This was a highly engaging read. While some things could be considered unrealistic, everything ties up pretty nicely at the end. Also, we don't get a resolution until the final chapters, which made the story engaging from beginning to end.

The book is written from Delta's point of view so we get to read her internal struggles and decision-making process. The first few chapters give us insight into Delta's life and the events that led her to become a brilliant photographer who ends up shooting Natalie Straub's eleventh birthday party. We are immediately made aware that she has some serious boundaries and attachment issues. She is lonely and has no support system since her ex-husband has taken her five-year-old son Jasper to the other side of the country. So, she immerses herself in her work and develops an obsessive and unhealthy attachment to the people she photographs getting as far as photoshopping herself into the images she has captured.

The Straubs have the life she has always wanted, so she becomes fixated with the idea of being part of their family. Delta goes to great lengths to insert herself into the family, and she succeeds pretty soon thanks to Amelia's struggle with her fertility and declining emotional well-being caused by her inability to have a baby. We get to see how Delta develops a plan and takes the steps to achieve it.

I was somewhat taken aback by the decisions that many of the characters made throughout the book. For starters, I was puzzled by Delta's lack of interest to see her son. While she mentions him a lot, she doesn't seem to want to pursue a relationship with him. She blames the father for taking him away, but she has just gone along with whatever her ex-husband decides. On the other hand, she's extremely interested and engaged in Natalie's life, and it feels like she's using her as a replacement for her unfulfilled motherhood journey.

The other thing I had a hard time wrapping my mind around was the lack of logic some of these characters have. While Amelia's choices can be easily blamed on her declining mental health caused by fertility issues, Fritz just goes along with his wife's choices. Opening the doors of their home to a stranger and letting her babysit for their young daughter seems like a very bad idea. Both Amelia and Fritz are very trusting of a person they just met, and neither of them questions why she's constantly showing up in their home and offering to do things for them. Usually, wealthy people are apprehensive of letting strangers into their trusted circle, so it was baffling they just let this person in their lives without question.


I liked the way these characters were written.

We get a pretty clear idea about each character's state of mind, and their struggles within the family dynamic. Amelia and Natalie are both dealing with genuine feelings of disappointment and despair caused by Amelia's desire to have another baby. They both have very realistic responses to the choices that Amelia is making to fulfill her desire.

Delta is irrational, and at times, extremely unlikable. She manipulates situations to her advantage and ends up getting what she wants, which made me so annoyed. Her character is written wonderfully, and it makes the story engaging and deserving of praise.


It was a fast and easy read. The story is captivating from the first page, and it only gets better. It's also shorter than the last few thrillers I've read so I was able to finish it in two sittings. Very well-developed story with a satisfying ending.

Capturing memories is a photographer’s job. Delta Dawn, named for the country song by the same name, is an expert in not only recording life’s precious moments, but creating them too. Delta is a character that frustrated, angered, and broke my heart all at the same time. Her obsession drives this fast paced twisted tale where perception and reality are not always in sync. Unsettling, disturbing and extremely entertaining describe this debut psychological thriller by Mary Dixie Carter. I look forward to reading future books by this author.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC.

A solid thriller with a unique feel but I found something about the stakes to be slightly off. I really appreciate that it wasn't another dead girl thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be interesting. It held my attention extremely well, which can honestly be hard these days due to a new pup and it moved well. It had great pacing, good conversations, and characters who stayed true to themselves. I found the plot relatively easy to unravel, but that didn't stop me from reading or being intrigued, which I think speaks to some great writing! I very much enjoyed this one!

4/5 stars

3.5 Be Careful What You Wish For Stars
* * * 1/2 Spoiler Free-A Quick Review
I have mentioned before my amazement at how parents will allow people to assist them with their children without knowing much about them. It seems you need a blood test and family tree knowledge when these same people would let them borrow their car.

This is a cautionary tale of how someone can weasel their way into a family, through ingratiating, making themselves necessary over time, and having the talent to see the insecurities and taking advantage.

Delta Dawn is an accomplished photographer, focusing after years of experience in child portraits. She has learned her craft well, used the innate ability to see how to massage the images to make the best memory of the moment...sometimes making the memory better than the actual moment.

