A Bright Young Man — Mark Atley

The past isn't something you can forget, walk away from, or ignore. It connects us all and has secrets, truths, and debts.But all debts have to be paid and secrets have a pesky way of coming out.Stuntman Charlie McQueen owes money to a gangster but just as time is running out to pay, Charlie receives an offer to return home to make a new movie playing his previous boss from his previous life but it also means facing his past and that is something that scares even a stuntman.Bookmaker Ernesto worked for another gangster, but now works for the new one and Charlie is a blight on his books. The gangster sends Ernesto with some help to encourage Charlie to pay back his debts. But the help is a hitman who loves movies named Angelo, and Ernesto isn't sure he wants the gangster's brand of help.Meanwhile, movie producer River has found a story to put her career on top, her own. River knows her family secret. The man who her mother claimed was her father was actually killed by her true biological father. River feels she grew up in a lie, but if everything goes as planned, she'll succeed in rubbing the lie in the faces closest to her.Zeke, River's biological father, River's mother, and the sheriff who investigated the unsolved murder of JB Tenniel, Art are consultants for River's movie that is being filmed at the Tenniel Ranch, 130,000 acres in the heart of Osage County, OK. And when everyone comes home to shoot the movie, so too does the past, leaving the characters asking, can people change who they are?A Bright Young Man is based on a real unsolved murder that occurred in Osage County, Oklahoma.