True-Crime Podcaster Jaime Parker Stickle Returns With a Modern Detective Thriller [Exclusive]

Lovers of all things true crime may recognize Jaime Parker Stickle best for her popular podcast The Girl With the Same Name, following her as she digs into the violent chilly case of the similarly named Jamie Stickle, both to learn why she never saw justice and to redefine her legacy as more than a victim. However, the host is so much more than one compelling show. She’s a multi-hyphenate storyteller, working as an actor, professor, and novelist to weave compelling yarns both fictional and factual. Last year saw the debut of her first book, Vicious Cycle, marking the beginning of a series of detective crime thrillers centered on former reporter and up-to-date mother Corey Tracey-Lieberman. So successful was the up-to-date take on the genre that she’s already back with her next intrigue-filled installment.

Take Hart catches Corey at a tumultuous time in life, torn between “her LAPD consulting gig, fledgling indie news blog, and postpartum panic disorder.” Then, just when she thinks she can’t take anymore, she learns of another mother from the Highland Park neighborhood, Sonja Hart, who has vanished without a trace with little reaction from the public or law enforcement. Filled with a righteous maternal fury, her investigative instincts kick back in, and she resolves to get answers herself. That’s easier said than done, though, as she quits taking her anxiety medication to see everything clearly and employs whatever connections and ins she has at her disposal. All the while, Corey grapples with the failings of her marriage and the feelings she has for her investigative partner and brings her baby along for the ride while examining curious house fires, up-to-date neighbors, and more. When the killer turns their sights toward her, however, the personal stakes become much higher.

With the book’s release just around the corner, Collider is excited to exclusively share the first excerpt from Take Hart that sees Corey bending the rules a bit to chase a lead. Many of the most compelling detectives in fiction, from Sherlock Holmes to Miss Marple and television favorites like Adrian Monk, aren’t afraid to step onto the murkier side of the law or go outside of norms to get results, and Stickle’s sleuth is no exception, using her boss’ absence at Cyclone Spin Studio to her advantage. She first scours through Sonja Hart’s profile on Facebook to find a friend with a concrete connection she can employ. One of them, Anne Silva, happens to have been a customer at the Spin Studio, allowing her to dive into client data for information. That does not sit well with her boss when she walks in and wants to know what Corey is up to, though.

Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz
Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most?
Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek

Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🚀Star Wars

💍Lord of the Rings

🧙Harry Potter

👑Game of Thrones

🖖Star Trek

FIND YOUR UNIVERSE →

01

What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning?
Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.

ABeing part of something larger than myself — a cause, a rebellion, a fight for freedom that outlasts me.
BThe journey itself — the places I’ll go, the companions beside me, the world I’ll discover on the way.
CLearning — unlocking what I’m capable of, understanding the world’s hidden mechanics, growing into something more.
DLegacy — the name I leave behind, the power I build, the mark I make before the world moves on without me.
EUnderstanding — exploring what exists beyond the horizon and asking what it means to be alive in a universe this extensive.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit?
The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.

AA galaxy of planets, each with its own culture — connected by conflict, trade, and the Force.
BAncient lands of breathtaking beauty, deep history, and a creeping darkness at the edges.
CA world hidden inside our own — full of wonder, community, and magic waiting to be learned.
DA brutal, attractive continent where power is everything and every alliance is a calculation.
EA future where humanity has reached the stars — and must decide what kind of species it wants to be.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

How do you prefer your conflicts resolved?
The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.

AThrough sacrifice and courage — someone has to make the impossible choice so others don’t have to.
BThrough fellowship — the impossible becomes possible when the right people walk the same road.
CThrough growth — confronting what you fear, understanding what you lack, and becoming equal to the challenge.
DThrough strategy — outthinking, outmaneuvering, positioning yourself so the outcome was never in doubt.
EThrough dialogue — finding the third option, the peaceful resolution, the answer that doesn’t require a body count.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

Who do you want beside you when things get challenging?
Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.

AA petite crew — a pilot, a rogue, a warrior — each broken in their own way, unbeatable together.
BA fellowship of different kinds of people, bound by purpose and deepened by the long road.
CFriends who grew up alongside me — who knew me before I knew myself, and stayed anyway.
DAllies whose loyalty I’ve earned — and tested — and whose ambitions align with mine, for now.
EA crew of brilliant, curious, principled people from every corner of known space.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

What is your relationship with power?
How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.

AI want to employ it to protect — and I’m terrified of what I might become if I’m not careful.
BI distrust it. The most significant power in this story is the courage to give it up.
CI want to earn it — through knowledge, through effort, through becoming someone worthy of it.
DI want to wield it. Preferably before someone else decides to wield it against me.
EI want to understand it — its structures, its limits, its ethical dimensions. Power without accountability is the real threat.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

How does your universe treat good and evil?
A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.

AThere is a gloomy side and a lightweight side — and the choice between them is always present, always personal.
BEvil is real and old and patient — and goodness, however petite, is the only thing that can undo it.
CGood and evil are real, but they live inside people — and people are complicated, always capable of both.
DGood and evil are mostly a matter of perspective and proximity. Power is the only straightforward currency.
EEvil is usually the result of ignorance, fear, or broken systems — and understanding it is the first step to solving it.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What role would you naturally fall into?
Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?

