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.

What an addictive disturbingly fun read! It really sucked me in and was such an easy read, I highly enjoyed it! It had enough suspense without being dragged out and the characters were developed so well. You could smell the stench in scenes and on people and clearly see their expressions and their mannerisms. Huge fan when it plays out so vividly!

Emmett Burr has two teens break into his home and he retaliates. He can’t reach out to the police because he has his own deep dark secrets to hide. Ben Packard used to visit this small town as a child before he had his own family tragedy tear that apart. He’s back as acting sheriff and is on the case to figure out what happened to these two missing teens and anything else that comes in his way.

It’s all very small town feels with everyone knowing everyone and everyone in everybody’s business. It’s a good read if you’re looking for a not your typical hero cop and his current case type of book.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I'm so shocked that this is a debut novel.

The story starts when Jesse and Jenny break into the house of Emmett, an older man, in hopes of stealing his pain killers. The two teens are caught by Emmett and Jesse subsequently dies while Jenny, wounded, is chained in his basement and kept in the dark. Here she realises she's not the first to be kept hostage.

The story unfolds in the most thrilling manner. The pacing of the story is well matched and the development of characters was well done. The story is a race against the clock and Joshua Moehling did a wonderful job of transferring this nervous, anxious energy into his writing so that you, as a reader also felt this pressure. As a lover of all things mystery and thriller I really enjoyed this book and hope to see more from the author.

I definitely think I am in the minority here in not enjoying this book. I’m super excited to see a debut book get a lot of good buzz early and hopefully a lot of people enjoy it.

I was seeing a lot of early reviews really praising this books for being dark and twisty which are always my favorite types of thrillers. I like ones that mess with your head for days after finishing them. This was unfortunately not that. I did not think it was that dark. I think it tried to be very dark but ended up feeling very strange as far as the tone went. You mostly follow a police detective/stand in sheriff of a small town (which I’m not a huge fan of police procedural thrillers) while he is living his day to day life when he gets a call from his cousin that her daughter is missing. Upon further investigation, the daughter has vanished along with her boyfriend. At first the detective isn’t too worried, teens run off all the time and lose track of time. But then they notice that she has left her insulin and her phone, two things she literally and figuratively cannot live without. So the investigation starts.

The synopsis literally gives away what happens so read that at your discretion. I would say go into it blind to have the most fun reading it. The twist of the situation was what propelled me into finishing this book. But just barely. I felt like some of the conversations this book was as trying to have were done very poorly. There is a lot of homophobia in the town this book is based in, which I know is common for small towns. I live in a small town. I see it every day. But it was how gay characters were treated that bothered me. There is a dog shelter owner who is gay and the way he is treated is over the top and cartoony.
There is also a morbidly obese character with chronic pain and I felt like it was just beat into your head that this character was big. Over and over and over again. Which, again, I know if someone is really obese with a lot of pain, that is something they are constantly having to deal with. But I feel like it was almost used in a way to make this character more likable but it became his biggest personality trait. And if you have read the book, you know he is doing a lot more than just being big.
There were a few reveals in this book. Nothing super shocking. There was one character relationship towards the end that I wasn’t expecting that surprised me on how two characters were tied together, but that was about it.
This book tried to have conversations about pill abuse, generational trauma, homophobia, and small town politics but I don’t think it really fleshed out any of those topics.

All in all, I think if you like police procedural books, you may love this one. I do think for the right audience, this could be a really good book. But it just wasn’t for me. I felt like it really could have been better if it didn’t try to have a million things going on at once.

This book was just okay for me. The premise sounded amazing but a few things that bothered me was that there was no guessing who the bad guy was or what had happened to the two teenagers. You knew right away what was going on. Other than that, it was a bit slow to get into the story and the characters as well. It's worth a read, but again, it was just okay.

I didn't hate the writing in this book, and I thought the premises of the story was great, it is what caught my attention. I did not like that I went in knowing what happened and who the bad guy was. That made it a bit of a slow read for me. There were no twists or turns, just the two points of view, Emmett's who took us through what was happening in the basement, and Sheriff Packard who guided us through the police investigation.

