Police detective (Steven) uncovers secrets from his own past while investigating a crime against a blogger (Emily).

Could what he discovers while unraveling Emily's case be related to his own lifelong and unrelenting nightmares? How/why is Emily drawing the same strange symbol he sees in his nightmares? What is their connection?

"She doesn't know him, but the symbol she draws on her skin has always been in his nightmares."

The story alternates between Now with details about the investigation into what happened to Emily and Then about kids living in a strange, cult-like atmosphere that supposedly reveres women. How are the two timelines related? And, will Steven be able to figure it out before someone else gets hurt? If you enjoy mysteries with lots of twists and turns, then try this one!

3.5 stars

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Controversial blogger, Emily Lindsey, is found in her home by her husband while covered in blood holding a knife. When Detective Steven Paul shows up at the hospital to question her it becomes apparent that she isn't speaking or answering any questions. She is scribbling a design with a pen and that very symbol she drew is the same one that Detective Paul see's in his recurring nightmares. He can't figure out how this stranger would know about his dream but he's determined to figure out what's happening.

The chapters go back and forth from the present to the past. In the past we have a story of 5 children that seem to be part of a cult. They are cared for by The Mothers. On June 2 every year the kids have to remain locked up while a ceremony of sorts is done on the 8th floor of the building they reside in. These 5 kids make a plan to get to the bottom of the ceremony. I have to admit that theses chapters started to get a little boring for me. Cults just aren't my thing and I was a little let down with the events of the ceremony. I guess I was hoping for something a little more disturbing.

I will say that I really liked the character of Detective Paul which is why I'm giving it the extra 1/2 star. 3.5

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting book. We have events from the past intertwined with a current mystery. Obviously, the past will be relevant to the present, but we don't know exactly how. The past events are of a group of kids (living in a cult) who want to find out about a curious event that happens every June. The current mystery involves detective Steve. He's adopted an has terrible nightmares, even as an adult. He's trying to figure out what happened with Emily. She's found by her husband, covered in blood, but not injured, and she's completely catatonic. So did she kill someone? What did she see? In her pocket is the detective's name, yet he's never met her. So what's going on?

The story moves at a fast pace, and it's intriguing. I did have some issues with some of the police procedures. If there's so much blood and the police have a feeling who it might belong to, and that person is missing, why don't they collect some DNA from his toothbrush or something to see if it's his blood? Why continue waiting to see if he shows up healthy? This is especially odd since the missing and presumed dead person is a prominent, high-profile businessman. You would think the police would be rushing to find out if the blood is his.

This is the first book I've read from this author, and I like it enough to read more from her.

I did not see this one coming.
From the cover, to the title to the last page of this book every turn of the page was a surprise.
This book truly thrilled me right to the very end.
I can often see things coming, but not this time!
Detective Steven is quite the character, I really enjoyed the in depth character he was built into from the start, and would actually like to read more of him as a character ( hint hint?)
It was like watching him grow, from childhood to an adult Detective with each chapter revealing another layer into the story.
I was truly not expecting this unexpected delight of a novel but am so glad to have read it, I'm sorry it ended!

Steven Paul is a detective with so,e serious demons of his own. Plagued by nightmares, blackouts, and suspicions of his department, he must investigate the reason why a controversial blogger appeared catatonic and covered in blood. A second story of children in a mysterious cult is intertwined in his search and you’ll just have to keep reading to see where everything collides.

This book is fast-paced and the story engrossing. While some of the mystery wasn’t a total shock, my desire to see how all the pieces fit together kept me flipping pages late into the night.

Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

he can’t explain and can’t shake.  As he grows older, his dreams start to invade his waking hours, becoming visions he can’t control.
Growing up in the foster system, afraid his new parents would “send him back” if he told them how bad it was, he has managed to (mostly) successfully hide what was happening to him from those he loves and those he works with.  Work is especially important as he is a homicide detective – no one wants a crazy policeman do they?
After years of keeping things controlled, it all starts to fall apart when he is called and asked if he knows a young woman called Emily Lindsey.  He doesn’t, but it seems she knows him – she has his name, and that of another man, on a post-it note in her pocket.  The question is why?  It’s not a question Emily can answer because she is in hospital in a state of shock.  No one is sure what has happened to her but they do know it probably isn’t good – she was found covered in blood.
Now, it’s up to Steven and his partner to try and discover just what has happened to Emily, how she came to be where she was in the state she was, and just what she wanted with Steven.  It’s an investigation that will unravel Steven’s life and put him, his family, and his sanity at risk.  Which is all a good thing for the reader because it means lots of tension, lots of twists, lots of turns and lots of good reading.
If you can’t tell from the last sentence I really enjoyed this book.  I thought it was clever – not a story I had read before, which is rare nowadays given I rarely step outside my genre comfort zone – and I thought it was really well written.  I came to know and like Steven very quickly and care for him, as I did for other characters (maybe with the exception of Emily’s husband).
The story is told in the “then” and the “now” and both were compelling.  Neither felt like it was there as an “add on”, a way to get to the final reveal.  You knew they were connected but it is not clear how until very close to the end so there is lots of guessing to do.  And, with Steven’s visions, it’s also hard to know just where the truth lies and where his imagination begins – perfect for a piece of crime writing or thriller.
It has left me feeling rather happy – despite the dark storyline – and saying that I loved this book.  A recommended read.

