Payback

A Thriller

By: Elizabeth Rose Quinn

Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi

For seven inmates, their luxury weekend prison sentence comes with concierge service—and complimentary homicide.

Welcome to Pay to Stay, Los Angeles’s premier minimum-security facility where the privileged serve time Friday to Monday only.

But this New Year’s weekend, seven inmates—including a driven campaign manager, a disgraced nurse, a party girl, and one mysterious male transfer—discover their abusive guard dead, wrapped in an ironic “Community Payback” vest. Now they must solve his murder before their cushy arrangement becomes a permanent stay in maximum security.

As a storm rages outside and the power fails, alliances shift within. With police knocking at their door and an emotional support iguana named Nacho as their witness, these inmates hustle to collect evidence and plan a killer party—all while dodging suspicion. Because someone in this concrete block is a murderer. And everyone is a suspect. But as New Year’s Eve approaches and bodies pile up, these unlikely allies discover that in Pay to Stay, some debts can only be paid in blood.

©2026 by Elizabeth Rose Quinn. (P)2026 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Twisty, funny and sweet!

Loved this surprise of a plot. Just take a chance as it will not be what you expected!

I couldn't figure it out

this was a great book and I'm glad I could listen to it free while I was walking the dog or cleaning. it was certainly interesting; I definitely did not see the ending coming. every time I thought I knew who the killer(s) were, I was wrong. there was even a tiny twist about one of the inmates that was interesting.

Narration is rough

Cool locked room mystery. I read and listened to it. The narrator has a weird cadence that I don’t enjoy. Otherwise it was entertaining.