People put locks on things when they want to keep them safe. People put locks on things when they don’t want other people to see what they’re hiding inside.

This story sucks you right in and keeps a hold of you until the last page. It’s a story about love, grief and secrets.

The main character, Aaron, just lost his wife, Allison. In losing her he is now discovering she is not who he thought she was. He decides to follow in her footsteps which leads him on a journey that is surprising with many twists and turns.

Couldn’t recommend this book more, another great book by Ronald Malfi.

"Come With Me" by Ronald Malfi 
Genre: Ghost Story, Crime/Mystery 
Release Date: Out Now! 
Rating: 4.5/5 

Click Here to Order "Come With Me" by Ronald Malfi. 

When Aaron Decker married Allison five years earlier, he knew she was an uncompromising champion of justice. Once, when she witnessed a drunk man physically harassing a woman, she cracked his skull with an oar. That had been one of their first dates. 

That's why, when she's killed by a mass shooter, he's unsurprised to learn she put herself in the line of fire attempting to disarm him. It sounds just like her. But as he dives into vast, black pools of grief, Aaron begins to learn things about Allison that don't sound like her. There was another side to her, it turns out. A secret life. 

RELATED: The woman who faced down a mass shooter and inspired Ronald Malfi's "Come With Me."
On the surface, "Come With Me" is an unassuming little genre novel - a brisk crime thriller marinated in the supernatural. It adheres to the conventions you've come to expect from Ronald Malfi. He errs on the side of simple-but-efficient language over vivid, lyrical prose. He opts to obey genre rules rather than employ risky plot beats. If you don't ask much of it, you could inhale the novel over a short weekend. 

But it would be a mistake to treat "Come With Me" like another genre novel. Beneath its mask of conventionality, its a visceral treatise on loss, the lingering nature of bereavement, and the human desire to stoke the flames of grief as long as we can. As Mafli writes: "we haunt ourselves." 

Malfi began writing "Come With Me" when grieving the death of a friend, and it shows. While the story's whodunnit elements keep the pages turning at high-velocity, it's the emotion under its skin that makes it stick. Ultimately, it's the kind of story those of us who have lost loved ones need to hear. In an era of 4.4m dead (and countless more grieving) due to a global pandemic, it arrived at just the right time.

This book was so many things that it is hard to define. A man loses his wife to senseless gun violence and struggles to cope with the aftermath. Thinking that he is being haunted by the ghost of his wife, he finds clues to a secret life that she was living. These clues take him on the hunt for what might be a serial killer while he is pealing back layers of the stranger he was married to. Well done!

Very engaging thriller/mystery with supernatural undertones. The characters were woven well into the tapestry of the plot and there were more than enough chilling moments to keep the pages turning. Great introspection on grief and loss and how we cope. Highly recommended!

TW: Brutal murder scenes, rape references, mass shooter, loss of spouse, death of teens, grieving families, suicide

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence--and her ghost--Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country. Piloted by grief and an increasing sense of curiosity, Aaron embarks on a journey to discover what Allison had been doing in the weeks prior to her death.Yet Aaron is unprepared to discover the dark secrets Allison kept, the death and horror that make up the tapestry of her hidden life. And with each dark secret revealed, Aaron becomes more and more consumed by his obsession to learn the terrifying truth about the woman who had been his wife, even if it puts his own life at risk.
Release Date: July 20th, 2021
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Pages: 352
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 3.5

What I Liked:
• Intriguing storyline
• Loved the writing style

What I Didn't Like:
• The ghost elements
• This book dragged and dragged on for me
• Aaron saying his wife is dead

Overall Thoughts: I'm a huge lover of the Bram Stoker nominees and winners. You should definitely read up on the Bram Stoker Award . So I was super excited to get this book. It sounded like it was going to be a good thriller.

Upon reading this a part of me was curious if the author got this idea from I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" . It reminded me of it a lot.

I find it interesting that everyone remembers his wife when he asks them about her. I can say I believe that perhaps they remember that she visited but people remember specific things about her. I'm also completely confused as to why the cops are giving answers to Aaron. He's not a detective, reporter, or family yet they are just handing out all the things they have about the murders. For all they know he could be involved in it somehow. It was just annoying how every person cop or not was like handing him case files and telling him details that were never released. He's a civian!

I liked that this book had a lot of twists and turns. It kept you guessing. As soon as I was ready to pin it on one character I was snapped back down to having to figure out a new suspect.

It was annoying because in case you didn't know it or read 100 times Aaron's wife was murdered. It was mentioned so many times. It starts to lose the feeling of her being dead when he uses it so many times to get into talking to families of the murdered, police, and the random lady on the bus.

To me the ending was the weakest part. All this build up and that's it?? I guess I expected something more.

