The Boy by Tami Hoag was an exciting ride. From the first page I was thrown into a mystery so dark and related to the unthinkable brutal death of an innocent child. Who would do such a thing?

The first thing that impressed me was the setting. French Cajun has always been of interest to me and now I was introduced and immersed into this exclusive group and community. The French throughout was educational and added an authenticity.

The plot was believable and true to life. The pace of the novel was fast and I read this book in one sitting. It was that good.

The characters were well developed and dynamic. Nick Fourcade epitomized the alpha, rogue cop that is willing to do whatever to get to the truth and you are rooting for him and his team of detectives to solve this crime.

The writing style was easy to follow. The story is told from multiple POV in the third person.

I highly recommend this book. It is a police procedural packed with twists and turns. It will keep you guessing until the end. I will definitely add Tami Hoag to my TBR list. I have been missing out.

This was a twisty-turvy mystery with lots of suspense and surprises. I loved the maturity of the married cops' relationship, especially having read their first story many years ago. It was lovely to visit Louisiana again and the descriptions of the bayou were spot on. Great read!

Absolutely one of my favorite books of 2018!

I've been a fan of Tami Hoag's writing since I first discovered her work about 20 years ago, and I've never been disappointed. 'The Boy' is a standout for a variety of reasons. It's one of those books that had me so engrossed, when I looked up, I was surprised by my surroundings. I felt like I was right inside the story.

The characters are all well developed, complex, realistic, and interesting. I wanted to spend time with them and know them better.

The plot is intense and emotional. This story makes you feel things, whether you want to or not.

While this is the second book in a series, it reads perfectly as a stand-alone.

Have I mentioned that I loved this book? The only complaint I have is now I have to wait for the next Tami Hoag novel.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. A Thin Dark Line is one of my favorite books, and I was excited for the return of Broussard and Fourcette. I was not disappointed. Both heartbreaking and intriguing, the book kept my attention. At 4 I felt like a little too much was going on and this book lacked some of the chemistry between the protagonists that made the first so good, but this was still a good read for any fans of Hoag or mysteries.

Tami Hoag has been a favorite author of mine for so long. Her mystery thrillers are always fast paced, engaging, and captivating and The Boy is no different. Detective Nick Fourcade is called in to the devastating crime scene where a young boy was murdered, where his mother narrowly escapes from the same fate. Det. Fourcade, a father of a young boy, takes this murder personally and makes it his personal mission to find the killer.

Meanwhile, Detective Annie Broussard (Nick's wife), discovers that the babysitter of the young murdered boy is missing. Ultimately, the quiet southern town assumes their children are under siege. The pressure to close the case is at an all time high and takes some strange, chilling turns.

The Boy is the second installment in the Nick Fourcade and Annie Broussard series but can be read as a standalone. There's enough character development and background story for readers to keep up and become well acquainted with Nick's anger, and Annie's gentility. They are the perfect yin to each other's yang. The fact that this current murder hits home to them emotionally and personally, feeds a need to close the case like none other.

What Hoag does well here, as well in her other novels, is paint vivid characters with no shortage of possible suspects. Many of the characters struggle with identity and appearances. There's nothing more important to these characters than what appears to be, instead of what really is. There's the housewife that sacrifices her son for love, the single mother, who sacrifices her body for stability.

Ultimately, Tami Hoag's The Boy is quite the read. I enjoyed it very much. There's no surprise here that Hoag did it again. I highly recommend Hoag's novels, including this one.

3.5 stars

A panic-stricken woman runs in the dead of night, battered and bloodied, desperate to find help.

The Boy is the second book in the Brousssard and Fourcade series but worked very well as a stand-alone novel for me. Nick Fourcade and his wife, Annie Broussard are both detectives working in the Cajun town of Bayou Breaux, Louisiana. One night, Nick is called to a bloody crime scene which left a seven-year-old boy dead and his mother hospitalized. There is nothing at the crime scene which points to a forced entry, nothing has been taken and Genevieve Gauthier, the battered and bloody mother describes their attacker as looking like "the devil." What happened in their home that night? How did the Mother survive? What was the reason for the attack?

