when the lens is on her, when she's having
to deal with this in her own life, and then
all of a sudden, and that to me is what
inspires me as a reader, is that it's like, wait
a second, as much as this is going on in
her life, she's still able to pull that lens back. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that introspection is huge.
Speaker 3: And as a reader myself, I like, I love novels
that do that, where the characters have that ability to
go that couple layers deeper. So it's not just kind
of getting across Teflon, kind of reading, you know, surface level.
Speaker 2: Like, I mean, you really want to dig deeper, I think.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah.
Speaker 1: And you also deal with a copycat because that was
one of the first things that I thought of. Right away,
I thought, oh, my God, is this going to inspire
somebody today? And then and then and then all of
a sudden you start talking about a copycat in this.
And I'm going, well, she is on the same page
as I am. We are thinking the same. And it's
not because we're both from Montana.
Speaker 2: It might be.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: I think that probably a lot of people's heads would
go there, right? I mean, it's just such a, I mean,
even things like suicide are, you know, they catch on
and there's like a, you know, a bout of them, like,
you know, in a particular town, like there's one and
then there's maybe another and maybe another.
Speaker 2: Because it's almost not a copycat situation.
Speaker 3: And I don't want to, I don't want to make
light of that at all, but it's, you know, or
trivialize it in any way, shape or form. But I
just mean, and it's, it's such a powerful thing. The, that, that,
Power of suggestion.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Christine Carbo coming
up next. The name of the book, The Confession Artist.
We are back with author Christine Carbo. Well, you being
up there in the Kalispell area, you know how the
world is moving to Montana. I mean, is that where
you got the inspiration to do this? Because so many
people with these amazing careers are moving into your village, basically.
And we don't know about them. What are they bringing
with them? What is their history? And could they be?
Because that's the way the small town life is anymore.
Speaker 3: Small town life is really... Changed in so many places.
I mean, you know, we've been discovered for sure. And
we are growing and there's not a block or a
corner of the valley that I live in that isn't
being developed at this point.
Speaker 2: And it's just... You're right. It does raise that question.
Speaker 3: Like, OK, you know, it's so fun to write about
rural landscapes and the secrets that people hold and the
way that all butts up against nature and that whole thing.
Speaker 2: But then there's this whole other element of context.
Speaker 3: We've been discovered and there's a lot of people coming
in and we it it does have that feeling where
now when you go to the grocery store you're not
you don't know everybody it's more like you're anonymous and
who are these people that And we love them because
they bring, you know, good business. But at the same time,
it adds a whole nother layer.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you just took me back to a conversation I
just had with Eve Plum. She was Jan Brady. And
she talked about she can walk around this world now
and nobody recognizes her. That's how I feel about your
book is that that these people can walk around. Crosby
can walk around. Nobody knows. Nobody knows unless we start
talking about it. Oh, my God. And you know how
talking a small town can get away with. And they
might not even have all the facts.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: And I, yeah, I definitely wanted to try and play
on that a little bit too. So hopefully I pulled
that off as well. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, good. Good. I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 1: So your creative process, have you ever had a murder
mystery take place in the Lewis and Clark caverns? Because
that really is a cool place that something like that
could go down.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. The Lewis and Clark caverns. You're right.
Speaker 3: That really is a cool place. And yeah, thanks for,
for the idea. I never thought of that, but that
is so cool. I mean, yeah, those places, that place
is wild, isn't it? All the bats and all the, um,
what is it? Select, select the lights. Is that what
you call those?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1: So mystery. So many shadows. You don't know who's hiding
in there. And man, when I was a kid, I
was so afraid to go in there. But yet I
can't shake it. It's still with me even today. And so,
I mean, to write a murder mystery in there is like, oh,
you would freak me out.
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to write that one down. Thanks
for the idea.
Speaker 3: I'll credit you if I ever do that.
Speaker 1: Do you ever get over there to eastern Montana? I
always say that what somebody did, it was God that
sat there and folded the state in half. You've got
all that beauty up there in the Kalispell area, and
you keep going deeper into the Rockies. But then you've
got eastern Montana with everything in the ground. And I
always wonder what authors do. Is it a conflict of
thought if they go from a Kalispell to maybe a
Miles City?
Speaker 2: No, I go over there. You mean in terms of
my writing? I do go over there with my writing,
or at.
Speaker 3: Least I make mention of it, especially in my first
four novels, which are part of an ensemble series called
the Glacier Mysteries series. Each book stands alone, and I'll
pluck one character from the first novel and bring them
forward to the second novel, pluck a character in the
second novel, bring that character forward in the third novel.
And so I can just have a different character in
each one, but still part of the same universe. And
in those novels, you know, there's, there's lots of, there's
quite a few mentions of the East side and just
having different characters that even come drive through it or
come from.
Speaker 2: The East side or drive over there. I've, you know,
and then of.
Speaker 3: Course there's the East side of Glacier Park, which is
not necessarily flat like some of the other parts of,
eastern Montana are, but it's still a whole different feeling.
