I am a sucker for series and have just found a new favorite! I appreciate when a book can be read as a stand alone (like this one) but is part of a larger series (this is book 2) so you feel like you get to know the characters. Deputy Ben is charming, a little mysterious and a good detective. I love that you learn about some of what is going on with his life as he works to solve who killed Bill. Bill is a gambler who likes easy money and has married 2 rich sisters (he left the first one when her trust fund ran out...) There is more than one person in town who could have wanted Bill dead...

I couldn't put this one down once I started it and I look forward to more Deputy Ben books to come.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

I noticed after receiving this book it was book two in the series. I decided to give it a try and see if I missed much.
I found myself unable to concentrate because I felt like I was missing something.

Although this book had high reviews, I do not discourage reading this series, just start witht he first book.

Ben Packard is back in Where the Dead Sleep. He is still acting sheriff and now trying to find out who killed Bill. On his latest murder investigation Ben is stumpped to why Bill was murdered and his wife Carrie is keeping her own secrets at bay. Carrie and her sisters Mary and Sherry are not the closest of sisters and one of them holds the key to what happened that night. This one will hook you from the very begining and leaves you wondering what comes next for Ben as he is no longer the acting sheriff.

Compelling, chilling, and kept me engaged. I loved how the story built suspense. I’ve been reading more crime/procedural s lately and this was a great one that I will be recommending.

My only negative is that I wish I had started the series from the beginning. I read several reviews after that said the same thing. I hope to pick up the first book soon!

A very well written police procedural about a murder that is much more confusing that it looks at the onset. Acting Sheriff Ben Packard is going to have to delve into this small town many twisty secrets if he's going to find out who actually shot Bill Sandersen. It seems like just a robbery gone wrong, but the details aren't adding up and Packard is going to have to dig through toxic relationships, family secrets, and small town drama if he's going to find out who caused Bill's death that night.

I didn't realize that until a bit into the book that it was actually a sequel, and while I'm sure I would have enjoyed small details even more having read the first, this book is also excellent on it's own. I had no trouble quickly getting to know both Ben Packard and the small town he lives in.

The cliff hanger was excellent and I went from never having heard of this author to ravenously waiting for him to write the third book!


TW: Murder, adultery, toxic family relationships, alcoholism

I’m late on reviewing this because I wanted to read the first book in the series first. It wasn’t important that I did but at least I didn’t have that one ruined by reading it second.

I enjoyed this as well. Maybe not as much as the first one but I’m hooked on this series and look forward to the next one!

Acting Sheriff Ben Packard is trying to enjoy the long Labor Day weekend when a call from dispatch comes in, informing him that a fresh case has come to disrupt his day off. There’s been a homicide in one of the nicer suburban homes of Sandy Lake County, with a man shot dead in his bed.

The victim, Bill Sanderson, was pretty well known around the county as a good time guy. Bill was one of those dudes whose main preoccupations in life were drinking and partying despite being well into middle age. Someone had come through the sliding glass door of his bedroom, shot him twice and killed him. His wife Carrie had been asleep in her own bedroom upstairs. She tells the officers that she’d been awoken by a gunshot, and had come downstairs to find her husband beyond saving.

Ben spent much of his childhood in Sandy Lake but only recently moved back full time, so his staff has to fill him in on all the gossip regarding Bill’s rather sordid love life. Carrie is actually Bill’s second wife, though she had been his high school sweetheart. Scandalously, he had dumped her to marry her older sister Sherri, who had come into the trust fund their wealthy dad set up for them much earlier than Carrie had. After thirty years or so of living the high life, Bill and Sherri finally scraped the bottom of their bank accounts. They’d divorced and Bill had moved on to the sister who still had her wealth intact.

Juicy as this information is – and rich as it is in providing motive for murder – Ben knows enough to tread lightly around the feelings of the recently bereft. Still, he has to ask questions. When he asks Carrie why she’d taken Bill back, she responds:

QUOTE
“Have you ever been lonely, Detective?”

