Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Her Dying Day by Mindy Carlson.

June is a hopeful film student creating her first documentary. The topic? The still unsolved disappearance of author Greer Larkin (great name!) who coincidentally writes murder mysteries.

There is a whole host of possible suspects that June must interview, from mom, to BFF, to fiance. And they all would have a good reason to want Greer gone. But the closer June gets to finding who is responsible for Greer's disappearance, the more dangerous, and even deadly it gets. Someone desperately doesn't want the truth revealed.

This was okay. I feel comfortable giving it 2.5 stars rounded up. I was never fully hooked. For starters, I didn't like the relationship June was in, at all, and I didn't find it imperative to the story. I also struggled to care about June's connection to a cult in her earlier days. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was never anything strong enough about the story to really help me latch on to it.

Her Dying Day certainly catches you with its very first line! June (aka Pear Blossom) grew up on an isolated commune and left as soon as she could and hasn’t looked back. She’s finishing her last year in college and making a documentary film about the mysterious disappearance of Greer Larkin twenty years ago. After an altercation with her fiancé, Jonathan, Greer went missing and hasn’t been seen since. With the twenty year anniversary looming, June decides that Greer is the perfect subject for her film. Everything points to Jonathan, but there’s just not enough evidence to convict him. As June digs, she starts to wonder if there’s a chance he’s innocent, after all her mother and best friend also had motives. Getting closer to the truth, June finds herself in danger and takes refuge in the one place she never wanted to see again. Through the danger, June comes to grips with the life she’s been living as well as unearthing a deep family secret. Will she also find the answers no one else has been able to uncover about the fate of Greer Larkin? A promising debut by Carlson.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected pub date: TODAY! June 7, 2022 (Happy Pub Day!)
Pear Blossom Jubilee Masterson, now calling herself June, has finally escaped to the big city, New York, after spending her childhood years living in a secluded commune, with only her parents and her cousins for company. Now, June is studying to be a documentary filmmaker (and sleeping with her married advisor) when she gets the idea for her first film, focusing on the disappearance of author Greer Larkin, and she eagerly sets off to investigate. But after meeting Greer’s mother, fiancée, agent and best friend, it is very evident that Greer had some secrets, and when June starts getting threatening messages she starts to wonder- what lengths will some people go to to protect their secrets?
Mindy Carlson’s debut, “Her Dying Day”, is entertaining, pulse-pounding, and absolutely enthralling. June’s childhood, which led to her current life choices and romantic entanglements, make her all the more likable and I wanted instant success for the documentarian/homewrecker. Through it all, June’s dedication to her craft and her desire to achieve made her put her life on the line, and how do you not respect a girl for that?
The story is told from the POV of June, although there are snippets of Greer’s books at the beginning of each chapter, which are apparently based loosely on Greer’s real life. Carlson wants us working right alongside with June, solving the mystery of the disappearing writer, and it worked like a charm- I was instantly pulled in.
Of course, no novel like this would be complete without June returning to the commune and reuniting with her parents. The secrets of June’s childhood are just one twist of many in this non-stop novel! The ending could have gone in any number of ways, and I’m so glad that Carlson chose to end the novel the way she did, with all the questions answered but June still holding true to her values and beliefs. It made me love June all the more.
“Her Dying Day” is a twisty debut, and I look forward to seeing what else Carlson will deliver!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for gifting me a digital copy of the debut novel by Mindy Carlson - 4.5 stars!

Pear Blossom Jubilee Masterson was raised in upstate New York by hippie parents who sheltered her from anyone outside their little commune. The minute she turned 18, she left for college and became June and hasn't spoken to her parents since. Now working on her master's thesis in filmmaking, she once again changes her topic to explore the disappearance 20 years ago of Greer Larkin, a teenage prodigy author whose mystery books June devoured. While exploring the disappearance, she discovers that many people had motive and opportunity for Greer's death, and June may well have brought danger to her own doorstep with her investigation.

I really enjoyed this mystery and the way it was eventually resolved. It kept me guessing and changing my mind along the way. Even though June didn't always make smart decisions with her life, her character made me laugh with her rules of dating a married man and her dealings with the other supporting characters. I can't wait to read more from this author!

