"He wasn't sure but he tought the walls were painted.....pink. The color had peeled away in places, leaving discolored spots that looked like scabs. He saw a thin mattress covered in dark stains on a metal frame. A heavy chain hung limply through a steel ring bolted on the wall at the head of the bed..........He blindly reached for the inside door handle to pull it shut again and found there wasn't one." And There He Kept Her.

I was hooked from the very start. The story unfolds effortlessly with impeccably drawn characters, each and every one of them, even the minor characters. Moehing writes so well he doesn't have to give us lengthy, wordy descriptions. Their actions, the way the talk, how they look and dress reveal who these people are and how they live. A couple of high schoolers, a boy and a girl, break into an old guys home to steal his perscriped drugs to supply the supplier because he owes him. Not a good idea, not a good idea at all, and things go downhill quickly. Everyone seems to have secrets, some very nasty secrets. The hunt is on to find these two teen-agers when they don't show up at home or school. They leave no clues behind as to where they could have gone, but we, the readers, know exactly where they are and this is what makes this story a realy page turner. The lives of everyone in this small town weave together in one way or another and interconnect.

The author seems to be setting up a second novel built around Deputy Ben Packard and his search to find out what happened to his brother years ago when his brother disappeared and the case went cold in this very same small town. At least I hope so because I will definitely read anything this author writes.

If you like dark, disturbing police procedural stories then this novel is for you! Joshua Moehling’s debut, And There He Kept Her, is a great start to a series. I was immediately immersed in this story. I felt like I was watching a scary movie while I was reading the scenes of what Jenny and Jesse were doing at Emmett’s. Even though you know who the bad people are, and there are some very bad people in this small town, you don’t know how it will all play out. I couldn’t wait to keep reading so I could find out. I also really like Ben Packard as the lead character and look forward to finding out more of his past. I am a huge fan of these kinds of series and am really looking forward to what comes next. Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!!!

Enjoyable. well written but wasn't on the edge of the seat reading. ii wanted a little more. It had the potential to be a 4-5 star read

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling is set in a small town in northern Minnesota where almost everyone knows everyone else. The story centers around a new acting sheriff due to the illness of the elected sheriff and is replete with murders, missing teenagers, girls/women disappearing, drugs (sale of and use), secrets, quarreling neighbors, homosexuality, etc.

Most of the characters are not likable and several of the situations depicted are either irrelevant or downright silly — bow and arrow, three legged dog and reading of David Copperfield to an imprisoned girl*s captor.

I thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read and review an advance reader copy of a book that I found to be tedious reading.

And There He Kept Her is the debut novel from Joshua Moehling. a dark, sometimes disturbing with a pinch of humour page turner.
This novel really encapsulates the small town feel of Sandy Lake where the protagonist Ben Packard has moved.
The story follows Ben as acting sheriff as he investigates the disappearance of two local teens.
As the readers we already know what has happened to them and as such this novel reads more as a police procedural/ dark drama rather than a mystery thriller.
I really enjoyed the character development of Ben with snippets from a tragedy in his past and a more recent tragedy both of which serve as the catalysts for his return to Sandy Lake.
Ben is a really interesting protagonist and I hope that the author has plans to create as series with him.
Overall this is a really well written novel, creating and atmosphere that is intense and unnerving

Thanks to poisoned pen press , NetGalley and the author of the opportunity to read this novel early.

Packard had been hired by Stan Shaw, Sheriff of Sandy Lake eighteen months earlier as an investigator for the Sandy Lake County Sheriff’s Department, but for the last four months, he’d been serving as acting sheriff.

Six months after the death of his lover Marcus, Packard saw the job posting for a deputy in Sandy Lake, Minnesota, the same town where he’d spent his summers as a child.

His cousin Susan Wheeler tells him her daughter Jenny is missing. Jenny snuck out the previous night and didn’t come back. Her mum doesn’t think she ran away because Jenny didn’t take her diabetes kit with her. She asks Packard to look into Jenny’s disappearance.

The reader learns early on that the teenagers have been kidnapped by a man named Emmett Burr who’d do anything to protect the secrets he’s been keeping in his basement.

An interesting small-town police procedural. Definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Joshua Moehling, NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the arc of this book

This was a really solid police procedural! I thought the mystery was really interesting and well done. I loved Ben and would definitely read more books with him!