I think I expected more of a thriller and I got a police procedure book, which has never been for me. I think people who are heavy on detective reading will find this interesting, but for me, it was a slow read.

When two teenagers break into a man’s house they will get more than they bargained for with tragos consequences. Acting sheriff Ben Packard is living in the town of his childhood vacations. In Sandy Lake he is running from and returning to tragedies from his past. When his cousins daughter goes missing he takes on the challenge of finding her. I enjoyed the the mystery and suspense of this story. There was a lot of set up surrounding Ben and I could easily see an additional novel coming from this story. This will be a good beach read this summer for people looking for some suspense and mystery.

Very good book I was very lucky to get to read this book so early it is definitely worth reading it is very sad in parts also it would be interesting to see if he is going to write anymore books about the main character I would love to see how much more he could write about this character very good book thank you again for letting me read it early

Just a middle of the road book. I kept wanting more, but the book lacked character emotion, and I couldn't get invested.
Ben Packard is a police detective returning to a small community in Minnesota. Soon a big case breaks, where two teens, Jesse and Jenny, break into a house and go missing.
As the reader, there are no mysteries in this book. From the beginning you know Jesse has died and Jenny is being held hostage. You know Emmett, the man responsible for the death and kidnapping, has a dark past. There are no twists throughout, and knowing the whodunnit from the beginning didn't make this book any more exciting to read.
If you're wanting a book with a lot of excitement and twist & turns, this isn't it.

This is such a great book. I love the characters and the small town setting. Such a great story. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

3.5 stars
The storyline is definitely interesting (and also often very disturbing). Several loose ends left so makes me think the author is hoping to write a series. Im interesting in several of the characters, so I’d read the next one.

A couple of teenagers breaking into a home and the worst thing happens. The home owner is there with a gun! Now to find out what happens, how everyone in a small town is tied together.. Joshua Moehling did a great job in engaging the reader. He had all our emotions in play, at points we felt sorry for the victims and for the perpetrators. I look forward to reading more books in this series (that is a hint this needs to become a series).

I cannot believe this is a debut novel. The writing was tight, the pace was intense, I had a hard time putting it down, and read it in a weekend. The premise starts out simple enough - two teens break into a house to steal prescription drugs. The owner is old, in ill health, and probably easy to control - or so the teens mistakenly thought. And that's when all hell breaks loose. One of the teens ends up dead, and the other is held captive. One of the teens' mothers is the cousin of the new Sheriff in town- Ben Packard. Ben is juggling his own struggles.

The rest of the book highlights Ben's search for the teens as he learns more about the drug culture in town. I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful read. I was given a copy for my honest review, but that doesn't affect how highly I am rating this novel. I'd definitely read more by this author.

When teenagers Jenny and Jesse break into Emmett Burr’s home planning to steal his prescription drugs, they get a lot more than they bargained for. Emmett, an elderly man, has been living in solitude for a long time, with dark secrets to hide. Jenny’s cousin Ben happens to be a detective, who recently moved to the small town to leave behind personal tragedy of his own. He will stop at nothing to find the missing teens, even if it means exposing a secret of his own.

Some parts of this book were hard to read; it reminded me a lot of an episode of Law & Order SVU. I love that show, so I didn’t mind the dark twists in this book. But it definitely is not for everyone; trigger warnings of abuse and imprisonment. I really liked Ben’s character in how he was trying to find his own place in this town while investigating his cousin’s disappearance. Without giving any spoilers, Ben was compelling in his own right in how he fit into a small town that was gossiping about him. Also, most of the characters were battling demons of their own - I thought in a way that made them more relatable. Jenny and Emmett’s dynamic was interesting as well, as it explored that even the worst of people can have the tiniest bit of goodness within them. Definitely a book that will stay with you, as parts of it were downright disturbing. But if you can get past that, it’s worth hanging in for the end.

Thank you to Netgalley, Sourcebooks and Joshua Moehling for the ARC! “And There He Kept Her” releases May 14th.

This reciew will be posted to my Instagram blog books_by_the_bottle shortly 😊