I didn’t read the sampler because I received ARCs of all of these books. Everyone one of them I highly recommend reading.

The only one I completely read was Every Last Fear! What an awesome movie this would make! Thank you NetGalley for an opportunity to read this book for my honest review!
You do not want to miss this highly anticipated psychological thriller! If you have heard the hype then believe it’s true. It was well worth it....
An unfortunate array of events appear to be The Pine’s family’s fate. Matt Pine, a NYU student, received devastating news his family was found dead of an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. Matt’s older brother, Danny, is serving a life time sentence in prison for killing his girlfriend. The case was considered high profile and featured on Netflix which ruffled the townspeople how they were bitterly portrayed. The show tried to show why he was unjustly accused.
Matt’s mom, dad, little sister and brother were on a mission to Mexico after receiving clues that may help Danny’s case not letting Matt know what their real reasons for going.
A lot of twists makes this book an unforgettable thriller and journey while watching Matt seek justice for his family.

This was a perfect little sample of a variety of different titles from Minotaur. Comedy, Psychological thrillers, paranormal/horror and crime are all my kind of books! This gives you a perfect sample of what the books are about and definitely keeps you wanting to read more! Definitely pick this up to see all those titles that I know you will want to add to your never ending reading list.

Review also placed on Goodreads.

Every one of these four books is worth reading in full. I’m not surprised, given that Minotaur (which publishes Louise Penny and Anne Cleeves, among others) is quickly becoming my favorite imprint. Minotaur’s smart mysteries are almost always just what I want to read. The problem with this sampler is that I don’t know whodunnit — times four!

I absolutely adore gettting to check out these samplers, they always give me SUCH great titles to watch for, and as soon as I finished each of these excerpts I added EVERY one to my want to read list! SO excited for each of these - two of which my ARC buddy reading group selected to read together before pub day & I'm thrilled to be on a book tour for The Lost Village - willing to bet each of these books will be a 5 star read for me!

Wow! I love the idea of a book sampler! What a creative way to build excitement for upcoming book releases coming out between January and March 2021.

Thanks to Minotaur Books, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a preview sampling of four mysteries: “Finlay Donovan Is Killing It,” “Every Last Fear,” “The Lost Village,” and “Deep into the Dark.”

I particularly enjoyed “Finlay” as it was super funny, light and fast-paced. I could also related to a harried mother, trying to make a living doing what she loves. But will Alex Finlay do the unthinkable for the chance to break free from her ex-husband? Can she keep her kids without losing her soul?

My second favorite sampler was “Every Last Fear” about a family broken apart by a tragic, untimely death. Are these mysterious deaths related to the father’s accounting firm, laundering money? Is a Mexican cartel involved? Or was it just a gas leak? One of the last living members of the family has to fly to Mexico to sort it all out. And he’s only 21. What will happen next?

This sampler is the perfect way to try out a few different types of books to see what you want to investment more time in. The samples were just the right length (and always left me wanting to keep reading!). My favorite was Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. I laughed out loud more than once and will DEFINITELY be buying this next year to see how it ends!

In the sampler there are four fiction novel samples to read. The first one is “Finlay Donovan is killing it.” Finlay is a divorced mother/author who has 2young children. She is tryig to get them ready so she can meet her book agent sooner than later. As she eats lunch with her agent, her agent wants her to finish her current book she’s writing and get started on a new one. Finlay says she would do it for fifteen thousand dollars in advance. As Finlay gets up and says goodby to her agent, she finds a note under her plate. It offers her fifty thousand dollars to do what?

In the second book sampler “Every last fear, you are introduced to a NYU student Matt Pine. He learns that the FBI are looking for him. He returns to his dorm room fo learn that his family is dead. He only has a brother in prison that is alive. His family had gone to Mexica for a vacation. How did they die?

In “The lost village,” Alice wants to do a documentary film about the village where her grandmother lived. Everyone in the village had disappeared. Alice wants to know what happened in that village. Will she find out?

I only have one problem now. I want to read all four books now — I don’t want to wait! They are all well written. The mysteries made me want to know more. They end just at the place in each novel where I realized that I was “hooked” and didn’t want to stop that sample. They all have suggested dates for when these books will be published.

Wow, I wish more publishers/authors did samplers like this. I will definitely be reading all 4 of these books. I love that I can see if the story, writing style, etc. is for me before investing (or requesting from a publisher) my time for the entire book. I’m so excited for every last fear. Going right into reading that one! Definitely need to do more samplers!

I love when publishers do samplers like this!! I hope they continue to do them. I love being able to tell if a story or writing style is for me without having to request it and then later learn it isn't for me (and potentially take my ARC away from someone who would better enjoy the book)!

I' requested this sampler because I was curious about Every Last Fear. I read that excerpt and I'll definitely be reading the full book. I'll probably read some of the other excerpts in the sampler as well.

Thank you St. Martian Press for putting this sampler together. I really enjoyed reading these 4 thriller book samples. My top two that I have put on my TBR for next year are Finlay Donovan is Killing It and Every Last Fear. The other two were great reads as well. I am really looking forward to diving into these books once they hit the shelves!
Thank you Net Galley for sharing this sampler with me for my honest opinion.

