New-to-me author and I have to say, it did not disappoint. This is outside my usual genre and it took me a minute to get into simply because I had to force my brain to make the switch. Once I did, I couldn’t put it down. The final 20 chapters flew by like it was nothing. Tina gets an ominous phone call from her brother that sends her into a search for answers and the unraveling of everything she thought was the truth. It’s suspenseful, intriguing, and downright twisted. But as you unravel the truth with Tina, you’ll find truths she never saw coming and they’ll be coming from everywhere. Well-written, engaging, and kept me guessing right to the very end (which is often hard to do)!

I requested this book because the cover was very intriguing to me. I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller. With family secrets and a messy family it was great.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an arc!

I was initially very pulled into this book, wanting to know where Tina’s brother was, and what was going on with her husband and the late night phone call. After awhile, I found myself uninterested and just wanting to find out the ending and how it all connects together. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t the best I’ve read.

I was really drawn into this book at the start and had high expectations. It was gripping and suspenseful. Unfortunately, as the book went on, I found it drawn out and became quit disengaged. I found the ending disappointing and a little confusing. Although I didn't really enjoy this book, I am sure that others will.

Tina, an EMT, has been dealing with family trauma thanks to her father as well as with her brother's addiction for years. She's just about had it but then, just one more time,she says. And when she gets to the Brooklyn house where he's been crashing, she finds the dead body of Jake, a PI. And then she gets a text that says "ssh," And why has Jake been in contact with her husband? Great set up, to be sure, and Narozny does a good job of parceling out the back story, as well as creating Tina. It's a workman like entry into the genre- but I'd like to see more of Tina, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Set in New York, Not By Blood by Chris Narozny is his debut solo crime novel. One night, Tina Evans gets a cry for help from her brother but she is unable to locate him in the drug house in Brooklyn. Instead, she discovers the body of a private detective hidden in the building’s rubbish pile. As she is about to call emergency services, she receives a text telling her to keep quiet. That same night, her husband is involved in a hit and run as Tina’s world is turned upside. Trying to find her missing brother, she discovers several phone calls between the dead PI and her comatose husband. As the police’s interest in her grows, she begins to realise that all is not as it seems with her loved ones. A nicely-paced twisted crime thriller with plenty of surprises that makes for a classy, do not miss four and a half stars read rating. With thanks to Crooked Lane Books and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

The synopsis on this book sounded really good and just the sort of book I would really enjoy reading! I was sadly disappointed and I struggled to finish it. I wouldn’t recommend this book.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The synopsis of this book sounded like it was going to be right up my alley. I think this is a case of "I need to lower my expectations". While the beginning did start off strong, it felt like the plot moved along at a snails pace. I kept waiting for something to happen rather than being smacked in the face with theories from the MC. She started off by lying to the police and I feel like half of the things that happened could have been avoided if she wouldn't have done that. I am sick and tired of characters being deceitful only to end up in what feels like a predictable "twist" that, if you were paying attention, wasn't all that surprising. Overall I feel like the plot had major potential but not enough happened to warrant a full length novel.

Are we all stuck in other people’s stories, having them define who we are? Even to ourselves?

Nothing is how Tina thought it was. Nobody is who they are supposed to be, least of all her.

When she gets a call from her brother in the dead of night, it seems like all the others that have come before. He’s holed up in some stash house and needs his big sister to come to the rescue. But when she gets there, he is nowhere to be found. She does however stumble across a dead guy, and it doesn’t look like natural causes.

Just as she’s about to dial 911, she gets a text that reads “Shhhh…”

After searching through her brother’s things, Tina decides to go home and regroup before beginning her search in earnest. But things at home are not how she left them. Her husband has been the victim of a hit and run, after he too snuck out in the middle of the night without notifying his spouse.

From the moment Tina gets into a cab to meet her brother until the final page, the author amps up the tension one agonizing notch at a time, leaving the reader to keep up a dizzying pace so as not to miss a thing!

Tina Evans is woken up in the middle of the night by a frantic phone call from her brother. Nothing new for Tina, she's been bailing her brother out of jams for most of her life. But this time is different, when she arrives at the drug den that he called her from, Bill isn't there. From here begins a search for her brother and possibly solve a murder along the way.

Tina does some crazy stuff I wouldn't agree with but all in the name of saving her brother. Along the way, Tina has to deal her husband in the hospital in a coma. She has so many questions an isn't getting the answers she needs.