This is a book I got my hands on via NetGalley and it was published quite recently. It definitely qualifies as a thriller as opposed to being a mystery because it is seemingly clear about what the final solution or outcome may be while the lives of all involved may be in jeopardy almost all the time due to layers of hidden secrets.

The story begins with introducing us to the central character in the present time, Steven Paul who has chronic nightmares that have seeped into all aspects of his life. We trace his life in fits and starts to see the journey from when he finally has loving foster parents to his current dilemma. Parallelly we are also shown the past that might have bearing on the current circumstances. Last but not the least we are also shown the last day of Emily Lindsey as the title suggests. How all three narratives tie together is the crux of the story. Steven Paul is fighting for his sanity and his job when his path crosses with Emily Lindsey and from there the tale pick off. Till that point we need to be patient.

To me, the ideal culmination of a secret twist is that it should not be immediately identifiable but also should not be so bizarre that we feel cheated by such an occurrence leading us to not enjoy the story. This story lives by that rule and can therefore be classified as a good book.

I really really enjoyed this book. I loved the main character, Steven, because he was smart, a good detective, tried to do the right thing and he had really good instincts about people. Where he dropped the ball was taking care of himself. Throughout the book, I knew that he would fit into the story from the past somehow but honestly I did not figure it out until almost the very end, which to me, is the sign of a really good novel. The plot was really interesting, switching back from the past to the present and slowly connecting the two. Emily was also a very interesting and intense character obviously wanting to help people and expose bad guys in the process. Her whole connection to Steven and the entire story really added to the intensity of the culmination of the plot. I haven't read a book by this author before but I will now. Thanks for NetGalley for the ARC. Definitely recommend this one! Worth your time. Drew me in from Page 1 and kept me engrossed until to the very last page.

This one wowed me from the beginning; halfway through the book I paused to order Joseph's first novel as I knew it would not disappoint. Alternating between past and present--although it's not until the end that we see how they are connected--the author weaves a chilling story of detective Steven Paul who suffers from debilitating visions and nightmares as he battles his own demons and attempts to solve an odd crime scene where a blood-covered woman is found holding a knife--but the blood is not hers and she appears to be catatonic and refuses to speak. Flashback to the past where we meet a group of young kids led by Jack as they attempt to infiltrate a secret ceremony held yearly by the Mothers who care for them. What secrets lie beneath the surface in this cult-like society and why are the children forbidden from the ceremony or not allowed in certain areas?
What I loved most about the book was the character of Steven who is so kind-hearted but so flawed that he refuses to accept help when he so desperately needs it. Even his detective partner and his ex-wife recognize the fact that he suffers from something in his past he must confront. The two plots eventually merge and we are left with a complicated yet wildly satisfying conclusion. Well-written and poignant, the characters have compassion which allows the reader to be drawn into the story as well as care about them. A fascinating read!

The Last Day of Emily Lindsey was SUCH a good book. I would say it is a 4.5 star for sure based on how much it kept me interested and the ending, but I have rated it a 4 star since I can't give it a half.

This book starts out with a bang (not literally), and I was never bored reading it. I read this book from 9/23-10/6, but the only reason it took me so long is because I only had limited time for reading. If I would have read straight through I would have been done in a day or 2, it was that good.

I was invested in Detective Steven Paul right from the beginning and I think all the characters were very well developed (and they kept me guessing). This is a great mystery, and I didn’t see the ending coming at all. The twist at the end was something, and I thought it was quite shocking.

The story is told in two storylines set during two different time periods. I really like that style in general, but I think Nic Joseph doing that for this book added a little something extra. I was so excited for the “then” parts, and I couldn’t wait to get back to them to see what was going on.

THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY
Nic Joseph
Sourcebooks Landmark
ISBN 978-1-4926-4653-2
Trade Paperback
Thriller

Author Emily Lindsey made a very auspicious debut in 2016 with the release of the much-acclaimed BOY, 9, MISSING. Lindsey is not content to rest on her laurels, as demonstrated by THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY, her sophomore effort. Her new work explores different themes from those of her first but is built upon the same elements that almost instantly put her on a number of must-read lists, and for good reason.