Complicating matters further, the murdered boy's thirteen-year-old babysitter has been reported missing. Now, with two cases to solve, the husband and wife team must decide if these cases are related or if something else is going on. The boy's mother, Genevieve has a dark past. Her past and current relationships fall under scrutiny. The search for the truth is underway even as Nick and the new sheriff, Kelvin Dutrow, have many conflicts about how to solve the case. Dutrow is concerned with his image and how he is viewed by the public and that takes a priority to solving this case.

Most readers are going to come up with their theories while reading this book. Just who is the killer? Is it the Mother? Is it a stranger? Could it be a neighbor? Someone from the Mother's past? You get the picture. What I enjoyed is that there could be multiple killers and as more is revealed, the readers theories may change. Toward the end of the book, I had my *aha* it must be this person moment but was still left wondering why??? What was the motive?

The plot is intricate and has themes of bullying, infidelity, abuse, and power. The book is also full of unlikable characters. Some of the themes may be difficult for some and at the heart of this southern mystery is the murder of a child. His life and death are surrounded by secrets. An enjoyable book which did have its slow parts and at times I found myself rolling my eyes at the amount of times, Nick had conflict with another character.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well worth waiting for Tami Hoag's new book! She has the unique gift of intertwining a few stories & characters into one amazing ending.

This psychological thriller will keep readers guessing to the end. A grisly murder, missing children, bullying and abuse all make up this mystery. Set in the back roads of Cajun country, things aren't always as they seem. Lots of twists and turns make this a great book. Recommended!

Full review to be published online in early January.

Tami Hoag’s THE BOY is a sequel to the first book of the ’Broussard and Fourcade’ series written by the author some years ago. Here the pair are now married And work as detectives in a Louisiana Parish. The grisly murder of a little boy and an attack on the boy's mother during a home invasion have the community on edge. The detectives trying to solve the crime are hindered by the newly appointed sheriff who is more worried about his image than he is about doing a thorough investigation. Many twists and turns make this a real page turner and the final reveal turns up an unlikely killer. Nice mystery, and I hope it is not a many years wait for the next book in the series.

Hoag hooked me from the start with this atmospheric tale that opens with the gruesome murder of a young child. It has almost all the ingredients of a great novel: fast-paced action, a heroic married couple (both members of the parish sheriff’s office), and a cast of unlikeable characters set in the sultry oppressive world of Louisiana bayou country. The novel falls short, however, in its mystery. Hoag gives us a flashing sign that points to the murderer early in the book. Although she offers a lot of counter-pointers throughout the novel, there’s never any doubt as to “who dunnit.” The real mystery might have been the motive, but that becomes clear once she shines the light she focuses elsewhere for a time back on the perpetrator. Nonetheless, Hoag’s writing makes this more than a worthwhile read.

I do love me a good, sweaty Southern Noir, preferably down in Louisiana, with ‘gators thrashing about in the bayou, a storm blowing in from the Gulf, insects the size of golf balls on Kamikaze missions against the fly screens, and folk pushed to the limits of their tolerance by the relentless humidity. Throw in a dash of Cajun music and Acadiana French cursing, and I am set for the night. Tami Hoag’s latest novel ticks all the required boxes.

Hoag, who hails from the relatively temperate zone of Iowa, has created a brilliant husband and wife police partnership in Nick Fourcade and Annie Broussard. The pair first emerged on the printed page as long ago as 1997 in A Thin Dark Line but, of course, crime fiction time isn’t the same as real time, and the two cops are still relatively young and beautiful in Hoag’s latest thriller, The Boy. They are called to a beaten up shack in the sticks beyond the somnolent settlement of Bayou Breaux, and they find a seven year-old boy hacked to death with a knife, while his mother has apparently fled the scene, barefoot and bearing wounds from the same blade that brutalised her son.

Genevieve Gauthier has a past, however. Before settling in Bayou Breaux with son KJ, she has been no stranger to law enforcement. Blessed – or cursed – with an ethereal and vulnerable beauty designed to act as a magnet to predatory men, she has served jail time for suffocating her first-born child. Fourcade and Broussard are faced with a dazzling and perplexing star burst of inconsistencies as they try to find who killed KJ. Why was Genevieve allowed to escape with relatively minor injuries? Where is KJ’s teenage baby-sitter, Nora? Is her disappearance connected to KJ’s death?

