I enjoyed this second book in the series. Reni Fisher and police detective Daniel Ellis both have traumatic pasts, but are able to work together to solve crimes. In this case, after a group of hikers disappears, they try to sort fact from fiction in a race to find the missing young women before it's too late.

Tell Me, the second book in the Inland Empire series takes off a few months after the events of the first book. Criminal profiler Reni Fisher and detective Daniel Ellis team up again to solve the disappearance/kidnapping of three female teenage influencers from a campsite on California's Pacific Crest Trail where their trail guide is found murdered while trying to come to terms with the personal, traumatising events of their own lives. I loved the first book and its no surprise that I equally enjoyed the second book as well. Anne Frasier does not waste words in her story telling and you just want to keep on reading.  In my review for the first book I said that Reni Fisher and Daniel Ellis are great new additions to an already impressive line up of fictional crime fighters and I stick by it. Both Reni and Daniel are solid, dependable characters who look out for each other in every way possible and this book hints towards a possible romantic relationship starting between them in the future which I really wouldn't mind.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Thomas and Mercer and the author Anne Frasier for the e-Arc of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer publishing, and the author Anne Frasier for this ARC of “Tell Me.”

In “Tell Me” (the second book in the inland empire series) Detective Daniel Ellis and Former FBI profiler Reni Fisher are back and are working together to investigate suspicious video footage trending on social media of a body found in a tent in the woods. Reni is hesitant to help in this case after the events a few months back but decides to help Daniel as she knows this area of the woods well. As the two work this case together Reni also works to investigate Daniels past and makes a discovery that she struggles to tell him about.

I was very excited to read this book as I loved the first one! This book tied up some loose ends from the previous book without rushing these details in the first book. I did find this book to be a little bit more slow compared to the first and I didn’t love the story line quite as much. I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys crime/thrillers! I would definitely read another book by this author!

Always a delight to catch up with characters from previous reads. Tell me wasn’t quite as good as it’s predecessor, but still pretty darn good.

⭐⭐ -- Disappointing sequel

I had such high hopes for this one. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but this one was just...bad. It was slow. Predictable. The plot was all over the place. I even found Reni to be annoying and self-absorbed...sigh. It is what it is. I am still onboard to give this series another try. So 🤞🏻 the next book gets back on track!

**ARC Via NetGalley**

Criminal profiler Reni Fisher retired from the FBI following a breakdown and Daniel Ellis is a San Bernardino Sheriff's office detective. They worked together in the first book, where Reni's serial killer father, Benjamin Fisher, promises to reveal burial sites of his victims in the Mojave Desert. Daniel believes his mother's disappearance was related to him. When a video surfaces on social media of a dead woman's body in her tent, Daniel contacts Reni for help to find the possible murder site.
At the campsite on California's PCT, a guide is found murdered and three young women are missing. The women were part of a retreat/rehab that kept them away from their social media addiction and they were camping and hiking the trail. Were these women involved, was it staged to gain more followers, or are there other other sinister forces involved?
Frasier once again does an excellent job of immersing the reader in the location and makes you feel like you have personally experienced it. The young women appear as though they are shallow interlopers in the age-old forest that holds its own secrets. Some nice twists and turns and a great ending. The friendship between Reni and Daniel continues to develop as they both try to cope with past trauma of their childhoods and they begin to become reliant on each other. I highly recommend this author and this series. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In Tell Me, Anne Frasier’s gripping sequel to Find Me, we are back to the Mojave Desert and the Inland Empire area in Southern California. If you haven’t read Find Me, but are planning to do it, you should start from it. Tell Me provides re-cap of the main points of the previous book, so it would definitely diminish the effect of the narrative.

Find me provides closure for one of the two protagonists (Reni Fisher, a former FBI profiler and daughter of the Inland Empire killer, and Detective Daniel Ellis, whose mother disappeared when he was eight and might have been a victim of Ben Fisher) and we know there is more to the story. The new case of three sixteen-year-old hikers who disappeared from a campsite on the Pacific Crest Trail is fascinating on its own. The girls were sent to a digital detox retreat by their parents and went on a three-day hike with an experienced guide. The dead body of the guide was later found lying in her tent by two passing hikers, one of whom posts a video on the social media. Some people suspect it's a hoax, but Daniel instinct tells him to check the story out and there isn't anyone he'd rather ask to help him than Reni.

