Setting the Record Straight

by Patrick H. Moore

Sam and Rachel answer a cryptic ad for a ghost writer with discretion. They ingratiate themselves with a pair of veterans who want to write a military tell-all and are willing to pay for their services.

But Sam and Rachel quickly discover that working with dangerous people with trust issues can be a risky proposition…

95 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2023

About the author

PATRICK H. MOORE recently retired after working for 20 years as a Los Angeles based Investigator and Sentencing Mitigation Specialist. During the period, he worked on over 500 drug trafficking, sex crime, violent crime and white collar fraud cases.

Patrick started All Things Crime Blog in 2013. For several years it was one of the most popular crime blogs in America. Patrick studied English Literature and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. While in college, Patrick published numerous short stories and novel excerpts.

More recently, in 2014, he indie-published his first thriller, “Cicero’s Dead,” which was a finalist in the Thriller category in the Beverly Hills Book Award Contest. “27 Days” is Patrick’s first traditionally published novel. It was a finalist in the Thriller category in the 2023 American Fiction Awards. Patrick's next published novel, "Rogues & Patriots," was a finalist in the Thriller category in the 2024 American Fiction Awards. It was also named to the Killer Nashville Judges' Top Pick List in the Thriller category for the 2025 Silver Falchion Awards. Patrick's new Nick Crane thriller, "Giant Steps" will be published on September 29, 2025.

Reviews

[Brian Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick H. Moore's brand-new novella, "Setting the Record Straight," should come with a trigger warning: "This tale of psychological suspense and deception will keep you up late at night, questioning the motives of your friends, acquaintances, and business partners." In other words, it's a great story. This is Moore's contribution to an ongoing series—"A Grifter's Song" (Episode 33, to be exact)—about a pair of charming and slightly seedy grifters named Sam and Rachel. I don't want to summarize the plot here (you need to read the story!), but I loved Moore's portrayal of Sam and Rachel. I enjoyed the Los Angeles setting. The secondary characters—a con man associate, a wannabe writer, and a pair of Iraq war veterans—were fascinating. The plot is a corker, with plenty of suspense and offbeat humor thrown in the mix. A thoroughly enjoyable tale. It's not easy being a grifter. But it's always interesting. And you have to know how to roll with the punches if it all goes sideways, and just move on to the next score.

[P Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick H. Moore, the exciting new author of 27 Days, is back with a humorous and engaging novella called Setting the Record Straight. Moore’s story is Episode 33 in a five-season grifter series starring Sam and Rachel, a couple of diehard veteran grifters looking for their next mark. In this episode, our two heroes decide they are sick of risking their lives executing dangerous and often life-threatening grifts. Instead, they take a job ghostwriting a wartime confessional for a couple of unstable veterans. There's only one problem. Neither Sam nor Rachel are writers; in fact, they barely managed to survive high school. Thinking they are real clever, they hire a student writer-in-training named Theo to ghostwrite the story. Naturally, things go sideways quickly and Sam and Rachel find themselves in great jeopardy stalked by Jed, an irascible and violent PTSD veteran.

Reading Setting the Record Straight is the perfect way to relax and spend a few hours enjoying a great story. Highly recommended.

[Thomas Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grifters, drifters, and shape-shifters.

As the NY Times Magazine once noted, “Grifters are small-time lawbreakers, not the kind of epic liars who leave the wreckage of lives and nations in their wake. They’re not even bad people, per se: They stand outside morality, defying the social binary of good and evil. They tend to pilfer just enough to disrupt but not devastate.”

After reading Patrick H. Moore's story, “Setting the Record Straight (A Grifter's Song Book 33),” I’ve fine-tuned my mental snapshot of dedicated cons, gritty grifters. Small-time lawbreakers? Sure. But Sam and Rachel also emerge from the mist like charming, well-dressed apparitions with an impressive resume. Imagine this professional summary at the top of their CV:

“Versatile interpersonal and communication skills to foster semi-long-lasting relationships with (skilled colleagues and) undiscerning clients. Adept at working independently and with cross-functional teams, with proven track record of transcending sales targets and delivering exceptional (bank-account-draining) service tailored to each customer (a/k/a unwitting donor). Never resort to guns, crowbars, baseball bats, or machetes. Them’s for amateurs.”

I’ll sidestep any spoilers and simply say this. "Setting the Record Straight" is a tale of two longtime ghosts who are hired as ghostwriters, specializing in nonfiction (client autobiographies) and fiction (their own autobiography). As always, they emerge from the mist and return to the mist. With or without the moola.

No wonder these two storytellers got hired. Who could resist their optimized resume? Great fun. I’d love to get swindled by Sam and Rachel. They are the Romeo and Juliet of the moola-relocation world. And, thus far, not the Romeo and Juliet of the Joliet Correctional Center.

[J. Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Patrick Moore's Setting the Record Straight, A Grifter's Song, Episode 33, addictive.(I began reading it at 11:30 PM, after a full day, and couldn't put it down until finishing it.) After a good night's sleep, I reread it. Then several days later, I reread it again to clarify some themes (issues?) in preparation for writing thee comments.

On one level, the story seems straightforward. It describes a partially successful operation by a pair of grifters on a pair of relatively unsophisticated marks. But, on another level, it is much more complicated. The story plays with many interconnected themes and actors: grifters, ghost-writers, trust, unpredictable reactions of protagonists. All the actors (and I use this word advisably) in this drama have differing personal personal interests. Most (all?) of them are running their own "grifts"! Many of the protagonists had pseudonyms.

Setting the Record Straight seems almost self-referential. (The title of the mark's book was Setting the Record Straight.) The plot almost included an owner's manual about how to (1) set up your own grift, (2) how (possible accurate) books are composed in the age of the internet, and (3) how difficult "Trust, but verify" might be now.

Great book! Fast-moving plot and deep ideas.

[Diana2U · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely riveting story! Mr. Moore has outdone himself with this story. The characters are well developed and relatable. The basic premise is that two grifters are looking for their next mark when they see an advertisement looking for a writer to pen a memoir. Thinking they can pull this off the pair recruit a semi grifting graduate student and an old friend to pull off the con. The “mark” are two military men; one an officer and the other a grunt who experienced something tragic while deployed in Afghanistan. The occurrence effected them so much that the felt the only way to remove the horrific memories was to purge themselves of the facts.
All seemingly goes well until their grift is found out. The pair are currently sunning on the beach, until… I’m on tenterhooks waiting for the next installment.
This story is a fascinating page turner. I’m not a fan of military based stories , but found the details interesting enough to keep my interest.