I really enjoyed When I’m Dead by @heathermorrisauthor and not just because she’s a local author! This book had me guessing until the end. I enjoyed the creepiness and the gory details! Of the 3 books I’ve read of hers this one of my favorite so far.

Quick synopsis….. teenage girls are being murdered and one is missing in Black Harbor Wisconsin. The missing girl Chloe is the daughter of the local detective and medical examiner Axel and Rowan. Who is to blame? Is Chloe alive? The rush is on to find out the truth.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you @netgalley and @minotaur_books for the gifted copy.

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A dark and suspenseful read set in a gritty city that is ripe with crime. When I'm Dead is a bit gory at times and not for the faint of heart.

The novel takes place in Black Harbour Michigan, which seems to be equivalent to Gotham City. The crime rate is high and the economy is suffering. Rowan is a medical examiner, mother, and wife to Axle Winthrop, one of Black Harbour's hard working homicide detectives. Their lives are turned upside down when their teenage daughter, Chloe, mysteriously disappears right after her peer is found murdered. Is Chloe Winthrop another victim or the perpetrator? Her parents will stop at nothing to discover the truth.

This is book 3 in the Black Harbour Series and the first one that I've read. It was a solid read and I found the characters of Row and Axle to be likeable enough to make me want to read the other books in the series.

I docked a star because I figured out the the who and the why a bit early on; however, I was still engaged enough to keep reading. The novel is a bit larger than life at times, but I enjoyed it for what it is; a easily digestible thriller with some fun characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for a free digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a stand-alone thriller in an interconnected series. They are all set in the same town, but you can absolutely read them separately. It is a fast-paced thriller about a medical examiner and her detective husband who are called away to a homicide and while at work, their teenage daughter goes missing. Lots of secrets are unraveled as we learn more about the family, their friends, and the town. I enjoyed the book and would recommend to anyone who likes a quick thriller. I will say that I found it predictable and a little repetitive. Overall I would give this a 3.25-3.5 stars. If you read a lot of thrillers, you will guess the culprit, but even still it was a perfect Fall read given that it is set in October with a Halloween backdrop. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this as an ARC for my honest feedback.

Chloe’s parents, Rowan, and Axel work for the Black Harbor Police Force. She has grown to expect their absence to a certain extent, but the final straw is when they leave her debut performance of Lydia in her high school’s rendition of Beetlejuice. They get called to a crime scene of a young girl murdered near their home. When they return, Chloe is missing. Can Rowan and Axel solve the murder and locate their missing daughter before she turns up dead too? Hannah Morrisey!!!! The level of creepy gory detail ramps up the tension to a million percent throughout this book. Black Harbor itself is a character, the scenery overwhelms the senses. I loved the way this was written. While it is part of the Black Harbor series, it can be read as a standalone.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I would say it would be great to be back in Black Harbor, but oh what a bleak place! The way the author paints the town, you just know you would never want to live there, either by birth or accident. You can just feel the dreariness, poverty, and crime creeping around the edges.

Hannah Morrissey writes dark, intelligent thrillers but she's not afraid of using humor to break up the bits between the gore. "Libby's eyes land on a copper-colored vintage [wine] labeled Hallowine. She remembers sampling it once from her mother's glass and immediately making a face. It tasted like licking the basement floor."

While the adults in the book could have used a little more development, the teenagers were on point and included mean girls, victims, and secret connections. And because of Morrissey's background as a police transcriber, the book had a good frame of reference for the police and medical examiner procedural. Are you able to guess the perpetrator partway through the book? Yes. Was it Morrissey's intention? I believe it was.

I have liked all of the the author's Black Harbor, and I know if Morrissey writes it I will buy it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an advance reader's copy.

This was a very well written book. Characters were well developed and relatable. I flew through this book and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. I had fun guessing who did it and who didn’t and I didn’t see the ending coming.

When a local teen’s body is found in a small crime ridden town, everyone is on edge. Then the daughter of a local police detective and medical examiner goes missing and through the multiple points of view we watch the deep investigation while the community falls apart around them. There is teen drama, no one knows who to trust, Rowan only hopes her missing daughter is not involved or dead. You’ll be guessing all the way through.

I will definitely be looking for more from this author. Thank you to Net Galley and Minotaur Books for the e book of this ARC.

I almost passed on this book because apparently it’s the third in a series and I’m usually too type A to not read the other books first. However, the synopsis sounded so good that I thought I’d just jump in and I’m glad I did! This was a great thriller! I didn’t feel like I missed anything important by skipping the first two books. The suspects were crazy creepy (the taxidermy girl?!?) and I was hooked from the beginning. I wasn’t as big of a fan of all the focus on Rowan and her husband’s relationship, but that’s probably because I didn’t have their full backstory. Otherwise, this was a thrilling read that I’d highly recommend to my fellow thriller lovers!

