You Can Go Home Now is a dark thriller with a strong female lead character.

Nina is a tough and badass detective in Queens. After seeing her father die right in front of her eyes by a sniper, she made it her personal mission to find the bad guys. And after she notices patterns from a few homicide cases, she goes undercover to solve the big ole mystery. Putting herself in danger is nothing new to her and she is fearless. Can she figure out what is really happening at Artemis, a battered woman's shelter?

This is a put that reads like one of your favorite cop/crime TV shows. And what really keeps you hooked to the pages is Nina. She is tough and wants justice. But every hero has its villains and this definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I give You Can Go Home Now 4 stars. It's a dark and edgy thriller that many readers will enjoy. It keeps you on your toes and the female heroine is will remind readers of Olivia Benson.

A solid addition to the revenge thriller genre. A recommended purchase for collections where crime fic is popular.

This ended up being not the best read for me, both because it was sometimes hard to follow and sometimes hard to read. As a survivor of physical and sexual assault myself and a former domestic violence advocate, as well as someone who lost an aunt to domestic violence (she was murdered with the gun she bought for her protection when she tried to leave her abuser), it seemed up my alley. It was ultimately too unpleasant going through so much of that again through the characters, and the story didn't seem very realistic. Others are likely to enjoy it much more, especially if they haven't lived these sorts of traumas.

Nina Karim has made revenge the focus of her life. Can she ever achieve it? And if she does, what’s next?

This book started out a little slow (besides the murder scene before chapter 1). The main character’s narration style was a little choppy with some hard-to-follow segues. But about halfway through, the readers knew everything we needed to know and the book took off!

While the relationship between Nina and her boyfriend, Bobby was amusing, several of the police department characters didn’t seem necessary. When an officer appeared later in the book after an introduction in the first half, it was hard to remember how they were involved. It didn’t change the excitement as the book progressed. Once the action started coming together, there was no turning away. The two seemingly independent story lines (Nina’s quest for avenging her father’s death, and the murders potentially linked to a domestic violence shelter) crashed together in a totally unexpected way.

Overall, I’d give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. One thing that is always refreshing and makes a book feel completely rewarding is when justice prevails. This book brings the justice, in more ways than one. I’d recommend this for fans of police procedurals and vigilante justice.

A new thriller with a female protagonist. Parts of this book were great, others parts got sluggish. The main character is interesting so it helped me finish the book.

We read and reviewed YOU CAN GO HOME for a future podcast episode. We also interviewed Michael Elias. All three of us really enjoyed this book. If you enjoy some vigilante justice with a good roller coaster ride of a mystery this book is for you. I really enjoyed the fact that this was a unique storyline and the protagonist Nina was not your run of the mill homicide detective. The best part of the book was the ending. It was such a surprise.

The story is a bit messy. There are too many things going on and not everything makes sense. Nina has one goal and that is to take revenge for the murder of her father. That part was well worked out. But she works as a police officer and goes undercover in a woman shelter. That part of the story gave me a lot of problems. How she was just allowed to keep moving around even vanishing for a few days. Though the description of the fear with the other woman and the children there sounded right I could not imagine her walking around so freely and not many questions asked. And I am not sure why but it bugged me. Despite the many storylines the author did manage to tie up all the stories and give them a proper ending.

I did like Nina. She is a very angry person and has a very clear goal it is clear she comes from good and just wants there to be justice for all. I would have liked more character development but as this is a plot driven story there was not much space.

Read to 40%, then skipped to 80% and read to the end.

I absolutely loved the idea of this book and was quite disappointed at the execution.

Nina is an interesting character. She’s all about revenge for her father’s murder and finding the person who did it is her motivation in life. Logically, I know a vigilante cop is not something I want in real life, but I could get behind it fictionally.

Plot wise, it was all over the place. There’s loads of memories and inner monologue and it all streams together without any sort of differentiating...and that is my main problem with this story. Nothing settled into any sort of rhythm and I couldn’t keep things straight. After a while, it became more trouble than it was worth.

Overall, the last few chapters I read were intriguing, but not enough to make me go back and get to the section I skipped.

FYI: talk of physical abuse and rape

**Huge thanks to Harper for providing the arc free of charge**

This was a first for my by this author but will most definitely not be my last. This is a truly addictive, unputdownable thriller.

When it comes to police procedurals and murder mysteries, I am here for the female detectives. Period. And unlike most police procedurals, our MC Nina, has to go undercover into the Artemis Shelter for women, which added a layer of complexity and depth that I don't normally get from these types of thrillers/mysteries.

Overall, this is a fantastic page turner that I think that everyone should give a try. You will be rooting for Nina from the first page!

I really enjoyed this book! This is my first book by Michael Elias but it will not be my last!

Read my full review here: http://booksteahealthyme.home.blog/2020/06/24/book-review-you-can-go-home-now-by-michael-elias/

Thank you to MC Communications and NetGalley for my copy of this book.