Packard looked away. He was alone most of the time. Lonely rarely but sometimes deeply. He thought of loneliness as existential, but being a loner was not something he wanted to build an identity around the way he’d seen others do. He’d decided, and reaffirmed again after moving to Sandy Lake, that the key to being alone but not lonely was to make the most of what he had and not romanticize what he didn’t. That thinking had worked for him so far. He would continue to believe it until it didn’t.
END QUOTE

Loneliness didn’t seem to be a problem for Bill, however, who had a very wide social circle, or at least one a heck of a lot wider than the more closed off Ben’s. Trouble is, no one in this circle seems to have a real motive for murdering Bill. Sure, he was a loser, but his schemes seemed mostly harmless, until they abruptly weren’t.

The investigation is briefly put on hold when Stan Shaw, the ailing elected sheriff who hired Ben to step into his shoes, finally succumbs to cancer. He’s barely been buried when everyone and their cousin begins bugging Ben about running for sheriff himself. This is exacerbated by the town council’s decision to hold an election in November instead of allowing Ben to serve out the rest of Stan’s term.

Ben can understand the town council’s reasoning. What he can’t understand is why so many people are so determined that he should campaign for the position:

QUOTE
Two things had to be true if you wanted to be sheriff: you had to want the job and you had to be electable. Packard was questionable about the first one and doubtful about the second. Why would anyone vote for the new guy in town? The new gay guy, more specifically. And why would he want to give up being a detective and take on the bureaucratic job of sheriff full time? Meetings and budgets and personnel issues, your future employment tied to the whims of the voting public.

No thanks.
END QUOTE

Unexpected twists will soon have him reconsidering his stance, even as unexpected leads come to light in the Sanderson homicide. Ben’s investigations turn up more corpses, new and old, as someone becomes angry enough to fire a potshot at Ben himself. But does this attempted assassination have anything to do with Bill’s murder? Could it somehow be related to the mystery Ben originally came back to Sandy Lake to solve?

When I got the chance to review this novel, I practically leapt out of my chair to say yes. I loved the first book in the series, And There He Kept Her, with its clever plot, wells of empathy and unusual hero. As I read the last few pages of this novel, I realized that my right hand was involuntarily clawing at the air, reaching already for the sequel. Where The Dead Sleeps actually improves on its predecessor, boasting even tighter writing and plotting, while losing none of its sense of humor or thoughtfulness. I can’t wait to read where Joshua Moehling brings us readers, as well as his terrific protagonist, next!

Thank you to Libro.fm and the publisher for providing me review copies. All opinions are my own.

I made the mistake of not reading the first book. Though that did not distract from the plot (there's nothing much you need to know about the past case at all) but there's just something about learning about the main MC starting with the first book.

This was a police procedural, with a murder mystery at its center. The twisty case was a fun perk of this book. I would have not put together what has happened or why. So thats a big plus. The problem for me was the big political side of this story. Running for sheriff, running a campaign, shoving people under the bus in order to get a position, etc. It was just such a distraction for me, and I really did not care. I'm sure that is a build up for the future of the detective, but still.

Another problem I ran into was the narrator. The fact that this was a woman narrating a male detective and all of the other POVs. And the fact that there seems like there are no chapter breaks in between, so when the POV switches, you have no idea it has happened. It just keeps going. The narrator didn't do a good enough job for me to distinguish who is talking, till the plot shows you who it is.

It is a good book, and I definitely will read the first book now to understand this detective better, especially after learning so much personal stuff about the detective.

While this case wasn’t my favorite, I still love the main character Ben Packard and his life in general. This can be read as a stand-alone, but I highly recommend reading the first book of the series. I am already really looking forward to the next book in the series!

Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling
Ben Packard #2

Intricately plotted, well crafted, excellently written police procedural and murder mystery that allowed me to catch up with Detective Ben Packard as he navigates the waters of being acting sheriff in a small town with more than one person who would rather not have him in the position. As Ben works to find and then put the puzzle pieces of the case together, he runs into many clues that may or may not be important in determining who killed the first victim. Doggedly he pursues the clues with the assistance of his team making diagrams and notes to try to put it all together in a cohesive manner.

When a bullet comes through the window of the house he is visiting, he wonders if it was meant for him or someone else and was the shooter the same person that killed Bill or someone else? Who is telling the truth and who is not? What facts are important? Who is the killer and what is the motivation? And…where is that key to the puzzle that will ultimately cause all the pieces to finally fit together perfectly to expose every aspect of the case that begins with the death of Bill Sanderson?

Detective Ben Packard is an intriguing character. He has suffered loss, works hard, is a good friend, great team player, has a strong moral compass, is compassionate and kind to underdogs, is great at puzzle solving, knows who he is, is invested in settling in Sandy Lake as he rehabs the home he purchased, grew up in a loving family, Lost his brother decades ago…in Sandy Lake…and would love to close the old cold case for his family, owns a three-legged Corgi named Frank, is doing his best to be an efficient and effective acting sheriff.

The way this all came together with the clues, hints, twists, turns, assaults, dysfunctional family issues of the Gherlicks gradually being exposed, and other pertinent matter being unearthed in a complex crafty way had me eagerly waiting to see who the bad guy was and then wondering if perhaps there was more than one. The ending is not a cliff hanger, but it does have me eagerly waiting to read book three in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks-Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Where The Dead Sleep, the second book in the Ben Packard series, picks up shortly after book one, And There He Left Her, with another shocking murder in rural Sandy Lake, Minnesota. From page one this story draws you in with a compelling murder-mystery, small town politics, and Deputy Packard’s unconscious search for acceptance and love from his community. One of my favorite things about this book/series is the perfect balance between the police procedural and the personal lives of the community and Deputy Packard. I feel like I know this community and learn more about them with each book (though I hope I’m less of a town gossip than Dep Shep). As the layers of the story peel back, you get the full, complicated, and a little ugly, picture of what exactly happened to the recently deceased Bill Sanderson and those connected to him and why.

This was so good. I really enjoyed this crime thriller. I was hooked from the beginning to the end. It was so good and I couldn't put it down.
I just reviewed Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling. #wherethedeadsleep #NetGalley
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Ben Packard takes us through the process of investigating a crime as if we were on those pages with him. He is such a vivid character that you can’t help buying into the challenges he faces as he works through the clues and the many characters who could have played a part in the crime. A very strong police procedural.

I just finished Where the Dead sleep by Joshua Moehling and here is my review.


Deputy Ben Packard is no stranger to strange crimes but the murder of Bill Sandersen doesn’t look like it is an open and shut case. Everyone involved with Bill has a small motive to want him dead but each person is as likely as the next. An ex wife whom he divorced when the money dried up then married her sister. The wife who seems to have buyer's remorse with Bill… A business partner he stole money from and high roller poker players he got involved with.
Things get heated when someone takes a shot at Ben during the investigation. What is he getting close to that someone is willing to silence him over?


I wasn’t sure about this book when I first started it but I was pleasantly surprised at how well written it was. You could feel the undercurrent of something more sinister than just a murder happening but you don’t get any details on it so I do hope there is another book. I loved how all the characters had a motive and each one seemed to have secrets they were keeping too. Bill was a real menace and you can see why people had beef.


I did feel that the book kept trying to push that Ben was gay and felt it was really unnecessary to keep mentioning it. I didn’t add to the story for me and it was a bit off putting. I loved that the lead character was gay… Didn’t need a reminder every few chapters. Repetition in books is a major pet peeve for me.
I need to know more about this town and I am hoping another book is coming soon. I kinda got attached to Ben and now I need to know what happened to his brother. It was a really clever book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good thriller. It is book 2 but for me, it worked as an excellent standalone.