Delta loves this photoshopping, it allows her to be creative, be an artist, and most importantly, own the feeling as if she has made things as they should be. She sometimes becomes lost in these moments, taking these images and making them even more personal...not for the clients, but for herself.

Delta's true turning point in her life is her being hired for Natalie Straub’s eleventh birthday party. The Staubs are the elite, the ones Delta has always strived to be. This opportunity to be there in the home and observe up close opens a crack and Delta slips through and proceeds to holds on.

Slowly, Delta learns of all the needs the Straubs have and makes sure she is there to do them for the family, even the most important one. She will play on their insecurities, the obsession the mother has and decides she is going to be part of this family, come what may.

This was the type of read where even though you knew certain things were coming, similar to those True Crime series of late, the want to see things through to the end was there. How was this going to implode. Logically, the level of education and business experience of this family should have impacted Delta's journey but when those who are oblivious to the feelings of others, only their wants blinded and allow this story to happen.

A Cautionary Tale.

Overall, I felt kinda meh about this book. Not necessarily bad, but not particularly memorable either. Giving it 3/5 Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book for an honest review. Delta Dawn (found myself singing the song) is a photographer - one who specializes in Children's birthday parties and has an ability to make things look better than they are - creating that illusion that EVERYTHING is perfect. Delta gets a job as a photographer at 11 year old Natalie's birthday party and becomes obsessed with Natalie's parts Fritz and Amelia Straub. This was a great domestic psychological thriller that is highly entertaining and has the reader saying WOW.

I flew through this twisted tale of obsession in less than a day. The main character, Delta, is an incredibly talented photographer who captures memories for families in upscale New York. When hired by the Straub family to shoot their daughter’s birthday party, Delta embarks on a mad chase to insert herself into their lives. Delta’s character is very well written and her narrative style is gripping, smart, and all-out creepy. Certain aspects of the story are pretty far-fetched but it’s such a page-turner that I didn’t really mind overlooking the illogical parts of the plot. If you’re looking for a fast-paced book with high entertainment value, look no further! Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

An interesting concept, that of a photographer inserting herself into a family with a lifestyle she wishes were her own. An accomplished manipulator of photos, she is in effect Photoshopping herself into their lives. Unfortunately, the photographer, who is the first-person narrator, is not someone whose head I really wanted to spend so much time inside. Will appeal to readers who enjoy high-concept stories and will certainly be of interest to book clubs as it provides considerable material for an active discussion.

May was a month full of debut authors, for me at least. It's always fun to find new authors and give their writing a try. The Photographer was written by Mary Dixie Carter and is a psychological thriller with strong suspense elements.

Delta Dawn has gotten used to seeing perfection through a lens. That's her job, after all. She photographs New York City's elite: their perfect families, perfect lives, and perfect homes. For the most part, she has made peace with this fact.

That is until she met the Straub family. Something about them woke that green monster buried deep within. She found herself wanting to be a member of the Straub family. To do anything it took to get close to them.

"Some children don't have imaginations because they don't need them."

Overall, The Photographer was a quick and fun read. It provided everything that it promised: thrills, chills, and more than a couple of nail-biting moments. Naturally, it was full of twists and turns and several moments to force character development.

The Photographer is not a novel that will leave readers bored, that much I can promise you. There will be times when readers are asked to suspend their belief, especially when characters are making certain decisions (do parents skip background checks these days? I doubt it).

I wouldn't have minded if the novel had taken things just a step further. Not with the action or the suspense, but with the characters themselves. It's a psychological thriller, and I would have liked to get into their heads just a bit more. That was the crux of the issue for me and the reason why I didn't provide a higher rating.

Still, it was fun and fast and perfect for a rainy day sort of thriller. Which was exactly what I needed at the time, so thank you for that.

Thanks to St Martins and Netgalley for the early copy of this one. in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely a suspenseful and creepy read. Delta is a photographer and takes pictures for a wealthy family's birthday party. Soon she becomes obsessed with the family and gets a job babysitting the girl. Then she decides she needs to be further and further involved in the family.

This was a quick read and I flew through it. Definitely enjoyed it!

