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The Paper Trail
A small town is trapped in a decades-long death spiral caused by dark secrets that have long been forgotten, ignored, or denied. The arrival of an enigmatic stranger tears open old wounds, forcing the people to face the grim truth about the town’s past while confronting spirits that many would rather stay buried. The task of unraveling the mystery and freeing the town from its misery falls to the County Sheriff, a single mother who recently arrived with her teenage daughter and has no idea of the horrors they will face over the next twenty-four hours.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2025
9 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
D.J. MacHale
107 books2,352 followersD.J. MacHale is a writer, director, executive producer and creator of several popular television series and movies.
He was raised in Greenwich, CT and graduated from Greenwich High School. While in school, he had several jobs including collecting eggs at a poultry farm, engraving sports trophies and washing dishes in a steakhouse...in between playing football and running track. D.J. then attended New York University where he received a BFA in film production.
His filmmaking career began in New York where he worked as a freelance writer/director, making corporate videos and television commercials. He also taught photography and film production.
D.J. broke into the entertainment business by writing several ABC Afterschool Specials. After moving to Los Angeles, he made the fulltime switch from informational films, to entertainment. As co-creator of the popular Nickelodeon series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?, he produced all 91 episodes over 8 years. He wrote and directed many of the episodes including the CableAce nominated The Tale of Cutter's Treasure starring Charles S. Dutton. He was nominated for a Gemini award for directing The Tale of the Dangerous Soup starring Neve Campbell.
D.J. also wrote and directed the movie Tower of Terror for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney which starred Kirsten Dunst and Steve Guttenberg. The Showtime series Chris Cross was co-created, written and produced by D.J. It received the CableAce award for Best Youth Series.
D.J. co-created and produced the Discovery Kids series Flight 29 Down for which he writes all the episodes and directs several. His work on Flight 29 Down has earned him both Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America award nominations.
Other notable writing credits include the classic ABC Afterschool Special titled Seasonal Differences; the pilot for the long-running PBS/CBS series Ghostwriter; and the HBO series Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective for which he received a CableAce nomination for writing.
In print, D.J. has co-written the book The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, based on his own teleplay and penned the poetic adaptation of the classic Norwegian folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
The book series: Pendragon - Journal of an Adventure through Time and Space marks D.J.'s first turn as a novelist. He plans for this series of Young Adult adventures to span a total of 10 books.
D.J. lives in Southern California with his wife Evangeline and daughter Keaton. They are avid backpackers, scuba divers and skiers. Rounding out the household are a Golden Retriever, Maggie; and a Kitten, Kaboodle.
He was raised in Greenwich, CT and graduated from Greenwich High School. While in school, he had several jobs including collecting eggs at a poultry farm, engraving sports trophies and washing dishes in a steakhouse...in between playing football and running track. D.J. then attended New York University where he received a BFA in film production.
His filmmaking career began in New York where he worked as a freelance writer/director, making corporate videos and television commercials. He also taught photography and film production.
D.J. broke into the entertainment business by writing several ABC Afterschool Specials. After moving to Los Angeles, he made the fulltime switch from informational films, to entertainment. As co-creator of the popular Nickelodeon series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?, he produced all 91 episodes over 8 years. He wrote and directed many of the episodes including the CableAce nominated The Tale of Cutter's Treasure starring Charles S. Dutton. He was nominated for a Gemini award for directing The Tale of the Dangerous Soup starring Neve Campbell.
D.J. also wrote and directed the movie Tower of Terror for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney which starred Kirsten Dunst and Steve Guttenberg. The Showtime series Chris Cross was co-created, written and produced by D.J. It received the CableAce award for Best Youth Series.
D.J. co-created and produced the Discovery Kids series Flight 29 Down for which he writes all the episodes and directs several. His work on Flight 29 Down has earned him both Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America award nominations.
Other notable writing credits include the classic ABC Afterschool Special titled Seasonal Differences; the pilot for the long-running PBS/CBS series Ghostwriter; and the HBO series Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective for which he received a CableAce nomination for writing.
In print, D.J. has co-written the book The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, based on his own teleplay and penned the poetic adaptation of the classic Norwegian folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
The book series: Pendragon - Journal of an Adventure through Time and Space marks D.J.'s first turn as a novelist. He plans for this series of Young Adult adventures to span a total of 10 books.
D.J. lives in Southern California with his wife Evangeline and daughter Keaton. They are avid backpackers, scuba divers and skiers. Rounding out the household are a Golden Retriever, Maggie; and a Kitten, Kaboodle.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 10, 2025
Another amazing book by my favorite author. I'm not really a big fan of paranormal or mystery books but this one was fantastic! highly recommend!
February 26, 2026
Wow! What a fantastic book! First off, the writing is fantastic, it's compelling, draws you in and keeps you invested. Love how he creates characters and how specific they are - there is a whole town of characters in this book and you have no problem keeping them apart, they are all so unique and well-drawn. Second, the story. It's so smart, and delves into so many deep things about life, death, and doing what's right. Third, the surprises! So many times I was completely surprised by the twist the book would take. Really one of the best books I've read in a long time.
August 2, 2025
This was far from my favorite DJ Machale book but because he is one of my favorite authors, I still decided to give this book a 5* rating.
This is a supernatural mystery book and there is a short excerpt of it in Beyond Midnight. I didn’t like the characters as much, especially Darcey, whom I felt was very sassy and entitled. But overall this was a good book and I am happy I was able to read another of his masterpieces
This is a supernatural mystery book and there is a short excerpt of it in Beyond Midnight. I didn’t like the characters as much, especially Darcey, whom I felt was very sassy and entitled. But overall this was a good book and I am happy I was able to read another of his masterpieces
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews