This is the first book that I've read by Trace Buchanan. I believe I will be adding her to my favorite authors! This was a great book with a HUGE twist!

Recently separated from her husband, single mom and radio personality Anna is having a tough time adjusting to her new life. While walking her baby girl Joni along the beach one afternoon Anna is approached by a few teenagers. One particular teenager's behavior is bizarre. Feeling threatened, she does what any mother would do to protect her baby girl.

The media and fellow neighbors being to scrutinize Anna. They question whether or not she intended to hurt one of the boys on purpose or in self defense. As time goes by, Anna receives emails from The Ophelia Killer, a unknown person who stalked and killed teenage boys several years prior. Anna then begins to unearth shocking secrets that have been kept from her and the townspeople.

Full of suspense and relationships that you would never suggest, No Turning Back offers a nice solid read. The writing was good and I enjoyed how the ending wrapped the entire book up. I didn't feel like I was left wanting more.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read No Turning Back by Tracy Buchanan. A young mother kills a young man trying to protect her young child. She didn't mean to do it; but it is done. This is the beginning of the novel, but there are previous serial kllings that are woven into the plot.
I thought this book was written well, however, I never connected with the lead character, Anna. This is important to me as a reader. I like the way the plot weaves with other characters and events that have occurred - the ending was good (I did predict it).
Good Summer read for those going to the beach.

Great read! I couldn't put it down. Had me guessing until the end.

What would you do to protect your child. Ana is a radio presenter and is recently separated from her husband. her young daughter is is her whole life but while on the beach a teenager, who appears to be under the influence of drugs, threatens them with a knife, Anna reacts instinctively to defend herself and her child. The boy dies and Anna, understandably, is traumatised and can’t believe what has happened. There is much discussion in the community, the media and even her own radio show about what she has done and whether other people would have done the same. This though is only the start of Anna’s nightmare as links to the past and a serial killer known as The Ophelia Killer begin to emerge and seem to suggest that Anna is not as innocent as she might appear.

Thrilling and unputdownable. A wonderful read with many twists

This turned out to be a thrilling read! It took a couple of chapters to pull me in but once it did, I couldn't put it down. This is a gripping mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page!

I thought this book was dreadful. The dialog and characters were beyond believable.

With thanks to Crooked Lane Books for the advanced reader copy. This title will be published 6/13/17.

I really enjoyed No Turning Back by Tracy Buchanan. A psychological thriller/mystery, the novel follows an English radio presenter (what Americans would refer to as a talk radio host) as she navigates through her return to work from maternity leave, while separating from her husband. Soon, she is confronted by a teen on the beach while walking with her daughter. Feeling threatened, the encounter ends in the death of the teen. While initially she is lauded for protecting her infant, soon events spiral and her motives and connections are questions. her seaside town still remembers the unsolved murders of 20 years before by the Ophelia Killer - and rumors run rampant as events unfold.

The book is a relatively quick read, providing clues throughout, but none that really point to the endings. In that respect, I found it a bit unsatisfactory, since the true climax and resolution of the mystery seemed a bit out of left field. Still, an enjoyable read.

Not Turning Back is a gripping read with a surprising ending. Tracy Buchanan has crafted a haunting novel that will leave you thinking about it hours, if not days after you put it down. The dialogue seemed forced at times, but the seamlessly flowing plot made up for it. Overall a good read.

Couldn't put this book down. Fast paced and well written. Highly recommend this book.

I really wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this one. On the one hand, I think it's generally well written and engaging; I was often anxious to get back to reading it and it did keep my interest. On the other hand, it just made me feel kind of "icky"--it was just a bit too sick for me. If more of the book had to do with the tagline: "What would you do to save your child?" I would have liked it better. But for me, that was never a question. I think that was an easy call; any mother would protect her baby by whatever means necessary, and in addition, the death of the teenager was more accidental than intended. So that question seemed dispensed with very quickly near the beginning of the book.

The rest of the book concerns the reemergence of an apparent serial killer, and although I suppose the serial killer business is never pleasant, I found the details in this case extremely distasteful. In addition, although the resolution was a surprise--one that didn't occur to me until shortly before it was revealed--it felt more like it was put there for the shock value rather than that it really made sense in the unfolding of the story. In the end, I didn't like the book as much as I expected I would. I am, however, grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance e-copy of this book.

Solid mystery that loses it's way a little but mystery-loving patrons will enjoy.

Great new psychological thriller about a female radio personality who kills an attacker only to learn he was a 14 year old boy. Struggling with her own guilt and a mixed community reaction, she learns that everything is not what it seems. Recommended

As a teacher, I was always kind of a softie – an easy grader. And I suspect that is true of my reviews as well. And I REALLY liked the sound of this one: “emotional roller coaster filled with heart-stopping secrets and hairpin turns.” Sounds like my kind of escapist fiction! So, when I received an advance copy of Tracy Buchanan’s No Turning Back courtesy of Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley, I was ready for a good time!

The premise is interesting, and the beginning is strong. In fact, reading the prologue, I was sure it would be awesome: “My heart pounds, a bird trying to flutter its way out of a cage. I’m breathing fast and heavy, my bare shoulders scraping the brick with each movement. But I keep looking up, not care about the pain. He hunches down, his pale fingers curling around the wooden slats above. I hear his breath, deep and low.” THAT creeped me out, and I was sure that an author who could set a scene of danger so vividly would meet my standards for a good mystery/thriller. I read on…

In this novel, Anna Graves is a new mother who has recently gone back to her work as a radio personality following the breakup of her marriage. She is walking on the beach with her daughter one evening when she sees a group of teenagers who are not people she knows. Alert to any risk to her daughter, she is stunned to see another teenager (not part of the group) coming at her with a knife.
Adrenalin kicks in along with terror, and Anna reacts instinctively to protect her baby. The result is a tragedy but Anna and her daughter are both safe.

Her life starts to fall apart, and we watch Anna falling apart following this event and the re-emergence of the “Ophelia Killer,” a serial killer who hasn’t been heard from for twenty years. The killings stopped right when Anna’s father committed suicide (red flag alert). That event sent her mother over the edge, and Anna has bonded with her grandmother, who has always been her source of comfort.

So far, so good. And I appreciate the way the author let the reader know about Anna’s journalistic instincts. “She just had what her dad used to call the “crowd’s gut”: a natural instinct to know what the zeitgeist was at any given time.” Nice!

But things fell apart for me as the clues mounted, and the revelations about both the current mystery and the events from twenty years earlier began to mount up. At the end, I just wanted it to be over.

I looked at the author’s author titles and think that if I had looked at any of her previous work I would not have been interested in this one. But damn did the marketing people put on a good case! I was convinced, and again, it started strong. I might consider looking at her work again, because she does have strengths in the genre. But it wasn’t put on my favorite new author list. Easy grader that I am, three stars.

Wow!!!! I loved this book. Anna is an amazing woman who has the sam instincts as her father. She isn't one to let something go when she feels there is something going on. Her need to find the reason for Elliot's actions leads to many other mysteries. The ending was a big surprise. A must read

A very suspenseful mystery with lots of twists and turns that you don't expect till the very end. At times it is difficult to know who the good guys are- everyone seems bad at one time or another,

Anna and her baby are out for a walk along the beach and a crazed teenager approaches and seems to pose a threat, so Anna ends up stabbing him to protect her baby. Anna wonders why the teenager seemed afraid of her and seemed to know her. She begins to wonder if there is a darkness within her that allowed her to kill a young boy. Within no time we learn of other circumstances in the past which seem to point with suspicion to Anna. Is she as innocent as she claims? This story was exciting, thought provoking as it made you wonder what you might be capable of to protect a loved one. I loved it!

This is the first book I have read by this author and it was a compelling psychological thriller as well as being a family story.
Anna , a single mother , is a presenter on a local radio station. One day when walking along the beach near her home she is attacked by a mad teenager. In order to protect herself and her baby daughter, Joni, she lashes out with an improvised weapon and things are never the same afterwards.
However, not all is at it seems and as Anna is at first praised for defending herself and then villified when information about her private life is leaked she sets out on a journey to discover more about the boy and his family and why he behaved as he did towards her when he was described as quiet. by all who knew him.
She discovers links to a series of murders that took place in her small town 20 years previously, a story her journalist father was investigating before he died and she determines to continue his work..
Gradually Anna is forced to look at her own family background, her strange mother, Beatrice and her vitriolic brother Leon.
She receives support from her grandmother, Florence, but her life is turned upside down and she is desparate to find out the truth whatever the cost.
The book raises questions such as how far you would go to protect your child- would you kill someone in order to survive; opinion is divided.
Another theme is the dark secrets that are hidden within families and how these impact on everyone. Nothing is as it seems and as the book progresses the reader finds that Anna has secrets of her own.
I enjoyed this dark thriller although the denoument was slightly far fetched in my opinion. and I really did have to suspend belief at this point.
The plot was generally well contructed and it kept me glued to the book, keen to find out how events were going to turn out.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Anna is on talk radio in her local town. She and her husband had recently separated but had a very young daughter both loved and tended with great care. A boy threatens Anna and she ends up killing him with the handle of a comb while trying to protect her daughter from him. This is the start of the story that involves serial murders, family destruction from within and new friendships. I won't go into the plot any further because of spoilers, but found this to be engrossing and very well written. It is not a book to start late in the evening. Thanks to Net Galley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC for an honest review.

This is a great mystery! I thought I had it all figured out but a big twist proved otherwise!

At the beginning of this tightly wound psychological thriller, a seemingly unfortunate accident causes a whirlwind of confusion and chaos for the main character, Anna.

As the story unfolds, a ghost from the past appears and puts Anna on edge, scrambling to maintain her sanity for the sake of her daughter. The tension builds as Anna becomes a victim of psychological torture and stalking. She has been ostracized by friends and family and has few people she can turn to for help. Details surrounding past events and circumstances with her father begin to haunt Anna. Something seems amiss, and she desperately tries to fit all the pieces together as new dangers emerge at every turn.

An alternating storyline begins early on that is told in flashbacks. It provides only a brief glimpse of a more sinister plot that will likely coincide with the main storyline at some point. Meanwhile, secrets slowly begin to emerge that threaten both Anna's personal life and professional life, mounting up the obstacles she must navigate through. Just as her world seems on the verge of imploding, Anna forms a bond with an unlikely source and together they set out to seek truth and justice.

The main characters are developed nicely. It helps to put everything into perspective as the plot twists and likely suspects are thrown at you at various points in the book. There is plenty of foreshadowing throughout that ratchets up the tension with every turn of the page, leading to a shocking conclusion that I definitely didn't see coming.

I highly recommend this book to fans of mysteries and psychological thrillers. I received this as a free ARC from Crooked Lane Books on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.