Overall, I liked the plot, but there was so much going on, so many topics: social media, school shootings, PTSD, incels ( I had to look the word up), pressures of parenthood and others. It could have all falen apart, but for Anne Frasier's superb writing style-she really knows how to engage the reader with plenty of action and clever twists. Told in short, snappy chapters, the book is very easy to read.

Both Reni and Daniel are wonderful protagonists. Their empathy with the victims and perpetrators alike (for Daniel there are no evil people, just terrible choices these people made) helps them in their investigations. By the way, the sinister bird on the cover for both Find Meand Tell Me isn't just there to give the readers creeps. Reni used to be fascinated by birds as a child and drew them a lot. Her father taught her to make her drawings as accurate as possible and this ability to focus on details is another factor (together with empathy) that makes Reni so good in her job of finding missing people.

The setting is one of the best features of these two books. Here we have hiking trails in addition to the desert and its healing powers. For Reni, the barrenness of the dry season is temporary-she knows good months, full of magical flowers and amazing colours, will come.

The ending was just perfect. With all the loose ends tied up, The Inland Empire series can end here, but we have two likeable protagonists who make a wonderful team together and perhaps Anne Frasier will decide to give us another story- I'll be there for it!

Tell Me is the second book of the Inland Empire series. It can be read as a standalone but it picks up right where Find Me leaves off. This is a short novel, but it doesn’t leave you feeling like something is missing. I really enjoyed this crime thriller. There are lots of clever and unexpected twists. It made it hard to put the book down. The pacing was great and the character development continuing over from book one was superb. I highly recommend this one to any mystery lover!

Thanks to #netgalley for the early copy of #tellme I don’t usually go for series and admittedly read Find Me without realizing it was first to a series. That said, I’d been waiting for this book for about a year and it did not disappoint! While it did have a bit of a slower start, I like the way the story built up and loose ends were tied. I also gotta give props to the author’s acknowledgements 😆 It’s the first time the acknowledgment section makes me laugh.

A. Frasier takes us from the deserts near Joshua Tree to the mountain passes of the Pacific Crest trail, as Reni and Daniel race to solve not only the case of who killed the leader of a teen hiking group, but what happened to the missing teens in the group.

As always, Frasier writes with an elegant and descriptive flats that brings not only the story to life, but her character's emotions and psyche also (something that I think is a key element for why her thriller books are so good). Her characters are broken and damaged, have experienced the pain and trauma associated with violence, making all that more human and realistic as they process the scenes they are in. I really haven't met a A. Frasier book I haven't liked. As a desert rat myself, I'm liking these series because she brings light to the stark and barren beauty that is the desert. Something I appreciate.

Tell Me by Anne Frasier

9781542025560

285 Pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Release Date: July 27, 2021

Fiction, General Fiction (Adult), Mysteries, Thrillers, Suspense, Kidnapping

Three teenage girls from a posh addiction facility go hiking and camping with one of their counselors. The next morning, two of the tents are empty and a dead body is in the third. Detective Daniel Ellis gets called into the action since one of the girls is the daughter of an ex-girlfriend. Daniel knows he needs the insight and hiking skills of Reni Fisher.

This is the second book in the Inland Empire series. It is written in the third person point of view, the characters are well developed, and the story is fast paced. I really enjoyed the first book in the series and looked forward to reading this one. The teenagers were annoying, but I think they were written that way on purpose. I like that we see how much Daniel and Reni grow as characters throughout the stories.

I’m really a fan of this series. The first book was really good. I like the characters and the action.

I was eager to read this sequel and found it to be a strong follow up to the first book! The twists I found to be interesting and I loved the atmosphere that was set in the book. It kept me wanting to turn the pages and I will continue to read books from this author.

The Pacific Coast Trail features prominently in this murder mystery. Three residents of a program for giving up electronics and their guide are hiking it. The guide's body is found, while the other three girls are missing. Two investigators, familiar with the area, look for clues.