3 stars

This one was okay. It was fine. It had two storylines that were intertwined in not-so-surprising ways, and although the basic premise was initially intriguing, it didn’t hold my attention as well as I’d hoped. Full disclosure, I was listening to the audiobook and kind of fell asleep for a brief chunk in the middle; I didn’t end up rewinding because I didn’t seem to have missed anything that wouldn’t allow me to keep following the story, but I guess the fact that I didn’t want to go back was a bit of a testament to how I was feeling about it. Anyway, this one was an okay mystery with some interesting bits, but it wasn’t my favourite.

Her Dying Day was a surprising story of mystery and love. Lots of thriller and mysteries have aspects of love but this one blew it out of the park for me. June grew up on a compound in the mountains of NY and goes to school for film when she finally leaves. She was obsessed with a mystery author who disappeared 20 years earlier and decides to do some investigating of her own to make a movie for her final thesis. What she discovers along the way is much more than what happened, but she also learns so much about herself and about story telling. Genuinely was surprised by this and would felt it was a new take on mystery that I’m not used to.

"Her Dying Day" by Mindy Carlson is a book about a woman who tries to solve the disappearance of one of her favorite mystery authors. Throughout the book she meets a few different suspects, and you're never really sure who did it, until about 2/3 of the way through. Even though I figured out the ending, it was still a good read, and I can see it being a popular thriller.

HER DYING DAY - MINDY CARLSON
4⭐

PLOT - June Masterson decides to make her 1st documentary based on true story of disappearance of fames mystery author Greer Larkin.
As she digs deeper the darker the story gets.
Everyone has a theory Greers mother, her best friend who believe it's her fiance Jonathan, her agent feels she committed suicide and Jonathan feels it's her mother or her best friend. But Rachel turns up dead just as June makes a shocking discovery but the killer won't stop to keep their darkest secret.

MY THOUGHTS
This was a well crafted debut slow burn mystery and a lot of plots were intertwined quite well...where everyone seems to have a motive and benefit from her disappearance.
June's personal story was also quite intriguing i would hv loved of it had a detailed follow up or mention ..may be a new story..
So in all quote enjoyed it!
Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane publishers for this arc in exchange of my honest opinion.

Pear Blossom Jubilee Masterson grew up in an isolated commune and when she breaks away she leaves most of her name behind. She is now June and she is embarking on a film project as she finishes college. As a teenager her reading escape came through books written by Greer Larkin but then Greer vanished. Twenty years later June decides to make that event the subject of her final class project. It won't take long before the past comes after her as she interviews Greer's mother, her agent, her fiancé and her best friend. They all blame each other for her disappearance but most of the focus is on her fiancé. As June goes deeper into the past with the cache of papers, etc. given to her by Greer's best friend, Rachel, Rachel is murdered. Did Greer's mother do it? Or Jonathan? Or was it her agent? Or maybe someone else entirely. June needs to know.
I enjoyed this debut mystery for its complex puzzle and cast of characters. If it's the start of a series I will want to read the next one. If the next book is a stand alone, I'll want to read that, too. My thanks to the publisher Crooked Lane and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

<spoiler> Cheating is a big problem for me. Sleeping with a married man a biggg no... but this isn't a romance novel and it - a mystery thriller so I tried to overlook it (still </spoiler>

June investigates the disappearance of her favorite author from childhood and what she finds in the due course makes for this thrilling mystery...

Though the ending was predictable, it made for an interesting read.

Note: Received an ARC in exchange of honest review.

Will I read more novels by this author? Definitely - if it doesn't have the issue (don't mentioned in the spoiler above.

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Her Dying Day -

Her Dying Day follows June (formerly known as Pear Blossom) as she undertakes her final project for film school. After switching projects multiple times (which isn't normally allowed, but she's sleeping with her advisor Paul) she settles on the dissapearance of Greer, a young crime writer who dissapeared without a trace 20 years before.