The narrative of THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY ping-pongs between the past and present. In the past, a group of children in a mysterious dormitory attempt to unravel a riddle that has become central to their existence. They are during the day more or less permitted the run of several floors of the building where they are housed and schooled by a group of women --- the mothers --- who treat them with a genuine though detached kindness who in turn are supervised by a somewhat enigmatic figure named Frank. Each year on the night of June 2, however, they are subject to a strict lockdown in their rooms, with the additional admonition that they are strictly forbidden to access the eighth floor of their building. This restriction is a red waving flag for Jack, a twelve year old boy who is a resident of the building with an insatiable curiosity and a precocious bend for planning. Over the course of THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY we learn in dribs and drabs how Jack enlists a handful of other students into breaking the strict quarantine and discovering what is occurring on the forbidden eighth floor which requires such a dramatic and drastic measures to keep the children away. Note well that this is not a Helen Fuller Orton mystery. You, like the children in this tale, may regret the discovery. In the present, meanwhile, a police detective named Steven Paul is haunted by demons of his own. Paul is haunted by nightmares by dark and by a police review by day. The latter is due to his involvement in a shooting during a hostage situation which left a bank robber dead and an innocent customer paralyzed. Things become worse, however, when he and his partner on the force are called to a startling tableau at a local residence where they make the grim acquaintance of Emily Lindsey. The woman is covered in blood, though it is obviously not her own, given that she doesn’t have even a scratch on her body. What is worse for Paul, however, is that, though she is in a near catatonic state, the woman draws a weird spiral and cross symbol. It is a mark with which Paul is intimately familiar. He has been seeing it in his nightmares for years. What is even more odd is that she has on her person a slip of paper with Paul’s name on it, even though he has never met Emily Lindsey. Paul, while attempting to keep his own demons at bay, attempts to unravel the current mystery which may also reveal secrets of his own past which have been kept even from him. Like the children in the other storyline of THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY, he may be better off not knowing the answers to his questions.

You may see a number of the surprises in THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY coming but there are a number of twists and turns that will catch you gaping. The relationship between the book’s past and present are fairly obvious but the mysteries presented in both plotlines are resolved only with a series of clues which are well-paced and -placed by Joseph. Fans of BOY 9, MISSING will in no way be disappointed.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2017, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

This is a well-paced mystery with a unique premise. It cuts back and forth from past to present, both story lines equally intriguing. Unfortunately, the plot does not stand up to much scrutiny. If you are in the mood for a mindless read, then I highly recommend. Just don't think too much.

This book was wild. It's one of those stories you pick up before bed intending to read a few chapters and go way overboard. I read over half of the book after deciding "only a few chapters". Full of suspense and memorable characters. This book is hard to review without giving too much away! There's a reason the summary featured for the book is a bit vague. Go in blind!

A controversial blogger named Emily Lindsey is found in her home covered in blood. She's rushed to the hospital, but it turns out none of it is hers. She remained anonymous on her blog, and now everyone knows who she is... but she's still not talking. She's silent. She won't give the detectives anything to go on... except for the strangest thing. She draws a strange symbol that one of the detective recognizes.

Detective Steven Paul has always had nightmares and strange visions: and they often feature the same symbol Emily is drawing. Alarmed and confused, he's faced with a broken woman who won't answer any of his questions. He's always kept details of his night terrors a secret even from those who love him the most, so who told her about that symbol? Will he be able to figure it out before he completely breaks down?

Interspersed with chapters from the present are others marked only as "then", which features children living in some kind of strange commune. They're decently cared for, but they aren't permitted to leave and the rules they must abide by are rigid.

What happened to Emily and how are the kids connected to the story? This wasn't a tale I figured out quickly. Most of the twists and turns it took were surprises to me. It definitely kept me turning pages. The ending felt a little abrupt, and I was left wanting a little more...

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

This is a hard book to review because of spoilers but suffice it to say it's a page turner. It's a dual storyline book which might be disconcerting as you wonder why and how the children and Steven Paul and Emily will intersect. Paul is a really interesting entry into the genre of damaged detective- why does the symbol that Emily, who is found covered in someone else's blood, mean something to him? Who did Emily kill? Did she kill someone? Lots of questions but the novel is well crafted and clever. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a good read.

As soon as I realised there was a new Nic Joseph book available I moved it to the top of my ‘to be read’ list. I feel I could copy most of my review of Boy 9, Missing here as all the qualities I liked in it are here again in spades. The characters leap off the page and drag you into the story and the relationships between them are so true to life. Detective Steve Paul is a total stand out character and caused me a little heartache. My advice to other readers is firstly to get a copy and read this but also to relax into it and let the author lead you through and not try to second guess where it is going. Highly recommended.