There are a lot of twists and turns and the ending is one great one. Tina is a strong character, something I relish.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

NOT BY BLOOD was a twisty thriller told in the first person by Tina Evans. The story starts with a phone call from her drug addict brother asking for her help. By the time she gets to his flop, Bill is missing but the body of a private detective is there for her to find. Calling 911 isn't an option until she finds out where her brother is and what his role was in the scene she walks in on.

Before she can decide what to do, she gets a text that just says Shhhh... Next there is a phone call telling her that her philanthropist husband has been hit by a car and is in surgery. She goes home, drops her six-year-old with her foster brother, and heads off to the hospital where she is confronted by a police detective who wants to know where she was and what she knows about her husband's accident.

She lies and then begins a marathon search for her brother which involves contacting her father who has been in prison for the past twenty years convicted of murdering his wife over a dime bag of drugs.

This twisty tale is full of all sorts of secrets from one her husband has never told her to what really happened when her mother died. Tina keeps discovering that those she thought she knew the best were still managing to hide major things from her.

Tina was an interesting character. She was an EMT, her brother's would-be savior, the wife of a millionaire, and so many more things. She was also locked into her past traumas even though she thought she had moved on.

Fans of twisty psychological suspense will enjoy this story.

“I’d decided a long time ago that no one would ever take Bill from me again. Bill wasn’t just my brother— he was the only person I’d always known. Every other familiar face disappeared twenty years ago, the day our father killed our mother.”

“The bottom’s never as far from the top as it appears.”

‘Not By Blood’ is a debut psychological thriller from Chris Narozny, a ghostwriter who has coauthored four New York Times bestsellers with James Patterson.

This book definitely had the mystery and suspense, the twists and turns and a satisfying ending, but the language turned me off a bit. I guess considering several of the characters are criminals and drug addicts it makes sense for their characters, but it’s just something I personally don’t care for.

The basic premise of the book is this:

Tina Evans, paramedic, gets a distress call from her drug addict brother, Bill. Not an uncommon occurrence. But when she shows up at his place he is not there. Instead there is a body, dead by gunshot and Bill’s sketchbook that he never goes anywhere without.

Fiercely protective of her brother Tina decides to get to the bottom of it and find her brother before bringing the police in.

Then she gets an anonymous text message that says ‘Shhh…’ Is she being watched?

Things get worse when that very same night she gets a call that her wealthy developer/architect husband, Tom, has been in a bad car accident—when he’s supposed to be home watching their son— and is in a coma.

Tina’s world is turned upside down as she is torn between finding her brother, being there for her husband and son, and realizing some of the people closest to her have been telling lies. Plus the past comes back to haunt her as she discovers she must visit her father in prison.

Who can she trust?

“Tom and Bill gone in a span of hours, connected by a dead private detective. No such thing as coincidence.”

For the most part I enjoyed the book. There were parts of it I figured out early on, but I still thought Narozny did a good job of weaving the story and clues together.

It was a really fast read at only 277 pages so it’s a low-commitment book.

One thing I thought Narozny could have done a better job with was his descriptions. The action and suspense begins immediately— which I like— but I realized halfway through the book that I didn’t feel like I could picture the characters very well. I still am not sure what Tina looks like.

The book is more plot-driven than character-driven but it still seems weird that I can’t envision who I’m reading about.

Maybe that’s partly why I didn’t feel connected to the characters much and didn’t find them likeable. Tina definitely experienced some trauma in her life, but it was hard to see where she was resilient to her past and where she was still influenced in a negative way.

Last comment: I like the book cover image and the title. That helped with the intrigue and had made me interested in reading it.

Recommendation

If you can get past the language, this is a decent psychological thriller read that won’t take up too much of your time.

This book didn’t blow me away, but I may be interested in reading his next book just for the plot creation. But if it’s full of seedy characters like this one, I may not.

[Content Advisory: 29 f- and 48 s-words in the second half; drug use; no sexual content]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

For a debut author, this wasn't too bad. Fast, quick-paced read, no real surprises. Looking forward to seeing what this author comes up with next.

Thank you #netgalley and #crookedlanebooks for the eARC.

Tina Evans doesn’t take her brother Bill’s phone in the middle of the night seriously since she has been answering his calls of worry for the past 20 years, ever since the day their father murdered their mother. This call at first looks to be the same as all the others: Bill is trapped in a Brooklyn drug den and needs her to rescue him. However, her brother is unable to be found when Tina arrives. Instead, she finds a private investigator’s body buried in the backyard garbage pile. His pistol is no longer in its holster, and he has been fatally shot. As Tina prepares to call 911, she receives the following three-letter text message from an unknown number: “Shh…” The death of this detective and the disappearance of her brother must be connected, according to Tina, who disbelieves in coincidences. Yet how? Could her father be controlling things from his cell in prison? And is she prepared to jeopardize both her life and her freedom to find the truth?

