Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this thriller.

Though i've enjoyed several others of Finlay's books, this one didn't do it for me. I didn't like the characters, so they were hard to root for, and overall, it just didn't do. much for m.e

3.5 stars rounded down.

I raced through this thrillingly twisty romp though it was a little more sadistic than is my preference and I felt the author didn’t quite stick the landing.

Twenty five years ago, five children who were in the bleakly unpleasant Savior House group home committed an act that comes back to haunt them in the present day. Told through the eyes of Jenna, a sort of female Jason Bourne (don’t roll your eyes!) who worked for the shadowy Corporation, Nico, a reality TV producer, and Donnie, an alcoholic and washed-up rockstar and the book starts with a roar as each of these three are targeted by a surprisingly incompetent but persistent and very unpleasant hit woman.

Though they all survive, it’s clear that whoever is after them isn’t going to stop, so they must revisit the past to find out who is targeting them.

Short chapters with cliffhanging endings keep the fast pace up and if my credibility was strained a few times it was easy to get over that as I galloped past. My main beef is that the resolution of the mystery gets a bit lost in all the shooting and whatnot. I also did not appreciate that Jenna was not given much agency in the final denouement.

If this sort of thing is your cup of hocum, it’s a fine way to while away a few hours on a wet weekend.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Much thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press/Minotaur for the ARC on Alex Finlay's latest and one of the author's most entertaining thrillers yet.
Initially, I worried about the premise here. Oh no....not another group of friends haunted by a terrible crime of their adolescence, a shared guilt that's now come roaring back to put them in harm's way. I dreaded plowing through an onslaught of angst-ridden internal monologues.
But what a terrific surprise in store for any reader who picks this up.......a non-stop, breathless thrill ride guaranteed to make you lose track of whatever you're doing, not moving an inch until you've finished it.
Alex Finlay throws multiple, familiar genres into the mix.......starting with a bunch of emotionally broken, abused, orphaned teens trying to survive in a horrific group home. 'Savior House, its very name a sick joke, is a nightmarish hellhole right out of a Stephen King novel riddled with corrupt neglect and violent bullying. And the victims of this abysmal place, suspect its caretakers of kidnapping and sex trafficking.
But this small group of the tormented Savior House kids strike back and manage to escape the hellish house, leaving a buried body behind them.......a secret that comes back to throw their later lives into lethal jeopardy.
Now, as grown adults with a host of dysfunctions and troubles, four of them just barely survived attempts on their lives - Nico, a gambling addicted reality TV show producer, Donnie, a washed up, drug and booze addled rock star, Artemis, a powerful tech billionaire and Jenna, a former graduate and operative of one of those 'La Femme Nikita'-'Orphan X' assassin academies. But another of their original group wasn't so lucky.
The hit-girl tasked with killing them all is a scary young sociopath, who can uncannily appear in two places at once, and wields that pneumatic captive bolt-firing tube favored by "No Country For Old Men"s infamous killer Anton Chigurh.
What follows from this point on..... the book lays out an unrelenting chase as Jenna and her surviving Savior House friends become both hunters and hunted, unburying all the terrible dark secrets of their past and staying out of the crosshairs of ......well, that's another of the book's many twists you won't hear from me.
All I can say is that I raced through "What Have We Done" at record speed, one of those books where you constantly find yourself saying..."just one more chapter and then I'll pack it in for the night"....and then end up awake to read way more chapters into 3 'O clock in the morning.....
And that makes this one a pure and simple 5 star thriller..... a must red for armchair adrenalin junkies.

This one was a little meh for me. Jenna, Donnie, Nico and Benny were all in a children’s group home growing up where some awful things happened. Jenna wasn’t there for long as she was taken and trained to be an assassin. Donnie grew up to be a rock star trying to hold on to fame. Nico became a tv producer and Benny, a federal judge.
When the past comes back for the group, they have to figure out who is targeting them and get it to end once and for all.
It all seemed a little too far fetched for me and I never really got into the story.

Five parentless teenagers were residents of a group home where several female residents went missing. Before the home was closed, they did something that will haunt them into adult life. Now, twenty five years later, after rebuilding their lives, someone is trying to kill them; one has already been murdered. Three of them, Jenny, Donnie, and Nico will have to unravel the reason why while avoiding the would be killer(s).


Occasionally, I will start a book and want to put it down as a DNF. However, wanting to give it a chance, I persist. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and end up really liking the book. Not so with this one.