AThe reluctant hero — ordinary origins, extraordinary moment, changed forever by the choice to act.
BThe unlikely carrier — the one nobody expected to matter most, quietly bearing the weight of everything.
CThe student — not yet who I’ll become, learning through every mistake, growing into something the world needs.
DThe player — pointed enough to see the game for what it is, ambitious enough to try to win it.
EThe explorer — drawn to the unknown, driven by curiosity, most alive when standing somewhere no one has stood before.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What do you ultimately believe about the future?
The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.

AThat hope is real — that even in the darkest galaxy, a up-to-date hope is always possible.
CThat even the smallest person can change the course of the future, if they have the courage to try.
CThat love and friendship and doing what’s right will matter in the end, even when everything says otherwise.
DThat the wheel keeps turning — that power shifts, winters end, and what endures is those willing to fight for it.
EThat humanity — or whatever we become — is capable of extraordinary things, if we choose to be.

REVEAL MY UNIVERSE →

Your Universe Has Been Chosen
You Belong In…

Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars

You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is extensive.

• You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
• You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
• Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
• The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to employ it for something larger than yourself certainly is.

Middle-earth

Lord of the Rings

You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.

• Middle-earth is a world of old wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough petite acts of courage accumulate.
• You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
• Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something bulky across a very long distance.
• Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.

The Wizarding World

Harry Potter

You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.

• The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
• You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
• Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
• That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.

Westeros · The Known World

Game of Thrones

You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You employ it.

• Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
• You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
• Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are pointed enough to know which one lasts longer.
• Winter always comes. You are already prepared.

The United Federation of Planets

Star Trek

You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.

• Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
• You would belong here because you are fundamentally bullish about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being straightforward about how demanding that achievement is.
• The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
• You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Read an Excerpt From ‘Take Hart: A Thriller’ From Jaime Parker Stickle

A woman pulling down her sunglasses and glancing to her right amid a city backdrop on the cover of Take HartImage via Thomas & Mercer

The passage is a glimpse into nearly all aspects of Corey’s life and how her sleuthing inevitably interferes with them. In particular, it’s a showcase of her willingness to accept risk and jeopardize her current reality for answers. What makes Take Hart and the wider Corey in Los Angeles series stand out is how it’s not as interested in larger-than-life detective mythmaking as much as portraying a mother whose penchant for justice often intertwines with her need to care for her child and herself. Like The Girl With the Same Name, it’s also a reminder of the startling lack of attention for women caught up in violent crimes and disappearances as anything more than victims. Of course, Stickle’s story also doesn’t lack a bit of lightweight humor to balance the character-focused drama along the way.

Below, you can find the entire excerpt, detailing her efforts to find answers from the moment she strolls into work with her baby, Jacob, to when her boss catches her violating countless privacy laws.

I park Jacob in his stroller at the front desk next to me but don’t see Monique. I take the opportunity and log in to the computer. I log in to my phony Facebook account and search for Sonja Hart. I’m looking for a connection to the missing woman that isn’t Chris. I find Sonja’s profile and click through her petite list of friends—a task that I had bailed on earlier this morning… only 126 friends, and none of them is Chris.

I look at Jacob in his stroller and ask, “Jacob, how is your biscuit?” He slaps the tray of his stroller with glee. “Is it okay we’re here at Mommy’s work?” I ask. One day he’ll be able to answer, and I’m not totally ready for what that answer will be. At the moment he’s cherishing his biscuit.

I look back to the computer screen and start clicking on each person.

I get lucky on number eleven. Los Angeles is a large city, but a very petite world, and Highland Park is basically a giant high school. There it is, a woman that has checked into classes at the Cyclone Spin Studio is, minimally, Facebook friends with Sonja Hart—Anne Silva. She hasn’t left any comment on the missing-person post.

I log out of Facebook and into the Cyclone client portal to look up the woman that knows Sonja Hart. I scroll to Silva, Anne.

“Lieberman, you’re early,” Monique, brief for Monica, says. She moves past Jacob’s stroller and slips behind the desk where I’m reviewing client information on the computer.

“What are you doing, looking up client files?”

Monique will never not be on my case about my work. My life, my style, my baby. She’s twenty-eight, dates warm women, and pulls off a grunge, rocker vibe better than I’m pulling off the mom vibe. She is also my boss, and I like her.

“Do you know Anne Silva?” I scroll through the previous week’s schedule to see when Anne comes to the studio. She is clearly not a regular because I go back three weeks and can’t find her signed in to a single class, but we make everyone fill out paperwork, thank god. I can’t say I remember her name from ever being her instructor, and I remember everyone’s name and face, always. Which tells me she’s not a morning workout girlie either. She probably came once—to take advantage of our first-class-is-free offer.

“Lieberman, what are you doing?”

“Just checking when was the last time a client came to class.” “Stop.”

“She may know something about a missing woman. I need to find where she lives.”

“Lieberman! You can’t look people up in the system for your reporter work. It violates a million privacy laws. I’m going to lock you out of the system.” She presses the button, and the monitor goes black. “I should fire you.”

“I’m done, sorry.” I have enough information to find her.

Take Hart hits store shelves on August 4, but pre-orders are open now on major retailers like Amazon and Target. In addition to the excerpt, check out the official cover above.