Thanks to Netgally for an advanced copy for my own personal review.
This books makes my heart beat faster than another suspense book. I really get involved in the story of Sandy Lake. It seems to me that you have everything in one story,
For me there are two important character in this story
For example, police officer Ben Packard has a story behind him that make you cry, has some drama but at the same time you have this man so brave and so on earth that you have the hole package.
Two teenagers are missing in the town so, he has to find them before something bad happen. In his past he lost someone who truly love so, the ghost of this lost chase him.
He has to fight with his own demons, and also has to cover a "secret" that he has no decided yet if he want to reveal or not.


Furthemore this new hero, you have the bad guy. Emmet Burr who is someone so wrong. In his past he did atrocious thing thinking that he did nothing wrong. But he kept and hide women and now that he get older there is nothing good in his life, nothing new, nothing that worth the effort to focus. But then
but then in a flash he does something that will change his peace of mind forever.

You will never be dissapointed with this book, you will enjoyed I recommend it 100%

Two teenagers attempt to break into a senior citizen’s house to steal prescription medication only to be interrupted by the homeowner, Emmett Burr, who is armed and ready to take on the trespassers.

When two teenagers go missing in Sandy Lake, Minnesota, Sheriff's Deputy Ben Packard (acting Sheriff on account of the previous Sheriff’s terminal illness), leads the investigation into their disappearance. The case is also personal on account of one of the teenagers being the daughter of his cousin. As the story progresses, we find out more about Ben's personal life and his family's connection to Sandy Lake including a personal loss from his childhood and the mystery surrounding the same. Secrets from Emmett's past are also gradually revealed. We also get to meet some of the residents of this small town as the police leave no stone unturned in tracing the whereabouts of the two missing teens.

Dark and disturbing, And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling is a well-written debut that I am guessing will be the first in a series. The story is told in a third-person narrative style and switches between Ben’s and Emmett's PoVs. The author successfully weaves in some light-hearted moments in the narrative with the small-town dynamics and an interesting cast of characters among whom are two neighbors who require police intervention to resolve their feuds! The author does cover some important themes- substance abuse among schoolchildren, seniors’ safety, kidnapping and sexual abuse and some of the scenes are more than a bit disturbing. Having said that, I do not consider this book to be a “thriller” in the true sense of the term. Yes, crimes are committed –as sick and disgusting as one might imagine, but the reader knows everything from the get-go - where the missing teenagers are, what happened to them and who is responsible! So all we have to do is follow the police as they uncover the “mystery”- no twists, no shocking reveals and therefore nothing much that makes this book stand out. The police procedural angle was well executed and the Deputy Sheriff’s trials and tribulations in navigating through his not-so-competent department, the gossip mill and speculation about his personal life while dealing with his own personal tragedies made for an interesting story.

While I enjoyed the read and truly liked the main character, I can’t say that this had me on the edge of my seat or rapidly turning pages to find out what happens at the end . Thus, though this is a well-written book, I cannot give it more than an average rating.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the DRC of this novel. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I liked that you know the "bad guy" from the start, but you don't know how it's all going to turn out. I was invested in the characters and how it was all going to end. You get a hint of mystery from our acting Sheriff's past that keeps the door open for a future book(s).. I enjoyed the book and am interested to see what's in store for Ben and the residents of Sandy Lake in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

A taut thriller that will keep you up! The debut offering from author Joseph Moehling is a tightly written, complex mystery that you will not want to put down. When two teenagers, Jesse and Jenny, go missing, Deputy Sherriff Ben Packard, new to Sandy Lake, is on the case. Packard’s character is well defined and immediately likable. While we know early on who the bad guy is, and what happened to the teens, the storyline is fully engaging. The author switches the point of view from Packard to the teens, to Emmett Burr, the scary serial killer, as the novel progresses. Through those different viewpoints, the plot comes together smoothly, with a satisfying ending. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel! Many thanks to NetGalley, Joshua Moehling and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced reader copy.

At first, I would like to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the oportunity to read this book.

Now let's start

In the begining of the book we see two kids trying to break into a house in a search for drugs, but the owner's has a secret to hide inside his basement, so this simple act of burglary turns into a nightmare for those teenagers.

The book is well buildt, it is good to see the bad guy's perspective, to analyse his thoughts and what has he done in the past. Detective/Sheriff Packard is another great character, his past is somehow developed in the book, but no completely, we are probably going to hear more about that in another book.