Reading the author's notes I'm confused how an office shooting lead to this book about a serial killer killing young girls over 20 years. I can only assume he means it in the way that how grief is left behind for families. Who knows though. I guess the beginning of the story set in motion the rest. I just find it odd to write a book almost devoted to your friend who almost died from a gunman and make a story about a gunman killing the main characters wife.

Final Thoughts: I'd read another book from this author. I liked that authors style.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Come with Me

[Blurb goes here]

This was a wonderful read. The characters are developed and fine tuned you can feel the raw emotions emanating from them. The story, while not fast paced, takes you through a very unexpected journey. I'll be sure to be on the look out for more Ronald Malfi books.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

COME WITH ME, by Ronald Malfi, was another hit for me! Just when you think you've read every kind of haunting tale there is, something unique like this comes along.

After a man loses is wife to a random shooting incident, he finds . . . clues that she was hiding something big from him for years. Driven by the desire to find out WHO the woman he married really was, he embarks on a mission--following the clues she left behind.

" Come with me . . . "

Her last words to him become his mantra, and he picks up in the unexpected place that she left off. While his rambling conversations inside his own head (with his wie), don't prove to be enough, some new development kept me on my toes.

Recomended!

Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. The sudden loss of his wife sends Aaron searching through his wife’s belongings as a means to hang on to her presence. Yet Aaron is unprepared to discover the dark secrets Allison kept that reveal an entirely different life to the one Aaron thought he knew.
Although that is similar to the synopsis I really wanted to keep it as vague as I can so you, dear reader, can go into Come With Me completely open-minded. I have been a long-time reader of Ronald Malfi, so for me to say that this is his best work yet is an understatement. From that first chapter, you are pulled in, experiencing Aaron’s grief and anger all while trying to put together what Allison was up to in the final weeks of her life. Towards the end of the book when the mystery was being put together and I found myself on the final pages of Come With Me, I was literally in my bed sobbing. Come With Me is a story like no other you have heart-SHATTERING grief, mystery, supernatural lore, and a love story at the heart of it all. This is 1 million percent going to be in my top 10 best reads of 2021. I am absolutely blown away, Allison and Aarons’s story is going to stick with me for a while. Happy Reading! x

Loved it!!! Come With Me was such a well written story, I could not put it down.

After Aaron’s wife is killed in a shooting, he discovers she had a secret. He follows in her footsteps and as things become increasingly dark, he finds he did not know her as well as he though he did.

Come With Me is a haunting story which will stay with you long after finishing it.

COME WITH ME is one of the best books I’ve read this year. If you want a psychological thriller, murder mystery, supernatural tale, and love story all in one, this is it! It's a stunning exploration of love, loss and obsession. Aaron’s grief is palpable, consumed by his love for Allison. Yet he learns that she might not be the person he knew. His quest leads him down some dangerous roads. He sees visions and hears strange things. He believes he’s haunted by her ghost. But are they real or the disturbed state of mind of a grieving husband?

The book is written in the second person POV, as if Aaron is speaking to Allison. It takes some getting used to at first but it actually makes his voice feels more personal. The writing is captivating and melancholic. The book’s blend of a murder investigation with the creepier aspects of ghosts and urban legend is done well. There’s a sense of foreboding on every page. While the story has some familiar beats, I thought the plotting is clever and I didn’t see the ending coming! I was left quite moved. When someone you love is lost, who is left to haunt you? Don’t sleep on this book!

What a great read! This turned out to be a mysterious, thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, and slightly horrifying book. It's a mystery and a love story and a ghost story. The tale follows a man in the aftermath of his wife's death--a tragic, senseless death from a shooting at a shopping center. In the afterword, Malfi reveals that the germ of this story came from a workplace shooting that claimed the life of a friend of his. That made the reading of this book all the more poignant, knowing that what our character is working through in his grief is the experience of so many--too many--people in today's world.

I found many parts of the book to be chilling: I love a good ghost story and this one has just enough of the haunting to keep you on your toes. But it also has a page-turning mystery that will engage the reader. In addition, the book explores how well we really know our loved ones and, just as important, how well we really know ourselves. The end was very clever, too. I think this one will stay with me for a while.

Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. The unexpected events leave Aaron broken and as he remembers his wife makes a discovery at home. Was Allison keeping things from him? Did he really knew his wife?

A fantastic mix between a serial killer mystery thriller and a story about life, death and grief. The pacing of the story was just perfect and the writing was beautiful and immersive. As we follow Aaron in his quest to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and discover who Allison really was, we also get to solve a big mystery.

This slow burning fantastically threaded mystery thriller is full of interesting characters and keeps the reader guessing.

Thi has been my first Ronald Malfi book. From page one I could tell I loved his writing so much that I already knew I would be checking out more of his novels.