I’ve read other of Finlay’s books and enjoyed them, but this one was just too over the top and unrealistic for me. I don’t like it when I have to suspend belief. With multiple timelines and POVS, the story is fast paced, action packed and suspenseful. There are many readers who will enjoy this book; it just wasn’t one of my top reads.

What Have We Done follows Jenna, Nico, and Donnie as they try to figure out who is trying to kill them and why. They are all linked by meeting at a group home at teens and one big mistake that was made 25 years ago. Will their secret come to light or will they be able to keep the past in the past.

This was my first book by Alex Finlay and I enjoyed it. The beginning was a bit confusing to me but once you got through the 3 POVs a few times things began to line up and make sense. This is a great who dun it mystery thriller.

What Have We Done starts with a bang and keeps going.

Told from multiple points of view from 5 people who were once in a group home together as teens. One of them is dead and it appears that another one of them may be next. Who could want them dead after twenty five years??

The characters lives are slowly revealed and have been interesting to say the least.

I have read other books by this author and loved them. This one didn't grab me quite as much, but was still a good book. I couldn't wait to find out what was going on and why.

I can't wait to see what Finlay come up with next.

Thanks to netgalley and St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the arc.

special thanks to netgalley and st. martin's press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

after reading the synopsis for “what have we done”, i knew i had to send in a request! i was so excited to dive into a mystery/thriller novel, but unfortunately, this one was not for me. i felt like the multiple povs and timelines were a bit overwhelming and difficult to distinguish at times. by the time i was 42% into the book, the story still felt like it was dragging on and i had little to no interest in the characters or plot. even though this did not work for me personally, i’m sure other readers will find it more enjoyable!

I think that this one is just not for me. It was hard for me to get through, although I enjoyed his previous book, The Night Shift.

I didn’t particularly like any of the characters and I think that’s why it was difficult to get through. I’ll still pick up Alex Findlay’s next book since I loved the other one!

Thank you for the digital ARC.

This book is the definition of a fast-paced thriller. The action starts immediately and does not let up. The concept was intriguing - five orphans from the same group foster home come to terms with their past twenty-five years later. But there were some plot holes and too much suspended belief for me to get behind this book 100%. But it's a decent, spy-like thriller.

I LOVED this book. I was confused at first by all of the characters and the different timelines, but it all came together really well in the end and made for an incredible story. This author has become an auto-read author for me!

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay – Book #16

Twenty-five years ago, 5 kids formed a solid friendship while living in an abusive group home for parentless teenagers. As several of the residents go missing, the house shuts down. Jenna, Donnie and Nico haven’t seen each other since then but are forced to reunite now as someone is trying to kill them to discover a secret they keep.

What Have We Done is a fast paced, action packed thriller. I was captivated from the very first page and found there was never a dull moment. An absolute page turner, between the multiple POV, flashbacks and the short chapters, I enjoyed it all. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going and it was becoming predictable, a twist was thrown in that shook the story up. This was my first Alex Finlay book and it certainly won’t be my last.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for this ARC.
Pub Date: March 7, 2023!

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. This was a great thriller about 4 friends that met through the Savior House and 25 years all 4 of them is being targeted. I love their different stories and how they turned out. The story kept me interested and adding twists and turns along the way.

I enjoyed this thriller which brings together people who spent time in Savior House as parentless teens twenty-five years earlier. After the home was closed in part due to the disappearance of the director, the teens were split up to live their own lives.

Jenna found herself in Savior House after the death of her parents in a car accident. She wasn't their long when she was plucked out by a representative of The Corporation and trained to be an assassin. She's left that life behind, married, and is the stepmother to two girls. But then she gets called in to do one last assassination. Only she finds that her supposed target is another one of the kids from Savior House who has become a tech billionaire. After purposely missing the shot, she finds herself the target of killers who want to kill her to clear up loose ends.

Donnie is a has-been rock star with a drug and alcohol habit who is performing with the remnants of his old band on a cruise ship. He is attacked and thrown off the ship but is picked up by a fishing boat and rescued. His manager makes a deal with a writer for a tell-all book which forces Donnie to look back on those years spent at Savior House even though he doesn't want them to be any part of his story.

Nico is a television producer for a reality show set in the West Virginia coal mines. He has a major gambling habit and is deep in debt to some criminals. When one of the stars in the show asks to meet him on the set, deep in a coal mine, he is ambushed and left for dead after an explosion happens. He is rescued in the nick of time and wants to find out who set him up.

