This left me more emotional than I expected. Most of the story is told with an underlying wit and sarcasm. By the end we are reminded that this was a woman who lost her life. In a sense it plays with the conflict of liking true crime--the stories can be interesting but in the end, those are real people experiencing truly horrific things. Yes, this is fiction, and overall the plot is a fairly standard domestic thriller. Something about that ending though, just struck a chord with me in the best way.

This heckin chonker took me forever to read but it was worth every page. Expertly plotted and developed, it had twists and turns through the end. A long but engaging read.

I love the setting and the mystery was fun and exciting. Julia Buckley's writing is also lovely.

Wow there is so much I want to say about this book but it spoils things. This is an awesome horror novel for a book club. Lots to dissect. I will leave you with a five word review:

depraved, macabre, grotesque, thoughtful, delightful

In this installment Joe Pickett is dealing with something that appears a bit supernatural--crop circles, alien conspiracies, etc. It felt a little bit off beat for a Joe Pickett novel, but I think this is probably something a game warden has to deal with at least once in their career. The Pickett family has made a home in my heart. I love them so much. The end of this book was also action-packed and intense with lots of exciting twists and turns.

There is a lot that happened in this one. Overall, I think this is one that a lot of different readers will enjoy. I had a couple of personal annoyances that are more of a "me" issue than a book issue. First, I think it is not super plausible that in every installment, someone Claire knows is arrested for the murder. Second, Coyle uses the word "youths" to describe young adults and it was just kind of cringe for me. lol

I think this is over-hyped. I liked most of the story but not the execution. It felt a bit like Ana Huang wanted to cram every popular theme, trope or scene type into this one story which affected believability. There were significant pacing issues and Alex was under-developed. I probably won't continue this series.

I enjoy this series. It is starting to fall into one of those common cozy mystery issues where you begin to wonder how many murders can happen in one small town. If I suspend my disbelief on that, I have a good time reading these books. I love the Amish setting and getting to learn more about Amish communities. And Jethro the pig is just too cute.

Listen, poetry is not my expertise but these chilled me (check trigger warnings). She says this is not about MGK but this is absolutely about MGK. She needs to get out of this relationship before he kills her. She needs to get out of this relationship before these poems are used as evidence when he's on trial for her murder. I'm legitimately scared for her.

This is probably my least favorite book in the series. There was a bit more trauma and conflict in this one than I like in this type of story, but overall a good installment in the series.