Although the plot moved quickly, I did predict how it would finish. I had reservations about what was happening, but there was no evidence to support them. This was a masterful maneuver by the author to keep me reading and wondering whether or not my suspicions were warranted. It was solid with lots of twists and turns, and it started a little slowly before picking up the pace. This suspense was good for the popcorn. It fulfills all of my needs and then some. I found it a little sluggish at first and then seemed like everything was dumped at me all at once since it was simply a mystery with no answers until the very end.

It was a fantastic debut. I stayed up late reading this one because I had to know how things turned out. The past and present are intertwined, which gives the reader hints along the way. The narrative took some time to establish all the characters, layers, and history, but once it did, the author took me on a thrilling trip until the very end as she peeled back layer after layer. The characters are intricate and well-rounded. Many people have experienced trauma of some kind, and we can observe the various ways trauma may influence a person. I consider this to be extremely well done.

This was an ok book. It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t bad. It was just ok. It started out strong. It got a bit dull in the middle and picked up again towards the end. I felt like the POV could’ve been done a bit differently and made it easier to follow. One complaint that I’ll always have when it involves talk of prison staff they’re not “guards” they’re correctional officers. They were referenced as CO’s most of the time. That’s appropriate, but there was reference to “guard” as well. The name Aiden and a character Alden was awkward considering all of the other options for character names. I’d recommend to friends if they asked about the book, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to say it’s a MUST READ.

I just reviewed Not By Blood by Chris Narozny. #NotByBlood #NetGalley

2.5 Stars

Sadly this book did not work out for me. This is a book about a sister trying to find her brother after getting a text asking for help. When she goes to look for him in his normal spot, she finds a different man dead. Soon after her husband is involved in a hit and run. Tina is trying to unravel her life and try to figure out if her husband had something to do with her brothers disappearance.

It is refreshing to come across a thriller that is fairly short and made it a fairly quick read. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with the characters and found myself regularly having to re-read sections of the book as I was lost in what was happening.

Although this book was not for me, I think it will be really enjoyed by others. Especially with the short length, it could be a summer beach read you could easily pick up and read it in one sitting. Being a debut novel Chris Narozny showed a lot of potential for future thriller books.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

I really struggled to get into this one. It just didn't pull me in. I did not feel connected to the characters or the storyline. I do think others will love it but it just wasn't for me.

It’s Thriller Thursday !

I have in my possession one of the most coveted books of the year …. Not By Blood .

Super creepy . I mean it’s a book surrounding death .

I am SO about this … 🤣🤣🤣

This book is EVERYTHING . Everything I thought it would be and just so much more.

Be prepared to watch this one break the internet

Teaser :

When Tina Evans gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night, she doesn’t think much of it; she’s been fielding distress calls from Bill for the last twenty years, ever since the day their father killed their mother.

At first, this call seems just like all the others: Bill’s holed up in a Brooklyn drug den and needs her to come rescue him. But when Tina gets there, her brother’s nowhere to be found. Instead, she discovers the body of a private detective hidden in the junk heap out back. He’s been shot to death, and his gun is missing from its holster.

Tina’s about to dial 911 when she receives a three-letter text message from a number she doesn’t recognize: “Shh...”

Tina doesn’t believe in coincidence—the death of this detective and her brother’s disappearance must be related. But how? Could it be her father pulling the strings from his prison cell? And is she willing to risk her own freedom—and her life—to uncover the truth?

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC, in exchange for an honest review. Quite the ride! Very cinematic in scope and very much had been guessing till the very end. I want more!

Not by Blood is a standalone debut thriller by author, Chris Narozny. A story of childhood trauma, family relationships and the questions we ask about how well we really know those who are our ‘blood’. Tina and her biological brother, Bill faced in childhood something that no child should have to. Their father was convicted of murdering their mother and Tina was sent to live with a foster family and Bill, a group home. Years later, Tina’s search to find her missing brother might uncover more than she bargained for. This one was a quick read and the pace fast moving. The story took a little bit to set up all the characters, layers and backstory but then what unfolded was a gripping ride to the end as the author peeled back layer after layer until the very end leaving me shook. I enjoyed this chilling family mystery and would read more by this author.