The story held my interest and kept me reading, but I can't say that I loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4160730547

Another book which invites you into the lives of people and lets you watch the horror of their deaths, you start on a camping trip with petulant teenagers and end up at a murder spree. You revisit the hero's of Find Me as they try to find the killer and hope to recover survivors. All of this authors books deliver a good read.

Reni Fisher is a missing person detective on leave due to the horrific and devastating events she was personally involved in several months ago and has been suffering from traumatic PTSD episodes almost daily and she is now unsure if she will ever be able to return to the work that was her entire life. Daniel Ellis, also a detective and close friend to Reni keeps tabs on her so she doesn't bury herself in the isolation that she has chosen to retreat into. When Daniel is presented with a case somewhere in the mountains where three young hikers have vanished and their guide murdered, the only clue is a mysterious video showing the gruesome scene left behind and the owner of the video nowhere to be found. Daniel knows Reni Fisher is the only person who can help him since she knows the mountain trails inside and out. Daniel doesn't have much time to spare and knows this case could help Reni as much as break her but he needs her wilderness expertise as well as her sharp detective skills if there is any chance to find these girls and if they act quickly, hopefully they can bring them home alive.

I really enjoyed this mystery/crime thriller written by Anne Frasier. There are many clever and some surprising twists and turns throughout the story (which I love) that made it hard putting the book aside when I only wanted to keep reading. The story has a great pacing and momentum where I felt very connected to the characters and cared about what was happening to them as they encountered some very tricky and deadly situations. A great cast of many characters but written in a style where I remembered who everyone was and I never felt lost within the story. This is a second book in a series which I didn't realize at the time but this story definitely can be read as a stand-alone without any problems although I can't wait to read the first book "Find Me" to discover the previous history of Reni and Daniel and hopefully there will be a third and fourth book because I am soooo hooked! I highly recommend this descriptive and well-written and atmospheric story to any mystery reader!!

I want to thank the publisher "Thomas & Mercer" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this exciting story 4 ATMOSPHERIC AND DRAMATIC 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

As always an exceptional book from Anne Frasier. The characters so real you feel as if they are real and a storyline that makes you want more.
Twists and turns always keep you guessing and this is a book I’d highly recommend especially for those who don’t require sleep since it’s hard to put down.

Tell Me by Anne Frasier, Book 2 in the In.and Empire Series.
This was a thrill ride and when you think it’s over, it isn’t. A very twisty ending. Really there is more than one twist.
There were just two small annoyances. One was a character named Lucas Davenport and I wonder if it was a mix up or an homage to the John Sandford series. Either way it was kind of distracting. The other thing would be a spoiler to say too much but her medical treatment info was out of date on something that happens toward the end.
Even so, a good thriller that I finished in one day.
Thanks to Netgalley.

another wonderfully crafted mystery! i binged this (and the first book) within 48 hours. the biggest thing keeping me hooked (and wanting more books in this series) is the dynamic between the two main characters, daniel and reni. they just work well together. anne fraiser has a gift for crafting characters who have been through it and trying to heal as well as a gift for good and intriguing mysteries. definitely recommend this series (this is the 2nd book).

Tell Me is the second in the Inland Empire series. I have not read the first book and it made a difference. Frasier does give us a fair amount of background, but I still felt there were holes in my understanding of both Daniel’s and Reni’s backgrounds, especially at the beginning of the book. Still, I enjoyed the story.
Three girls and their guide are hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as part of a social media addiction treatment program. The guide is murdered and the three girls go missing. A pair of hikers stumble on the camp, take pictures of the dead body and upload the video to social media. A bit of irony, mais oui? Then they go missing.
I connected with both of the main characters. They both have emotional baggage but are smart and committed and finding ways to deal with their own issues that don’t involve alcohol or drugs. Of course, it helps that Reni is a dog parent, even though Edward isn’t a big factor in the storyline.
The story was nicely complex with lots of moving parts. The pace was Goldilocks right, not too slow, not too fast. I was really impressed by the ending and all the twists at the end. There’s a great sense of place. Of course, after reading the Author’s Note, it made perfect sense as because of the pandemic she changed the location of the story to her own backyard. And after this book, I have a much better appreciation for how bad the Santa Ana winds are.
I fully intend to follow this series going forward.
My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of this book.