Overall it is a good and entertaining book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. This was a pretty great read; it had a lot of action from the beginning and I read this in just a few sittings, but I wasn't super attached to the story - in fact, I set it down for a few days to devour another book instead. But I actually really did enjoy the read, especially the main character. I would definitely read another one with Ben Packard! I'd love to see how his story continues.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book. Unfortunately, this is a DNF for me, as it did not hit the right notes with me.

A well written book set in a small town in Minnesota. The author really brought to life the locale
and his description of all the characters. The plot is set when two teenagers go missing. The new acting sheriff is on the case with connections to one of the teenagers. He has a backstory and is running from his truth. I enjoyed the chapters that focused on Emmett ( the psycho). I could have done without some scenes. All in all a good story with a good ending.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my thoughts and opinion.

The novel is set in Sandy Lake, Minnesota. Two teens, Jesse Crawford and Jenny Wheeler are looking for drugs. They hope to score prescription painkillers by burglarizing the home of what they think to be a helpless old man. They expected he would be completely out of it at 4:30 a.m. Well things don’t go as expected and the man, Emmett Burr, catches them and guns down Jesse and seriously wounds Jenny. What they didn’t know, is that this “helpless old man” has designed a room in his basement to hold women he abducts. And Jenny is not his first victim. Jesse is dead and now Jenny is confined in this very creepy pink room. He’s gotten away with this for two decades.

Jenny’s frantic mother contacts a cousin of hers, Ben Packard, the acting county sheriff. Ben as you will learn has his own backstory to reveal.

The story alternates between Packard’s investigation and Jenny’s nightmare, as she’s threatened both by a creepy partner of her captor who raped his previous abductees and looming insulin shock. You see Jenny is a diabetic on an insulin pump and the medicine is vital to her survival.

Emmett is the “good” guy of the kidnappers and doesn't want ant Jenny do die. He goes out of his way to find insulin for her and as time passes, the lines blur between victim, abuser, and protector. The trick is to keep his partner away from her.

Even though the story doesn’t offer twists, turns and shockers, it is an unrelentingly suspenseful story. The reader knows from the get go who are the bad guys, but the race is to see if he can hold onto his secrets which is complicated by his eager partner in crime.

In this take, the author offers the reader a glimpse into the dark depths of the human soul. And There He Kept Her is a thrilling page-turner that introduces readers to a new character in sheriff Ben Packard. I hope there will be another installment as Ben makes his way in Sandy Lake.

law-enforcement, forced-imprisonment, suspense, grieving, triggers, Minnesota, thriller, secrets, procedural, small-town, murder, violence, victimization, family-dynamics*****

Finding the missing teenagers (the girl has insulin dependent diabetes and is without her materials) is the driving force for Deputy/Acting Sheriff Ben Packard who left Minneapolis PD after a devastating personal loss and moved North to the small town where he had family connections.
Emmett is disgusting and has a history of female abuse in a hidden room in his house.
And it only gets worse from there. The writing is good, but the graphic aspects were too triggering for me. I read it, but it wasn't easy because I know that this is more than fiction. The story is grim but compelled me onward to the end.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you.

I really enjoyed this novel by a debut author, I found it to be a dark and creepy thriller, but these are the books I tend to enjoy. I was looking forward to picking up where I left off which made it an easy read for me.
When two teenagers break into a house to steal narcotics things do not go at all as they planned. Emmett, the villain was truly a killer, but at times I found myself feeling sorry for him.
Deputy Sheriff Packard’s character had secrets of his own but put searching for the teens before anything. What he finds out while searching adds more twists to the storyline. I feel that there could be a sequel to this book.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy. I will definitely read more from this author.

I could not put this down!

We have Duel pov with the sheriff Ben and the "bad guy" Emmett, obviously we know who done it straight off the bat, we follow Ben while he puts the pieces together to solve this case.

I'm really hoping this is the start of a series with Ben as we don't have closure with his missing brother, we have the start of a relationship and a small town rocked by murder to continue with!

The suspense throughout had me saying one more chapter at 1am!
For a debut this is pretty bloody good!

Special thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed this book! It held my attention from the very beginning, I loved the character of Packard and hated the characters that I was supposed to! I was surprised/delighted to find that this is the first in a series. Can't wait for the next one. I will look for all books from this author.