I read this along with Norma and our wonderful Traveling Sisters

The Last Day of Emily Lindsay is an enthralling, captivating and very suspenseful story that starts off with a heart-stopping scene full of blood and questions that had all of us sisters turning those pages as fast as we could and not wanting to put this one down. We all became very invested in finding out about “the last day of Emily Lindsay” right from the start.

We were intrigued and fascinated with this storyline and it caught our attention from the very first page. One of our sisters was completely fascinated with this storyline and we soon learned she has a weird fascination with cults and this one really stood out for her.

Nic Joseph does a great job with our main character Steven and we all loved him. We found him interesting, unique, and such a compelling character. We want to know more about his visions and nightmares and our curiosity spiked with the suspense of the buried secrets that haunt him. We come to know Steven’s family and I really liked the softer side his family brought to the story with the support and love he receives and thought the author does a fantastic job with that storyline and I was very satisfied with that part of the ending.

Going into the ending this story was a solid five stars for most of us however some parts didn’t quite add up for us and left us a little confused. Don’t let this stop you from reading this completely captivating story though as you will be missing out on quite the fascinating story. We highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Nic Joseph for the opportunity to read and review a copy of this book.

All of our Traveling Sisters Read Reviews can be found on Norma’s and my sister blog:
http://www.twogirlslostinacouleereading.wordpress.com

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY in exchange for my honest review.***

Investigative reporter Emily Lindsey is found covered in blood, not her own. Traumatized and rendered mute, she isn’t communicating. Detective Steven Paul’s name is found in her pocket. As he and his partner race to solve the mystery, his own traumatic past comes back to haunt him. Past and present are about to collide in ways nobody expected.

What. A. Wild. Ride. I read THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY in one sitting. Nic Joseph crafted such a complex plot filled with cults, family, murder and missing people, yet the plot was easy to follow. Steven was such a unique character, traumatized as a child and suffering from PTSD he avoided using mandatory work counseling to overcome his demons. I love how his foster care experience was both realistic and optimistic. Joseph got all the details of the mental illness right. I love a writer who does good research.

If you like mysteries and thrillers with compelling personal subplots, THE LAST DAY OF EMILY LINDSEY is a must read. I’m going to order Joseph’s debut and probably preorder her next book.

This was a really great read- building up beautifully. Both the storylines had me completely engrossed. And I was very curious to see how it would come together.

Unfortunately, the ending had me quite disappointed. It was rushed and seemed a little flat :( I would have loved learning a little more about the motivations behind why everyone did exactly what they did.

However, I did have a fun time reading this book! Thanks to NetGalley for the read!

This was a fast-paced thriller that kept me guessing and flipping pages as fast as I could. (Well, for most of it anyway).

Detective Steven Paul is tasked with investigating the strange case of a woman, Emily Lindsey, found covered in blood. But oddly enough, not a drop of it is hers. Is she a victim? Or is she the killer? In which case…where is the real victim? In Emily’s pocket is a note with Steve’s name on it. Only problem…Steven is clueless who this woman is!

Struggling with his own personal demons, Steve attempts to solve the mystery of Emily Lindsey. Dealing with bizarre nightmares and daytime hallucinations, he is determined to stay on top of the case and find the connection between him and this mystery woman.

For 90% of this book it was an absolute 5 * read for me! I could not put it down! Had multiple jaw dropping moments! Then came the final 10%....

I guessed some of the shockers early on, but that was ok - I was still expecting my wow moment! Unfortunately the ending just left me thinking ….huh?! After such an incredible read and build up I was totally expecting fireworks and explosions! Instead all I had was a fizzle.

As always another wonderful Traveling Sister Group Read with Norma, Brenda, Lindsay, Diane and Susanne!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Nic Joseph for a copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

For this review and our full Traveling Sister Review please visit The Traveling Sister section of Norma and Brenda's fantastic book blog:
http://www.twogirlslostinacouleereading.wordpress.com

4.5 stars! I loved this suspenseful, captivating and highly addictive story!

This book captured my full attention from the first chapter and didn’t let it go until the very last page. The story revolves around solving the mystery of a woman found in her house covered in blood, holding a hunting knife with no recollection of what happened. Was a crime committed? Detective Steven Paul who has an unknown personal connection to this woman is assigned to the case. I adored Detective Paul – I was rooting for him from start to finish.

This gripping story is told through “Then” and “Now” perspectives which was done extremely well. I was completely drawn into each riveting storyline, flipping the pages as fast as possible to figure out the case. The writing was superb – had me addicted to every chapter, page and paragraph. The character development was excellent – I felt completely immersed in the characters’ lives and situations.

I felt the ending wrapped up a little quick, but I felt satisfied. There was one piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite “fit” for me at the end, but it certainly didn’t take away from my overall fantastic reading experience. I would highly recommend this enthralling and unputdownable book!

A big thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Nic Joseph for providing a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!!

Expected Date of Publication: October 3, 2017