Fourcade and Broussard have a bitter enemy in the shape of Kelvin Dutrow, their boss. As Sheriff, he likes to dress in tactical combat gear, his belt heavy with weapons he has no idea how to use. He likes nothing better than a press conference where he can strike a pose, talk tough and play to the camera. His animosity to the pair reaches fever pitch when they discover that not only does he have a sinister past, but it comes with some highly questionable connections to the bereaved young woman nursing her injuries in the local hospital.

The identity of KJ’s killer is cleverly concealed until the final pages, and there is a blood-soaked denouement which will satisfy even the most hardened Noir fan. The Boy is lurid, yes, and certainly melodramatic, but it is a gripping read which had me canceling other activities right left and centre so that I could get to the end.

Tami Hoag's The Boy is the second in a series featuring Nick Fourcade and Annie Broussard. I haven't read the first in the series, but it wasn't necessary as the book works as a standalone.

A murdered child, a severely injured and grieving mother, a missing twelve-year-old. Complicating the investigation(s) is a dubious crime scene team and a sheriff whose image is more important than anything else.

Fourcade and Broussard try to resolve the conflicting elements in the murder, but complications continue to pop up. Kelvin Dutrow, the new sheriff, overrides Fourcade's attempt at a crime scene perimeter, exacerbating a personality conflict that already was detrimental to the sheriff's department and only gets worse and more personal.

At the heart of the case, when all is said and done, is the damage, psychological and physical, that results in a ripple effect from a destructive and controlling personality. Hoag cleverly weaves the strands together to what initially would seem a surprising outcome.

Nick Fourcade doesn't really resonate with me, but the byways the novel takes concerning cheating, spousal abuse, and bullying provide food for thought, and the plot is intricate and well written.

I really want another Sam Kovacs and Nikki Liska novel, which is my favorite Hoag series.

NetGalley/Penguin Group
Mystery/Crime. Dec. 31, 2018. Print length: 496 pages.

Broussard and Fourcade are detectives married to each other. They work for the sheriffs dept. in a Louisiana Parish. The grisly murder of a little boy and an attack on the boy's mother during a home invasion have the community on edge. The detectives trying to solve the crime are hindered by the newly appointed sheriff who is more worried about his image than he is about doing a thorough investigation. Many twists and turns make this a real page turner and the final reveal turns up an unlikely killer. I enjoyed this mystery through an advanced digital readers' copy courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.

I am a huge fan of Tami Hoag's books so I was excited to see this book available on Netgalley and requested it right away. It did not disappoint, right from the beginning I was hooked and I found it hard to put down. The characters are interesting along with the setting, I know it's been years since her first Broussard and Fourcade book,. but it will be like you never left.

Tami Hoag is one of the most gifted writers working today and when I see a book with her name on it, I know I am not going anywhere once I start reading. And her newest is one of her most twisted and compelling mysteries yet. In a small Louisiana town, Detective Nick Fourcade is examining the chaotic and bloody crime scene where a seven year old boy has been murdered in his own home. Nick’s wife, Detective Annie Broussard is at the hospital, questioning the boy’s mother, who somehow survived the massacre relatively unscathed. Right away, suspicions are raised, how did mother Genevieve survive the bloody massacre that killed her son? When the woman’s 12-year-old babysitter disappears the next day, town residents wonder if they have a maniac traveling through town, or if perhaps, their killer is someone home-grown. I have literally chewed my nails to the quick while reading this book. Hoag scares the hell out of me

A young boy has been viciously murdered, stabbed multiple times. His Mother somehow escapes. Det Nick Fourcade is in charge of the case. The current Sheriff is a media hound and doesn’t much care for Fourcade, but Nick is the best detective he has.

There are all sorts of twists to this story. It is a tragic tale of the loss of a child, a media hogging Sheriff who has his own secrets and the disappearance of another child. The murdered boys Mother has her own secrets, which cause suspicion to be cast on her for her sons murder. This one kept me guessing right up to the end. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.