June sets about interviewing suspects and friends of Greer's in order to discover the truth. However, once she's started these interviews she begins to get death threats whilst she is out and about.

This novel follows her discovering what happened to Greer, intwined with extracts from Greer's books which provide clues for different extract. It also examines June's strange family and her relationship with her advisor.

I really enjoyed the book, however I would have liked to know a little more about June's past as it was flung in but not really explained. However, I feel that would make a really good secondary book. Althought it was a crime book, this was more like a good old murder mystery. Highly reccomend picking up.

What happened to Greer? Is she dead? If so, was she murdered by her fiance Jonathan or did she commit suicide? That's the question June hopes to answer while making a documentary film. She's been obsessed with Greer since she was a teen living in a commune in the mountains but now she's talking to and emailing with Greer's mother Blanche, her agent Bethany, her BFF Rachel, and Jonathan. Everyone has a theory and everyone is pointing fingers but it's Rachel who ends up murdered after she gives June a pile of Greer's writings. This twists a bit as June investigates a mystery that someone doesn't want solved. There's a subplot involving her relationship with her advisor Paul (inappropriate) that felt extraneous to me. That said, it's an interesting read. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A nice debut.

This debut mystery tells the story of aspiring filmmaker June Masterson - actually named Pear Blossom Jubilee Masterson - who is searching for her final project. She decides to try to solve the mystery of one of the favorite authors of her childhood who disappeared under suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier.

June finds herself heading down dark trails and disturbing a villain who has hidden the truth about the events of Greer Larkin's disappearance. She has a good number of possible suspects from Greer's uber-rich and controlling mother Blanche, to her best friend Rachel, to her agent Bethany Allen, to her former fiancé Jonathan Vanderpoole. All had some reasons why they might have wanted Greer dead. Though most of them are certain that Jonathan had the most reasons.

June is busy trying to get interviews, find police records, track down witnesses from the time while at the same time conducting an affair with her married advisor Paul. Jane sees lots of parallels with her own life in Greer's. June was kept isolated on a commune hidden in the Adirondacks by her very protective parents. Since walking out with all her belongings at age 18, she hasn't communicated with her parents in any way. She equates her mother's own need to keep her overly sheltered with Blanche's determination to do the same with Greer.

When she is given a suitcase of notes, journals and other detritus by Rachel, she combs the material to try to find clues. When Rachel is killed by a hit-and-run driver and June receives threats that echo those in Greer's six best-selling books, the stakes and the dangers increase exponentially.

I liked the story and liked June though I had some questions about her relationship with Paul. I also found the excerpts from Greer's own novels to be pretty sophomoric - not altogether surprising for novels written by a teenager - but could understand why June, who discovered them as a teenager herself, was so intrigued with the author and her stories.

The plot was nicely twisty and some of the revelations were sort of left dangling, but it was an enjoyable mystery.

This was such an easy book to read & it had me gripped right to the end! I love books about true crime and stories that are a book within a book, and this was a wonderful combination of the two. As June is making her documentary about the disappearance of Greer Larkin, she gets dragged deeper & deeper into what happened, and like June, I had to know what happened. There’s some obvious villains in the story, but were they involved with Greer’s disappearance 20 years ago? I kept changing my mind about what had happened, and was on the edge of my seat for the final scenes as the truth was revealed . I really enjoyed this & can’t wait to see what Mindy Carlson does next!

There will be the twentieth anniversary of Greer Larkin's disappearance. Pear 'June' Blossom has prepared for this moment for ten years. She seems to owe Larkin because she's like her generation of Agatha Christie. Larkin's writing has saved her from abject loneliness when she was trapped in her family's commune as a child.

Larkin and Jonathan Vanderpoole, the love of her life went for dinner at a restaurant then the next day there was no trace of her - except a bit of blood in her car at the Kilmarnock Lighthouse. A tantalising, taunting clue. For twenty years, Jonathan lived under the shadow of Larkin's disappearance. They've never been able to find enough evidence to convict.