In fact, in my first novel, The Wild Inside, I
have a pretty dramatic scene that takes place over at
Old Man Lake, which is a lake on the eastern
side of Glacier Park and there on the eastern front.
And it's, yeah, it's pretty desolate. And it's very eerie
feeling over there sometimes, but beautiful. And I personally have
spent a lot of time in eastern Montana, so that
informs my writing as well.
Speaker 1: Well, you're the closest thing that I've gotten to Glacier
National Park because as a kid and as an adult,
I still won't go there because we had such a
rivalry with Great Falls, the Billings. I was at the
Senior High Bronx and we were up against those dang
Great Falls Bisons. And I wouldn't go in that part
of the world because it's like Bronx don't go into
Great Falls country. And I wouldn't go anywhere near that area.
And to this day, I still hold that grudge against
that high school.
Speaker 2: Gosh.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you should let it go so you
can get to Glacier Park because it's beautiful and you
definitely want to see it if you can.
Speaker 1: So what are you working on for the future? Because
I mean, because it is such a writer's world right now. And,
you know, 2026 has been the masterwork. of authors inside
those theaters. And it's like, finally, all of these book
authors are getting to put their stories on that gigantic screen.
You've got to be working on something like that because
you understand how to put pictures inside my head.
Speaker 3: Well, I, you know, I do, I am fingers crossed, uh,
on the film front for pretty much all my novels.
Speaker 2: Um, and, um, this one, I.
Speaker 3: Do have, um, a talent scout from LA who was
interested in it right away when, when she saw it.
And so putting the word out there, we'll see what happens. But, um,
but yeah, and I'm working on another book now. Um,
and it's another standalone though, another thriller standalone. It's not
quite as high concept as, as this, um, it's, uh,
a little bit more kind of grounded into Montana in
a way that's not quite so knack, quite so national, but, um,
but I still think it's going to be pretty intriguing.
Speaker 2: So for readers, yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you think the confession artists would make a great
binge watch? Because I mean, everybody's so addicted to the,
to the binge watch Yellowstone. What I love about your
writing is the fact that it's not what we think
is all cowboys and all that kind of stuff in
that ranch life. I mean, what you, you give it
the reality of now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Um, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker 3: I hope that I mean, again, I would love to
see that happen either either just in a film format,
all in one showing or in, you know, a limited
series format.
Speaker 2: Would be great, too. And I think I think it
would be very cool either way.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Because each sketch is a new episode. And all of
a sudden we're so glued to it because we all
think that we can solve a crime in 25, 30 minutes.
We all think that we're because we're pros. But then
you as the writer, my God, you've got to live
it first through those words and then you pass it forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, and you are correct about that, that each sketch
could be a different episode. So, um, and, or, you know,
each sketch could be like two episodes and, um.
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
And are you going on a speaking tour to where
you can go out and really invite people into this journey?
Speaker 3: Yes, I am going to be in a number of
places and I will be posting about that on probably
mostly Facebook and Instagram and Christine, you know, dot Carbo,
Christine underscore Carbo, those kinds of things for X.
Speaker 2: And I don't post a lot on X, but I
used to.
Speaker 3: Back in the day when it was twitter and um
but facebook you can find me instagram and then my
website has it all Christine carbo.com.
Speaker 2: I love it. And yeah.
Speaker 3: And the confession artists, I should tell you this month.
So it officially comes out on June 1st and this
month it is a, um, it was selected by a
group of editors at Amazon to be a first treats pick,
which means that people who have prime Amazon prime and, um,
Kindle Unlimited can get it either free if you have
Prime or at.
Speaker 2: A really deep discount.
Speaker 3: So if you have that, got nothing to lose, go
and download it or get it right now. And pre-ordering
it too, I think comes with some discounts as well.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: It's great to talk with another creative person from the
state of Montana because, I mean, there's something up there
in those hills as well as the soil. And storytelling
is what that state has always, always, always been about,
whether it's through writing and or even just painting.
Speaker 2: So true. I love it. I just love Montana.
Speaker 3: And there are so many great stories that come out
of this state and so many great artists and creative people.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, there's something about it. What is it?
Speaker 3: Steinbeck says that all other states I like, but with Montana,
it's love. I mean, I'm not saying it perfectly the
way he wrote it, but he travels with Charlie. He
has that quote about that with Montana. It's love about Montana.
Speaker 1: It would be fun to see you on a travel
channel in the way that where you walk around the
different areas of Montana and showcase all these different deep
dark mysteries and all of a sudden here comes christine
and she goes let me tell you the story here's
what it is and all of a sudden it's like
oh i have to believe it now because she's an
author i understand.
Speaker 2: It you have a lot of great ideas.
Speaker 1: It's the montanan in me that's what it is Will
you please come back to this show anytime in the future?
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I really appreciate it. And thanks. Thanks to you,
all your listeners. And thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 1: You bet. You'll be brilliant today.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Okay. You too. You already, it sounds like you already are.
Speaker 1: You i'm gonna write some of them down it's the
big sky country that's what it stretches across every state
i'm always in montana
Speaker 2: Okay well you have a great day thank you thank
you bye