4.5 stars

When I’m Dead is a dark and twisty mystery that will have you on the edge of your seat until the last page!
When Chloe’s best friend Madison is murdered and Chloe goes missing in the same night, it leaves her parents and small community wondering what happened.
This book dives into love, doubt, and how well you really know the people you love most.
Read this book in one sitting! Couldn’t put it down and it led to a late night.
Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review :)
Four stars

When I'm Dead is book 3 in the amazing Black Harbor series by Hannah Morrissey.
These books can be read as a stand-alone.
First, I have give a big thank you to the absolute best publisher for the opportunity to read and review this set from the very beginning.
Hannah Morrissey is a favorite of mine and one of my auto read authors.
And it’s been a pleasure reading this phenomenal series.

Hello, Transcriber and The Widowmaker were both excellent books and after devouring When I'm Dead I’m almost certain Morrissey’s writing is one of my favorites.
This story is so absorbing and immersive. Detective Axel Winthrop and his wife, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthrop are very interesting and intriguing characters.
And I enjoyed reading their story.
A utterly compelling mystery, atmospheric settings with vivid and emotional prose, this dark and intense story will have you up late flipping the pages furiously.
Hannah Morrissey has writing yet again another well crafted story.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Read if you like:
#️⃣ Multiple PoV
📚 Stand-alone in a Series
🔎 Mysteries
🚨Police Investigations
🚬 Feeling of Guilt
🗣️ The ‘Bad Guy’s’ POV

This one sucked me in pretty quickly needing to know what the heck was going on where was Chloe and was she even alive?! Or was she behind the killing of her classmate?!

I have to admit, Rowan’s POV didn’t really add to the story, felt repetitive, and her guilt was truly so annoying in the context of the story with your daughter missing and instead of fully being focused on that, she was focused on something that happened 18 years ago that’s unrelated.

I did pretty much guess who the responsible party was for what was happening and felt pretty obvious but the twist of why I didn’t see coming.

I also didn’t like how with the reveal we got the explaination first before the scene unfolding where it made it anticlimactic for me personally.

All in all, I enjoyed the first part more than the second part of the book and wish I had enjoyed it more but it didn’t fully deliver on what I was hoping for.

Thanks so much to the publisher for my ARC of this one!

I actually didn’t realize this was part of a series, the Black Harbor Series. This book definitely isn’t for the squeamish, be warned that it’s fairly graphic and detailed.

Overall, I thought it was a good plot that had me guessing the entire story. Unfortunately I felt like the story played out in a way that felt rushed or maybe the culmination was underwhelming. There were a lot of details and tidbits that were never explored, maybe that was the point, to distract? I was also hoping for that last plot twist that all of us thriller lovers come to expect!

This was a domestic drama and murder mystery combination done well.

Husband and wife, Rowan and Axel are the local medical examiner and a detective in Black Harbor. Their town has been overrun with murders which keeps them busy non-stop. In the midst of this, their fifteen year old daughter is often falling through the cracks. Chloe seems to always lose out to a dead body and when she does, both parents have to go, not just one. So, when Chloe goes missing, Rowan and Axel's world is rocked and everything they thought they knew is thrown into chaos. Is their daughter even the girl they thought she was? Or a completely different person?

In trying to investigate the death of one of Chloe's friends while also trying to find Chloe, many things are uncovered about not just Chloe but also her so-called friends. Things definitely weren't what they appeared to be. Will Rowan and Axel pull together or will it rip them apart?

This was an intriguing read. The clues were thrown out at sporadic times and the narrators weren't always reliables so you truly didn't know who did what until the very end. It was cleverly written and I'll definitely look to read more by this author.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I really enjoyed the audiobook. The narrators were talented and fit the characters well. It all blended together well and enriched the storyline. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook. I chose to review both of them and the opinions contained within are my own.

This is the third book in the Black Harbor series, and it is another great one.

Rowen is the medical examiner, and she is called in to investigate the death of her daughter's friend. Her husband Axel, a police detective, starts work on the case too. When they are called away from watching daughter Chloe's school play, Chloe tells her mother " You will love me more when I'm dead." Within hours, Chloe is missing, and they are terrified that she is the next victim. Various clues all point to someone involved at the high school. When a second girl is found dead, the investigating team tries to unravel the relationships involved.

Girls that had been friends for years, are now not. Girls that never liked each other are now friends. How is the taxidermy teacher involved? And where is Chloe? As the evidence starts to point to Chloe as the killer, Rowan and Axel are in a desperate race against time to find Chloe and proves she is not the one responsible. Will their marriage survive?