But when a threatening letter was sent to June, to stay away from the case, then she knows that she makes someone nervous. The slow-burning is almost killing me but I love the main character. Very full of herself. My random question who is Maya Davenport? Can someone shed some light? 😅😅

Her Dying Day is scheduled for release on June 7, 2022. My personal rating 3.8 ⭐

Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for providing an earc inexchange of honest review.

📚

#donereading #HerDyingDay #MindyCarlson #goodreads #ebookstagram #igreads #emabaca #malaysiamembaca

Thank you Netgalley, Mindy Carlson, and Crooked Lane books for my gifted copy!

Synopsis:
It's filmmaker June's first documentary - and it's not just about anything. She wants to uncover what lies beneath the disappearance of her favorite mystery author, Greer Larkin. But the deeper June digs, the more she puts herself in danger. Because someone knows what happened. And they would do anything to keep June in the dark...

My thoughts:
I absolutely LOVED the book-in-a-book aspect, and now I kinda want to read Greer Larkin's novels! Since I studied filmmaking myself, I found it interesting to read a book on it because you don't see that trope a lot. I was absolutely hooked by the way June discovered what was going on, and I thoroughly enjoyed the emotional final chapter. What bugged me was June's affair with a married man and how she handled it. I can't say I liked her, only because of that. Also, sometimes the book felt kind of repetitive, but it was a solid read, after all.

This was my first book by this author, and it won't be my last.

Enjoyable for anyone who is a fan of true crime, which is definitely popular lately. A little predictable, not particularly likeable characters, but it is a quick read which I can see being popular with book clubs.
3.5 rounded up to 4.
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

I found the premise very intriguing and the details behind the mystery kept me hooked. The writing of June's character was an interesting choice.

June Masterson is a documentary film student who is having an affair with her advisor and decides to change her final project topic with five weeks left in the semester to investigate the disappearance of her teenage idol - the Agatha Christie-like author, Greer Larkin. I love a good true crime-inspired thriller and the mystery portion of this book was… serviceable. Everything else? Awful.

First, I have a background in production so maybe I’m being overly critical (I’m not), but it is quite clear the author knows nothing about filmmaking. June shoots a series of talking-head interviews without audio equipment or lighting, shoots on piece of B-roll, leaves the rest to voice-over and is supposed to be the star of her class? No. Just no.

I enjoyed the conversational voice of the book, but June’s idiocy was too much for me to handle. Every piece of the puzzle is handed to her, she faces almost no obstacles and therefore there are no stakes and still, it takes an “epiphany” for her to figure out what I had figured out on page 5. Yes, I am sometimes too good and guessing the endings of thrillers (as are most people who read a lot of them), but if you can see where’s going that quickly, it's because it’s been poorly set up.

There were so many secondary plots that were hastily wrapped up or simply left hanging and the conclusion to her investigation/documentary lacked the kind of character development that would make it make sense.

A middle school English teacher once taught me that the opening line of the story is what grabs the reader's attention and convinces the reader to stick around. Well, “My Dying Day” sure opens with a doozy! We meet June Masterson in one of the most precarious situations imaginable – hiding under her married boyfriend’s bed while he hooks up with his wife. Yikes!

June is an aspiring documentary film student, and the aforementioned boyfriend also happens to be her faculty advisor. After changing her thesis topic for the third time, June settles on investigating the 20-year-old disappearance of wunderkind author Greer Larkin. As June interviews the key players, surfs internet forums dedicated to Greer, and sifts through old documents, she finds herself in danger as she gets closer to unraveling this mystery.

The central mystery is a good one, and I loved some of the plot devices, including the gossipy internet forum and the clever way Greer’s novels tied into the storyline. I was intrigued by the premise of June solving Greer’s disappearance through her documentary research, but this device means the reader is kept at arm’s length from both the victim and the potential culprits, so I found it a little difficult to feel invested in them. Considering the way the story begins, it’s not all that surprising that June is an unlikeable character, and I didn’t care that much about her either. While June’s personal life feels like a distraction from the main storyline, the mystery of Greer’s disappearance was interesting and the ending was very satisfying!

All in all, a promising debut from author Mindy Carlson, and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future. Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.