The story switches between these viewpoints and the viewpoints of the twin assassins who were sent to kill them all and who have already killed another of the kids who was now a federal judge - the Honorable Robert Benjamin Wood.

The three survivors all meet at the judge's funeral and begin to compare notes. They need to find out who wants them dead if they are ever to have their own lives again. The plot was twisty. Flashbacks from each viewpoint tell more about their lives a Savior House and expose the secret they are all hiding.

This was an excellent story filled with characters I cared about.

Sadly What Have We Done is one of them I made it about 25% through the book and I just wasn’t feeling it, it was kinda confusing and to be fair I don’t usually enjoy spy thrillers or police procedures thrillers. So I decided not to continue reading, this book might not be for me but I know others will enjoy it and I can’t wait to see what Alex Finlay writes next!

This was a fairly standard crime, mystery, dual-time period, multiple POV book. I'm not sure I'd call it even a thriller. It was so plot-driven there was no time to really enhance the characters. Still an entertaining read, and I really flew through it. But a little more time on character development would've made it 4 stars for me.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: March 7, 2023
Alex Finlay’s twelfth novel, “What Have We Done”, follows three former friends and foster siblings, Jenna, Donnie and Nico, who, initially bonded over shared trauma, now are drawn together again for an entirely new reason- someone is out to kill them.
I am a huge fan of Finlay’s taut, suspenseful thrillers, including “The Night Shift” and “Every Last Fear”, and “Done” is now added to my Finlay favourites list. The characters are all unique and diverse, a former rock star (Donnie), a reality TV star producer (Nico) and a stay-at-home stepmom with a secret past (Jenna) but they are genuine and likable, and I enjoyed hearing the story told from each one of their perspectives. The characters’ hard and grizzled upbringing brings about many potential suspects, which made the guessing game in “Done” deviously entertaining.
As this novel has three protagonists, there are quite a few supporting characters (tied to the characters’ traumatic past, as well as their independent current lives) and it is initially a challenge to keep everything straight. This is the case with many novels like these, however, and Finlay, once again, was able to pull me in slowly, and then held my attention right through to the end.
The novel focuses on the present-day hunt for the group’s killer, which is still exceptionally entertaining, but there are only snippets of the groups life together at the aptly named group home, “Saviour House”, and I wanted more. It is clear that all three characters experienced trauma in their own unique ways, and suffered through their shared trauma in different ways as well, and Finlay doesn’t skim over what made the characters who they are. But I wanted the nitty gritty, psychopath-producing details of Saviour House and its “offspring”. This, however, would’ve resulted in a novel that may have been too lengthy to read. Perhaps a prequel? (Something I am not normally a fan of, which tells you how much this plot point struck a chord).
“Done” has a few predictable twists, a few eye-rolling twists, and even more twists and turns that you won’t see coming. The plot is well-developed and full of pulse-pounding suspense, as we have come to expect from Finlay, and I’m glad to see that he does not seem to be slowing down. I will continue to ride Finlay’s literary ride until the bitter end.

I’m not usually a fan of whodunit styled books, but What Have We Done had enough twists and turns to keep my interest. I loved the first two of Finlay’s books, and this one was no different. I especially liked the chapters from Jenna’s perspective, and Donnie became a surprising favorite by the end of the book. The twins, on the other hand…. They cost the book a star. While I understand that the plot wasn’t supposed to be believable, the writing for the twins and their behaviors was infuriatingly unbelievable and felt unfinished to me. If you ignore them, this book was a solid 4 star read- but their character flaws are going to haunt me for weeks to come.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I TRULY wish this could have been a 5 star for me because I love the author's previous works and the synopsis sounds incredible. However, this didn't capture my attention at all. I like my thrillers with twists and turns, and this read more like an action movie. I'm sure others will love this, but it just missed the mark for me.

I’m a huge fan of the author and really like his brand of suspense. I seem to always find his books to be engaging and love the multiple perspectives he uses. This one started off really strong and captured my attention immediately and the pacing stayed good for me for most of the book. Things did stall slightly for me somewhere around the middle but then the end hit and it picked back up again. The ending went a little bonkers and requires some suspension of disbelief but it was entertaining and fun despite not being super believable. Overall another fairly fast paced and exciting read from the author.