YOU CAN GO HOME NOW by Michael Elias is an exciting new thriller with a female detective on the case of a killer of abusive spouses while simultaneously on her lifelong quest for her personal revenge against the killer of her father.

Homicide Detective Nina Karim is called out to the scene of a murder and finds the body of a man she was searching for who was reported missing by his parents. The parents accuse the wife of the murder. When Nina catches up with the wife, she claims innocence, but refuses to say where she was during the time of the murder.

While investigating the case, Nina discovers other cold cases of murdered spouses all tied to Artemis Shelter for Women. Nina goes undercover in Artemis and finds herself empathizing with the occupants and their stories, because she has a story of her own which fuels her need for revenge, not conventional justice.

This book starts with two chapters that while you do not know it at the time, set up the dual plotlines intertwined through this thriller. For me, Nina was an antihero. She became a cop and lived for revenge knowing she would cross the line when she finds her target. The resolution to her personal revenge plotline was not realistic or believable. Her romance is with a loan shark, Bobby B who dropped out of the police academy which the both attended at the same time. He was useful for pivotal plot points and sex scenes, but I never felt he was fully fleshed out.

Nina’s time in Artemis was the plotline that captured my complete attention. The stories of the women and children pull you in as they did Nina herself. Nina’s empathy for the women leaves her with an ethical dilemma; reveal Artemis’ true mission or not.

I found this to be a gritty, fast paced, revenge thriller story that is more escapism that realism, but it did entertain me.

WOW!!What a perfect book to escape into! Michael Elias, Author of “You Can Go Home Now” has written an intense, captivating, intriguing, and suspenseful thriller. The genres for this book are Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, and Fiction. The timeline for this story is set in the present and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters and events. The author describes his dramatic characters as complex, and complicated. There are betrayals, danger, threats, and death.

Nina Karim, the protagonist in this story is a Queens detective, dealing with several cold murder cases. Nina does have her own agenda. For the moment she is looking into the homicides of several men. Their widows share one thing, they each were at a special home for battered women called Artemis. All of the women have their own alibis. There are twists and turns.

Nina decides that she has to go undercover to get a feel for what is going on. What will Nina discover? Will she come out of this alive? This is a chilling thriller, that is extremely edgy and intense. I highly recommend this novel as an excellent means of escape for the reader.

Nina has made a vow. She will find and kill the sniper that ended the life of her beloved father. A doctor working in a planned parenthood clinic. Shot as he did the dishes and looked out the window, with both children near by. Now a detective she is investigating the death of a fellow officer , who abused his wife often, and was protected by said officers. It is during this investigation that a women’s shelter cones to light as very under the radar, whose firmer occupants refuse to disclose where or how they came to this place of comfort and care in a very difficult moment in their lives. The stories are hard to read but the resilience is incredible. Interestingly what you think is the end of the story both for Nina the detective and Nina the vigilante turns upside down.

I loved this book. It was a book that might trigger some people but the story is very well done and very well executed. It tells the story of Nina Karim, a tough female police officer trying to make her way. She is seeking revenge for the death of her father, who was a Planned Parenthood physician who was murdered in their home by an antiabortionist fanatic. She goes undercover in a woman's shelter to investigate several murders with links to battered and abused women. Her past and her present converge in a dynamic conclusion. Very well done.

You Can Go Home Now by Michael Elias is not your average police procedural, crime novel. Nina Karim, homicide detective with the Long Island City police department, is not your average detective, either. When Nina was seventeen, her father was murdered. She didn't become a police officer because she believed in justice. She became a police officer because she believed in revenge. Her job provided the background she needed to find out who had assassinated her father and mete out her own justice. In the course of avenging her father's death she finds herself undercover at Artemis, a discreet shelter for battered women. The only problem is that some of these battered women's husbands end up dead with no witnesses or evidence left behind. Is Artemis behind these deaths or is luck finally on the side of battered women. Will Nina get the revenge she seeks?

This book left me with conflicting emotions. In a perfect world you want your public servants on the right side of the law. But what is the right side when your father is murdered or your husband who has beat you senseless many times, could end up killing your or your children? A few times, I felt that the story jumped around too much or a scene was oddly portrayed. The r-rated material seemed forced and unnecessary. I enjoyed the twist at the end and felt that the story was wrapped up nicely. Trigger warnings: abortion and domestic abuse.

Heard lots about this one and looked forward to reading it, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. Didn't really catch my interest. Too many books too little time!

You can go home now is a twisty thriller that has great characters and a strong plot line! Definitely holds your interest throughout!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nina is a New York City police detective and she’s gone undercover in an abused women’s shelter to sniff out a killer and mete out swift and brutal justice. A series of women have been murdered, their cases gone cold, the only connection they had was the shelter, Artemis . Now, Nina is playing the helpless victim, something she definitely is not, and she’s teamed up with a group of women in Artemis who have their own way of dealing with the men who hurt and abuse them. There are no shades of gray in the Artemis, everything is black and white to Nina and the women who decided enough is enough. I loved this story about women taking revenge against their abusers, as well as the many layered Nina, a protagonist women will be able to rally around