Aaron Decker didn’t know when his wife Allison left their home on a cold December morning that it would be the last time he saw her alive. Her last request to Aaron, “Come with me,” still ringing in his ears hours later when he is identifying her body in the morgue. Living with the guilt of not accompanying Allison on her fateful shopping trip, as well as for the distance the couple had been experiencing in their marriage as of late, Aaron can only function if “Other Aaron” takes over and pilots him through his life--work, eating, accepting condolences, and activities of daily life that are too daunting for Aaron. But even “Other Aaron” can’t help Aaron when the memories--and ghost-- of Allison begins haunting him.

When he begins to go through Allison’s belongings, he finds a mysterious receipt for a seedy motel paid for in cash--a trip she took without him. Thinking the worst, he frantically searches their home, only to find a gun and a folder full of dead girls from all over the country. What was Allison hiding from him?

I really don’t want to give anything away or spoil the story, but this book was just….wow. Come With Me is one of my top books of 2021, no contest. First off, Malfi’s choice to tell this story as if Aaron were in conversation with Allison was brilliant. It instantly immersed me in the story. Aaron is a likable and sympathetic protagonist, you feel his pain and confusion throughout the book as he sets out to finish Allison’s unfinished business. Second, this book will make you question relationships both familial and romantic and leave you thinking, “How well do we ever know our loved ones?”

This book was creepy, heartbreaking, and will have you hooked from page one. Please make sure you read the author’s note after the story is finished, it is a beautiful testament to the friendship of the author and the inspiration for the book.

5/5 Stars
Thank you to #NetGalley and #TitanBooks for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

WOW!!
This was my first book by Ronald Malfi and it certainly won't be my last. What a beautifully haunting story.
Ronald has such a way with words, they flow so smoothly you can't help but keep reading! Likeable characters, an eerie atmosphere throughout, and a brilliant storyline. I absolutely loved this book. 🖤

I really enjoyed this book (which has a gorgeous cover). Ultimately it's a pretty straightforward "hunting a serial killer" story, but with the twist that the (now deceased) wife was the hunter and her widower, Aaron chooses to take over her search to both find the killer, as well as understand his late wife, Allison and the secrets she kept from him.

The story starts out a tad slow with the death of Allison and the hint at some paranormal elements (which remain genuinely creepy throughout the book). What's great is that these elements add to the story, whether you believe they're real or not. They are not central to the plot. The main "ghosts" in this story are not the things that go bump in the night but Aaron's memories of Allison and the memories of the murdered girls by the people who loved and looked for them.

The book really starts chugging along when the traditional hunt gets underway. Obviously this is a well-worn plot line, but Aaron's ignorance about what he is looking for an why breaths some new life into this device. I'm always trying to guess the killer in these types of books. If I reach the end and am genuinely surprised by the reveal, I'm a happy camper. This book fit that bill.

I felt like the book's ending dragged on just a bit (I didn't really need to know every last detail about the killer's full story), but I though the final moments were lovely and unexpected.

Mostly this book gets five stars from me because it's memorable. I read a lot of these types of stories and always have a hard time for my year-end wrap up recalling plot lines, titles, etc. I suspect this one will stick with me for awhile. It's not a perfect book by any means, but it's unique and artfully constructed.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!

Though I’ve only read 3 Ronald Malfi books so far, I number him among my favorite dark fiction writers—he hasn’t let me down yet, and <i>Come with Me</i> lived up to my expectations! Though I do wish Malfi had utilized some of the horror elements he hints at throughout the narrative, what he has concocted is a solid, engrossing mystery built on love and grief.

With an ending that wraps things up perfectly—in fact, I think this is the sort of book that gets better as it goes along—this is an incredibly well written suspense story and worth the hype it’s receiving. <i>Bone White</i> is probably still my favorite Malfi novel, but this is a close second.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the advanced copy. Ever since I read Bone White by Ronald Malfi I have been hooked. His writing style sucks you in and makes you long to get back to the book to find out what’s next. It’s been a while since I’ve connected with an author that I can just sit and go through the book in one sitting. This book was phenomenal and I recommend it to any style of reader. I think there’s aspects of this book that would appeal to all.

This is a first Malfi book for me and it won't be the last! I like his style a lot and his storytelling skill are great. A book that kept me on the edge of my seat and that I will recommend to many readers!!

Searching for the true identity of his murdered wife, Aaron finds clues that lead him on a journey through her tragic past and finding a terrible secret about her.
Ronal Malfi skillfully builds the feeling of restlessness that permeates the whole book with that supernatural touch that makes the difference with other thrillers and makes it a fascinating and addictive read.

Ronald Malfi is my favorite author, so I was so thrilled to receive the ARC to his new book! I loved this one just as much as all his others!