4 stars thank you @netgalley and @poisonpenpress for my gifted copy

When a local man is found shot to death in his bed, acting sheriff Ben Packard finds himself with plenty of suspects, including the man's family, friends, and neighbors. At the top of the list are his wife and his ex-wife, two sisters who hate each other. At the same time, Packard is trying to decide whether to run for election for sheriff.

Good police procedural, the second book in the series. Tight plotting, fast-paced, will keep you turning the pages. I guessed at some but not all of the players. Packard is a multi-faceted detective: he's very good at his job, he has a three-legged rescue Corgi named Frank, he's renovating his house himself, and he can cook a spatchcocked chicken, all qualities I like in a man. He's gay, but that doesn't bother me. While there is some sex, it's low-key and not so much that I get jealous. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

I really like the character of Ben Packard but other than that, Where the Dead Sleep fell a little flat for me. This one won’t stick with me and I think the mystery was very forgettable. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley and Libro.fm for the free ebook and audiobook.

I was really looking forward to the next Ben Packard story. The first was so compelling. Ben returns to his hometown but doesn’t tell everyone why. He is acting sheriff in a town that may or may not be ready for a gay man leading the law.

The sheriff passes and an election is held to replace him before Ben can finish out the term. He doesn’t even want the job. But maybe he does.

Meanwhile, an overly tangled family begins to turn up dead. Sisters with names that are almost exactly the same. A man marrying two of the three. That man being murdered. A wife and an ex wife, sisters, hiding things. All while Packard tries to decide if he even wants this job.

I was hoping for a little more about the disappearance of Ben’s brother so many years ago. We get only a tiny bit more. The tease makes me part angry and part anxious for the next book.

I have a special place in my heart for Michael Connelly so, any book that reminds me of his work, I will likely enjoy. This book is no different. It’s a true police procedural but having not read the first book, it was still very easy to read as a stand-alone. I will probably go back and read book 1 so I’ll be FULLY prepared for book 3.

Rating: 3.5 rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this book!

Love, Love, Love this author. I read his first book and was hooked immediately, and this book does not disappoint. This book is the opposite of the first book where you knew the killer from the beginning. Here the reader is taken on the same journey as Acting Sheriff Bem Packard as he trying to figure not one, but two murders. I will say I thought I had it figured out, but there was a twist at the end that I did not see coming. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book as this one ended with Ben finding information regarding his brother's death. If you love a good mystery, I highly recommend this book/author.

Where the Dead Sleep is the second book in the Ben Packard series. This is a police procedural mystery that starts out with a murder and continues to build to a riveting story.

Deputy Ben Packard is the acting sheriff and is called to a scene early in the morning where he finds Bill Sandersen shot. Bill was married to Carrie a woman who inherited a trust fund from her father who killed himself. Bill was also married to Carrie's older sister Sherrie but together they blew through her fortune and divorced after it was all gone.

There are many suspects but nothing that points to the killer; the business partner, the ex-wife, the current wife or the high-stakes poker buddies.

Ben follows the clues that add more questions than solutions. Sheriff Shaw dies from cancer and turns the department upside down with people throwing their hats in the ring in the special election, forcing Packard to make a difficult choice about his future.

Sandy Lake is a typical small town that holds grudges and keeps its secrets from outsiders. But an attempt on Packard's life means he's getting close to uncovering one that may affect Ben personally and someone will do anything to keep it hidden.

I really enjoyed this story. The writing was perfectly descriptive in some spots and conversational in others. It was a wonderful blend. I also liked the character of Ben Packard. Reminded me of Tom Selleck's portrayal of "Jesse Stone" from the Robert B Parker series.

The only thing I didn't like was the cliffhanger at the end. Based on the reviews I read the first book of the series ended the same way with this one picking up where that one left off. I don't need a cliffhanger to make me want to read the next one. In spite of that, I am hoping to read the first and any other books that will be in this series.