Thank you Minotaur for putting together four great books to preview. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them and already have them pre purchased or purchased whatever the case may be. I cannot wait to finish reading them and will review them individually when I finish reading them.

The Minotaur Sampler: New Books to Make Your Heart Race includes chapter excerpts from four new Minotaur books. Released on 3rd Nov 2020 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 200 pages and available (possibly for a limited time) as a free download in ebook format.

These four books from Minotaur are all top shelf fiction. For anyone (and let's face it, that's almost all of us) who has ever wandered around and browsed in a book store or library to read a few pages of random books and see if we are drawn in, this sampler provides the same experience without being breaking social distancing rules or quarantine. The books all have upcoming release dates from January - March 2021, and it's nice to get a sneak peek before release.

All of the books are very well written - thriller, suspense, and mystery. There are at least 3 of them I'm planning on picking up and reading myself.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I love this idea of a group of books as a sample. What a great way to figure out if they'd be a good fit!
I don't usually choose thrillers, so this was fun to dive just a little deeply into each to see what I'd like. I really enjoyed reading each, which was a fun surprise!
Every Last Fear was probably my favorite, but Finlay Donovan was a fun surprise and had me laughing.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this free sampler in exchange for my honest review.

I've been seeing buzz about two of these books and was excited to get the chance to dive a little deeper into them, the other two were less known for me but automatic adds to my TBR list once I read the chapters provided. I love a good thriller and here I've been introduced to 4! Reading the first couple of chapters really helps get an insight into the book and writing style. Thanks for this sampler, I look forward to these reads.

I love a good thriller and ALL four teases sounded so good! I definitely put a preorder in but it was hard to chose which one!

Four great teases. I can’t wait to read them. I love a good thriller and these all seem right up my alley. Any thriller lover will find something to tickle their fancy!

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the chance to read a copy of this book!

Samplers are always a mixed bag for me, because I'm very picky, especially about mysteries and thrillers. I love a good twisty mystery, but can't deal with anything too scary. So, it was almost inevitable -- THE LOST VILLAGE and DEEP INTO THE DARK creeped me out to much to do much more than skim (dying radios and unstable bridges? nope, I would have turned around miles ago. serial killer POV prologue? NOOOOOOPE). But I adored the other two so much I pre-ordered them immediately, and will request them on NetGalley because February and March are way too far away to find out what happens next!

FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT is hilarious. I'd seen this book before on Goodreads giveaways and was intrigued, which is why I picked up this sampler. And wow this book had me laughing out loud multiple times from this sampler alone! "I liked [Panera] soup. Panera didn't like that I'd poured it over another customer's head." Classic! Finlay's life is such a complete disaster but she narrates and endures with humor. I'm so excited to read the full book, only partially to see what happens--I just want to get more of her voice!

EVERY LAST FEAR by Alex Finlay sucked me in, I couldn't help it. Reading that synopsis I was thinking it wouldn't be my thing, but I gave it a shot, and then could not tear my eyes away--my only note was at the very end: "argh, I have to wait until March?!" So far it's been twisty and breathtaking as the synopsis promised, and I am on the edge of my seat to find out what happens next.

I'm very happy to have picked up this sampler because I've found two must-reads for next year already--always nice to have something to look forward to! Thank you again, Minotaur Books!

Since I'm pretty new in NetGalley and doesn't have a 100% success rate in getting approved for By Request ARCs, I grabbed at the chance to read this Minotaur Sampler that features four of its debut and anticipated by mystery, thriller, and suspense fans. Are you not getting enough approval? Try the Minotaur Sampler and take a peek of not one but five of these incredible books! Now, this is what I call a treat! What a better way to receive a little piece of fast-paced, thrilling, and riveting novels than not having the ability to sample them at all because of limited ARC copy or not getting more approval from publishers because you are a newbie here.

Thank you for The Minotaur Sampler for this creative idea and a great benefit to those who haven't had much success on approvals for by-request high-demand books.

The Minotaur Sampler includes the first few chapters of the following must-awaited books expected to be published next year.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano is a contemporary mystery with Finlay Donovan, a suspense author having a hard time making ends meet as a result of a recent divorce from his cheating husband, as the main character. Fast-paced with lots of single mother angst. I read the first five chapters from this sampler. The scheduled publication date is on February 2, 2021.

Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay is a psychological thriller about the mysterious death of every member of the Pines family while on vacation in Mexico. Except for Matt Pines who stayed in NYU at that time, and his older brother, Danny, who is serving life in prison charged for the murder of his girlfriend, were the only survivors. Anticipated to be published on March 2, 2021, the first seven chapters gave me a glimpse of the story told between the past and present and has several POVs. It is a sensational thriller that promises to deliver.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten is a historical mystery & suspense novel set in 1959. Told alternating between Now and Then has five chapters in the sampler. Alice Lindstedt is a documentary filmmaker fixated on discovering the mysterious disappearance of the residents of The Lost Village. This disturbing thriller's expected release is on March 23, 2021.

Deep Into the Dark by P.J. Tracy, a mystery fiction set in Los Angeles stars LAPD detective Margaret Nolan. Here, you will find seven chapters of fast-paced, captivating, and sometimes funny narrative. The book features two well-developed main characters that are marvelous comic, likable, and spirited. The scheduled publication date is on January 12, 2021.