Holy cow! This book is a non-stop ride that ends in a way I never saw coming! Once again, I was intrigued because it sounded like a good mystery story. I was not disappointed. I did not realize that this is the second book in a series but I didn't find it hard to follow along anyway. As far as I knew it was a standalone. Honestly the way this book ended I am glad to find out it is a series.

The deeply flawed but intrepid Laura Chambers, from the "dark and vivid rabbit hole" (David Bell) of a thriller Last Girl Gone, finds herself lost in the deadly webs of small town secrets as she hunts for the truth about her father, who mysteriously disappeared several years ago.

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Laura's presence is a reminder of a dark past in this little town. Her dad's PTSD contributed by Vietnam and his connection with the family killed is a dispatch of clues but connecting the dots becomes tedious and his disappearance creates an edge of the seat thriller. The Merrit's little girl, Emily, was one of Laura's closet friends, but after their murder, they were never to mention Emily's existence in their house again.

Do not even try to guess what is going to happen in this one - you will be wrong. This book twists and turns so often you will be dizzy - in a good way! Absolutely loved it John Marrs. All the stars from me. Out May 15th

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Some of the twists are guessable if you read between the li(n)es but most took me completely by surprise. The ending was hard to stomach but also brilliant. I thought I had daddy issues, but I obviously haven’t met Nina. She keeps her mum, Maggie, chained and isolated in the attic of their house as some sort of punishment her mum has to pay for the unforgivable things she did—or at least, what Nina believes Maggie has done. As she digs into the mystery of the woman’s identity and death, Laura discovers that she was running from a deadly pursuer who now has Laura in his sights. Soon she begins to uncover long buried secrets from the past involving her own family and the reason why the father she loved left her in the year before he died. The highlight is the author’s use of language. There is some beautiful writing in the book and that’s what made me want to keep reading.

At times, Maggie questions her past actions. Most of the time she knows that she did what she had to do.I would like to thank @netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for sending me an advance copy of “What Lies Beneath” by J. G. Heatherton. This is the second in a series with the reporter Laura Chambers as protagonist. I have not read the first book in the series, but this book builds on the hostility Laura suffers from the sheriff’s office in the wake of her apparent responsibility for the death of a well-liked police officer. The book opens with the death of a fleeing girl who called Laura just minutes before the girl was killed. Laura failed to take the call—and she fails to recognize the girl, whose face is too mutilated for recognition. It is only when Laura finds a photograph of her father, herself, and a little girl that she had thought was a false memory that Laura begins to remember some of the shadows in her family’s past. Other scholars have praised the book as a compelling synthesis of academic thinking written for a general audience. Kevin Murphy, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, has called “Hidden Games” a “fascinating book,” in which Hoffman and Yoeli, as he has put it, “show time and again that many types of human behavior which seem inconsistent with consciously rational behavior can be understood once we realize that those same forces are operating below the surface.” Regardless of the plot being predictable, it’s in the details (of the charaters’ conditions, what’s happened to them in the last 25 years) that make the believability of the whole story rather low. It’s simply too convenient to be realistic.

The main character, Cassie, has gone through so much; it was a crazy, painful ride but she came out as such a strong heroine and I'm such a fan! Her story made me rethink about what I'm doing with my life and how I can make a difference in the world. But the absolute peak of Cassie's stupidity comes, when she begins to unravel the mystery of Mike. So imagine you found a video of your fiance, beating up a woman and ultimately killing her by slashing her throat. Would you call the police, hand over the tape and try to make sure this man is stopped? Probably, right? Sounds like the right thing to do. Cassie? Well, she decides to hang out in a hotel and call Mike to let him explain this video to her and is actually falling for his lie that this is all staged. Really. Really?! Come TF on! How ridiculously gullible, stupid and ignorant do you have to be? And how can you be surprised, if your fiance, who is a detective, finds out where you are staying? I mean come on. You can't brag about what an absolutely great detective he is and then not figure out he might find you, if you stay in the local hotel.... At this point I truly could not stand this person anymore. It was impossible for me to try to enjoy anything about this story, because I could not get over my hatred for so much stupidity. Recovering bodies, finding discarded remains, identifying unmarked graves and saving people from locations and situations too dangerous for the normal emergency services - all in a day’s work for Peter Faulding. And sweet Nina, at the end of her thirties, librarian is guardian and judge of her own mother’s slow punishment and execution.So many red herrings and unexpected twists that you will have this read in one setting. It gives you the feeling of discomfort, suspense and a thrill that engages you in a wild chase through a cornfield fighting for Laura's life. The weirdest connection is the guy on death row has my last name.🤣