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book. This book was a suspenseful book. Some books say that but don’t really mean it. I found myself thinking about Delta Dawn, the photographer and what she was going to do next. The author does a great job of making her just crazy enough so that you actually HOPE she doesn’t do the stupid thing that you know she is going to do anyway. Delta is a photographer for the well to do in NYC and specializes in children’s birth day parties. She meets Amelia and Felix Straub and decides she wants to be part of their lives. She can manipulate photos, why not people? This would be a great read for a road trip. I also highly recommend it for a book club. I can totally see this being made into a movie

I received an ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. The story centers around a photographer, Delta Dawn, who becomes obsessed with a rich family. She basically wants to be part of their family and starts by babysitting Natalie, their daughter. Parts were good but I just felt like there was so much information missing. To say the main character is crazy is putting it mildly. Just okay read.

Is Delta Dawn evil or just plain crazy? I vote crazy. Weird, wild, unbelievably crazy! It's obvious from the beginning that she is a bit unbalanced, but as the story moves on to show her obsession and the lengths to which she will go to get what she wants, it's obvious just how delusional she is.

It seems sad that someone with obvious talent as a photographer should have these obsessive feelings ruling her life. She is definitely creepy and some of the things she did (stripping and taking a bath in someone else's house!!!) had me holding my breath fearing she would get caught. But it was her photoshopping of photos that crossed the line from creepy to YIKES!

I enjoyed the book and yet all the 'twists' didn't come as a surprise to me at all. I can't think of a single one I didn't guess before it was revealed. And I wish there had been more background on Delta Dawn. What made her the way she is? We got smatters of backstory but not enough. Nevertheless, this is a very entertaining book.

I enjoyed this debut, and would happily read another book by her down the road. It’s a fun premise, but I did find the characters a bit cartoony. While Amelia is such a force in the book, I never felt she was actually real, and I found the end to be a bit convenient and flat. That said, it’s a strong debut, and fun to read and tell people to add to their beach bags this summer.

This was a very interesting read.
The story in general was reminiscent of something you've read or seen before in a lifetime Saturday thriller movie.
While it was a slow burn of a storyline it was also a I can't stop reading.
Characters were all in their own ways dysfunctional but cohesive to the story and each other.
This was my first read from this Author and won't be my last.
Thank you to Netgalley, Minotaur Books and the Author, Mary Dixie Carter for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Despite being slow paced and feeling bored sometimes, this was an entertaining read that still held my attention because I needed to know how it ended. I found the twist to be predictable, but I am glad it ended the way it did. A “lighter” thriller, I recommend this to those just starting out reading thrillers or who may be too squeamish to read anything heavier.

Review of The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this in less than two days! This book was very fast paced and difficult to put down. I was extremely invested in the characters and couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

Delta is a NYC photographer with a very good eye but an even bigger imagination. She tends to become obsessed with her subjects and with clever photo editing insert herself into their lives. But when she meets Amelia and Fritz while doing photos for their daughter Natalie’s birthday party, she realizes this family is different and immediately begins to manipulate her way directly into their lives in all ways. The ending was phenomenal.

I highly recommend this one and can’t wait to see what Mary Dixie Carter writes next!

Thanks Netgalley for an copy of THE PHOTOGRAPHER by MARY DIXIE CARTER.
4 STARS, GREAT READ. Now people are going to run background checks before hiring a photographer, after reading this book.

Delta Dawn is The Photographer. She specializes in children’s birthday parties. Rich children. One day, she works for the Straubs. She envies their lifestyle. So, she begins integrating herself into their life. First, by last-minute babysitting of their only child, Natalie. Then, by photoshopping herself into intimate pictures with Fritz and Amelia. She keeps the pictures only for her own amusement, of course. Soon, Delta is almost as much a part of the family as Natalie. What could go wrong?

To enjoy this book, you have to be okay with being placed in the head of a truly odious character, Delta. I really hated her from the beginning. FYI, she doesn’t have a personality arc where she suddenly realizes the errors of her ways. She is consistently icky until the surprising conclusion. Is that a spoiler? No, because it is kind of implied that Delta is mentally ill. But her mental illness wasn’t portrayed genuinely. She seemed more like a selfish and envious sane woman pretending to be mentally ill to avoid the death penalty or jail time. For that reason, I am giving The Photographer 2 stars.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.