Happy Release Day!
Congratulation Dan
on the release today of
Open Bar!
Open Bar by Dan Schorr
Political Fiction, Thriller & Suspense, 336 pages
Published August 12, 2025 by SparkPress
When the longtime abuse by a university’s softball coach of teenagers in its youth summer softball program—and the university’s strategic cover-up of those crimes—comes to light, a community is turned upside down in this drama-filled thriller perfect for fans of Kate Elizabeth Russell and Allison Leotta.
Campus, corporate, and local politics collide when a high-profile sexual misconduct scandal rocks a prominent university.
Serena Stanfield, Mountain Hill University’s human resources director, has just learned that the school’s softball coach has been molesting teenagers in its youth summer softball program for years, and that the university has covered it up from both her and the public. Troy Abernathy, a junior associate at an international investigations firm, is navigating a turbulent, toxic workplace as the company aims to be retained by the university to investigate these sexual assault allegations. Megan Black, a new member of the Mountain Hill City Council, is thrust into the fallout from the national scandal while she simultaneously focuses on securing a presidential commutation for her childhood friend, who is unfairly facing decades in prison after stabbing her abusive husband to death in self-defense.
As additional disturbing details of the coach’s actions are uncovered, Serena, Troy, Megan, and other prominent community figures confront competing interests and unique obstacles while they each pursue different paths toward obtaining justice for the softball program’s sexual abuse survivors—and offer conflicting understandings of what justice would even mean.
My thoughts about Open Bar ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First lines—"Age doesn't matter. Especially with someone as mature as you."
Open Bar is a timely and compelling look at the way some of our society has evolved. A university scandal to cover up campus sexual assaults eventually separates the good guys from the bad ones, but not before a lot of people become involved, with some ultimately being threatened.
I didn't know a whole lot about this book going into it but I found it to be full of interesting characters, again some good, some not, and a relevant-to-our-time storyline. I learned a lot about the innerworkings of sexual misconduct investigations, with the author's experience in the field being very apparent in the storytelling.
Open Bar is an riveting, eye-opening story that drew me in from the start. I enjoyed it immensely, if it's possible to enjoy a story of this subject matter. Trigger warning: sexual assault. If that won't be an issue, then I recommend Open Bar. It will probably open your eyes a little bit like it did mine.
I received an ARC of Open Bar and this is my honest opinion.
***************************
About the author
Dan Schorr is a sexual misconduct investigator at his firm, Dan Schorr, LLC, and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School. Previously, he served as a New York sex crimes prosecutor, the Inspector General for the City of Yonkers, and an adjunct law professor with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He has been a television legal analyst for Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News Channel, Law & Crime network, and elsewhere.
Schorr lives in Rye Brook, New York with his wife and two children. His debut novel Final Table was the Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Literary Fiction. Open Bar is his second novel. ~ Amazon
Connect with Dan
*********************
