A good premise -- a lawyer is given a wallet of a priest/high school teacher who was murdered 20 years ago. She (and many other students) had connections with him. She takes his wallet to a detective who begins looking into this cold case. I wanted to be more absorbed in this mystery than I was. However, there were MANY characters who sometimes go by their first name, other times their last name, and a lot of jumping around in time. I was confused at times and felt like I should have been reading this like a textbook where I'm trying to remember info.

This gripped me from beginning to end , enjoyed it thoroughly, great story all the way through,…. Would recommend it ..

When the wallet of a priest is found 20 years after his murder, a cold case may finally be closed.

The concept of this story is intriguing, but I found the characters difficult to connect with.

The story relied on flashbacks to reveal how the events of the mystery unfolded.

And with lots of characters and sub storyline’s it made the narrative somewhat messy at times.

An intriguing premise but not the story for me.

I was captivated from start to finish with this book. It was the perfect length. Not too long, not too short.

The next book I've read I also received via @netgalley . It's Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman. It will arrive on October 11.

The premise of this book is quite interesting. An object found causing a 20+ year old case to be opened. A lot of the main characters from the past have died making the investigation so much more difficult. There are also quite some storylines from different times (from the 80s to the 10s). This made it interesting but also difficult to follow.

Although the story itself is intriguing and the pace of it is good as well, the number of characters (who are sometimes referred to by their first name and later by their last name) makes it all too difficult to focus to keep them apart. There are just too many characters combined with too many jumps in time for it to flow nicely.

All in all, the story is interesting but how it is conveyed needs work.

Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman begins with a glimpse into the days, months, and years leading up to the presumed murder of Father Michael Leary in Billings, Montana. Could his murder have anything to do with the group of teenagers who were counseled by and gained so much from him? When Lindsay Keller, one of those teenagers, finds his wallet, years after his disappearance she begins to wonder.

This mystery is compelling and sometimes dark leading the reader into a dark world of fiercely guarded secrets. It is well-executed page turner. There are many characters so be prepared to pay attention and get ready to sit on the edge of your seat as you read. (I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy and all opinions are my own.

LOVED! I love a good flashback and this was the one for me! I definitely recommend picking this one up to everyone I come across. The plot was good and the characters were interesting. Thank you netgalley for the copy!

Although you kind of have an understanding who the bad guy is from the start, you don’t know how or why. And the author does a great job of keeping that a mystery until the very end. There were a few times I had to go back and reread a spot because I felt like I missed something but that could entirely be my attention span. The book kept me wanting to read even when I really didn’t have the time to spare.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Blind Faith

This book was just flat out weird and creepy, and I was totally here for it all. It kept me on my toes which I love, and I look forward to adding a physical copy to my collection soon!

Blind faith was a captivating concept, which I was very excited to dive into.

The pro for me was that each character had a great back story that came together seamlessly.

The cons for me were a lot of repetitiveness with verbiage and reiterating certain storylines.

The ending was quite predicable but nevertheless I enjoyed the novel.

This book blew me away! What a book, it should be made into a film!
Although I am not usually a big fan of flashbacks, this is done very well.
The mystery story is solid and believable, the characters are very likable and the scene is nicely described,
Really enjoyed the book and the end is nicely done.
Would recommend this book to any mystery readers with no hesitation!

This book was good, I enjoyed it. At times there were a lot of characters and it was hard to keep up but I did! I think there were many secrets to uncover which made this exciting and thrilling. The characters were well developed and made the story!

The plot and mystery of this story were intriguing. I didn't much like the ending. There were so many characters and storylines that I found myself losing track and getting confused. I also noticed a lot of core story issues that need more editing.

An old wallet reopens a twenty year old cold case involving a missing priest. An intricate, long read. The name Aiden needs to be replaced with Asher. Needs quite a bit of editing.

I throughly enjoyed this book.I went to catholic schooling so the story line was right up my street.A good plot and very interesting characters just added to the overall pleasure of this book.I will be definitely be mentioning this book to the UK Mystery Book Club.which I belong to.

This is a fast moving, exciting and gripping fictional story which I was very excited to read.
Bringing many characters together in different ways to ultimately solve a historical crime, this book is well written and would definitely be a recommendation from me!
Unputdownable!

Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman is an interesting mystery with layers of secrets to uncover! Lindsay Keller became disillusioned with her profession as a prosecutor after a case left her feeling disappointed and upset. She decided to switch over to business law dealing with real estate and historical preservation projects. She receives a call one day from an acquaintance who tells her she has found a wallet that had been in storage for years and asks what she should do with it. When Lindsay learns the identity of the wallet owner, she offers to take it to the police station. Lindsey feels a personal connection to discover how the wallet of her friend and mentor, Father Michael Leary, came to be hidden in a storage bin for so many years. The crime of the priest's murder was still unsolved after all these years. Lindsey opens the wallet and sees the picture of a girl inside. She thinks she may know the girl and decides to keep the picture and investigate on her own who would have killed the kindly priest. She takes the wallet to leave with Detective Brian Donovan. The detective's interest in solving this case becomes his priority.
Soon there are more questions to answer and links that connect the fate of the priest with other families in the community. The story weaves memories of people who misunderstood things they observed nearly twenty years ago. The story is complex and learning the truth about what happened in the past is Lindsey's goal of finding justice.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the opportunity to read this book.
Publication Date: October 11, 2022

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I struggled with this one: there were so many characters (sometimes referred to by last name, sometimes by first), so many time frames between which the narrative constantly switched, so many different narrative perspectives, and so many people potentially related to one another. I wished I had created a spreadsheet from the beginning to keep track of things. I liked the 2016 sections from the perspectives of the lawyer and the detective and I wish the story had been weighted more heavily in their direction. The actual resolution of the mystery seemed a lot of a stretch to me.

336 pages

4 stars

This is a captivating novel.

Lindsay Keller was formerly a prosecutor. After a particularly devastating case, she now deals with mostly real estate. When one of her clients drops by with an old wallet, Lindsay accepts it.

She is transported into the past. The wallet belongs to Father Michael “Mike” Leary. Father Mike was a key figure in Lindsay’s life. He taught at her high school and instilled in Lindsay her sense of justice and fair play. He was kind and his classes were always interesting. They talked about everything: politics, sex, relationships and so on.

Father Mike was murdered nearly twenty years earlier. He was called out by a woman to visit a dying person and never returned. His car was found later, wiped clean.

She takes the wallet to Detective Brian Donovan who is very interested in the Father Mike Leary cold case.

This book takes the reader through a complicated and twisted history of (mostly) three families. The families are each intertwined with Father Mike in different ways. The reader also gets glimpses of the past, as high school kids and the present, as parents with their own children and grandchildren. The difficulties of everyday life are discussed.

This book is well written and plotted. The characters are lifelike and very real. I felt like I was in the background watching and listening to all that was going on. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will certainly look into Ms. Beckman’s other novels. I liked Lindsay, Carrie and Detective Donovan. Lindsay and the detective are very alike in their desire for justice. The book is riveting.

And Father Mike’s murderer? I had my eye on them from the moment I met them.

I want to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Twisty and fast-paced, this book will have you flipping the pages quickly to find out what happened.
Blind Faith was not what I was expecting at all! In a good way!
The mystery and how everything keeps you guessing..... you just have to keep reading to find out the answers.
Alicia has done an amazing job of creating not only very believable characters but a very vivid scene.
I enjoyed this story and the suspense it held.

3.5/5

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Crooked Lane Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!