Once again, the town of Black Harbor and its dark, depressing secrets, is a strong backdrop to the thriller. The characters are all well drawn, and I was sucked along by the plot. The complex clues and twists and turns keep you moving at a fast pace towards the climax of the story.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

First, thanks to NetGalley for the advance review copy. When I’m Dead opens with the death of Madison Caldwell. teenage classmate of Chloe, Sari, Libby, and Reeves. It is immediately followed by Chloe’s disappearance. Chloe’s parents are Alex, a Black Harbor detective, and Rowan, the Black Harbor Medical Examiner. Black Harbor is the kind of town that has seen better days and everyone is looking to escape. Its crime rate is climbing, keeping Alex and Rowan busy, maybe too busy to tend to their teenage daughter. When Chloe is cast in the main role of her school’s production of Beetlejuice, she takes on the role with vigor and chooses to immerse herself into character, much out of character to what her folks and teachers know. Each chapter is written from the viewpoint of one of the book’s characters which is successful in keeping you off balance. Each has his/her own theories as to what’s happened and who may be responsible. At one point, Alex and Rowan are at odds as to the possibility that their daughter, Chloe, could have committed the murder, “She’s on one precipice, and he’s on another, an ocean of “what ifs” roiling between them”. As the story progresses, there is no shortage of possible suspects. The book became more suspenseful toward the end. A good, short read with some twists that kept me guessing.

One October night, Rowan and Axel are pulled away from their daughter’s debut in her school’s production of Beetlejuice with a call that a dead body has been found. That dead body turns out to be their daughter’s best friend. While out investigating this call, they come home to discover their own daughter, Chloe, hasn’t returned home from school and is missing. They must dig deep, even if it means their own daughter is behind everything.

WHEN I’M DEAD by Hannah Morrissey is the third book in the BLACK HARBOR series and I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to read the others to have a full understanding of this one!


And I’m also here to tell you that this one was easily my favorite of the three! This book made my theater nerd heart happy and the mystery and alternating POVs had me flipping pages.

Despite my enjoyment for most of the characters, Rowan and Axel are awful parents and the fact that they didn’t really even notice that got on my nerves a lot - it also seemed like they didn’t care all that much that their teenage daughter was just gone??

Overall, a great book to read during spooky season if crime fiction is your jam!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: October 31

One teenage girl is dead and another is missing in When I’m Dead, the 3rd book in the Black Harbor series. This aptly named town, which appears to be the murder capitol of the universe is the setting once again, and the missing girl is the daughter of the town’s medical examiner and her detective husband. This is a fairly standard police procedural, with the pressure intensified due to the missing girl’s parents, and there’s plenty of suspects to keep the reader guessing. I found it a little difficult to get behind any of the characters, as they all seem miserable in this gloomy town, and their actions strain credulity, and that added up to a ho-hum thriller for this reader. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have been fortunate enough to receive ARCs of all three Dark Harbor books and Hannah Morrissey continues to impress me! In the eerie town of Black Harbor, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp arrives at a crime scene to realize the victim is her daughters best friend. Rowan's day gets worse when she returns home and realizes her own daughter is missing. Like her other books, I flew threw this. Hannah does an amazing job of describing the town of Black Harbor which creates a dark mood around the whole town. She manages to make it feel like Black Harbor is a town that no one wants to visit and everyone tries to escape. Truly enjoy these books and the twisted adventure she takes you on. Looking forward to the next one!

In complete honesty, I wasn't the biggest fan of Hello Transcriber. It didn't speak to me, and I wasn't able to connect with the characters, but I gave Hannah Morissey a second chance with The Widow Maker, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. With When I'm Dead, I'm a Hannah Morissey fan. This was by far the best in the series so far. Not only are we learning more about the cesspool of humanity that is Black Harbor, but we're getting to know more of the characters that we've only known on the periphery, and they're fascinating. I loved the interplay between Rowan and Axel and their search for their missing daughter. With the expertly placed red herrings, it's impossible to know who the true villain is, and I loved it.

I had such high hopes for this book, as I had greatly enjoyed Mottissey’s previous book The Widowmaker. This one just didn’t have the same…unf. Frankly, how the parents act is really off putting, and the fact that a detective is essentially allowed to work his own kid’s disappearance is just so unethical and unrealistic. Overall a two star from me.

“You’ll love me more when I’m dead!”

Their moody teenage daughter’s words now haunt her mother, Rowan, Black Harbor’s medical examiner, and her father, Axel, a Black Harbor homicide detective, as they investigate the brutal murder of one of their daughter's friends.

Not knowing what they would face when they were paged during a family outing, they arranged for Chloe to get a ride home from the theatre with a neighbour. Little did they know that while they were investigating Chloe’s murder, their daughter would assertively head home alone and end up a reported missing teenager.

A parent’s worst nightmare.

Even worse for parents in the know - someone is targeting Black Harbour teenagers. Who is it? Why target the vulnerable? Is there a pattern?

Morrissey seems to have upped her game with this one. The visceral read features a spooky October setting, complete with a haunted house, eerie fall evenings, a desperate town, a darker and grittier look at death and murder investigation, a tense look at characters' shady pasts, and multiple shocking twists. Several times I had to put the book aside and pick up something lighter. Morrissey is definitely the go-to author if you are looking for an atmospheric murder mystery and crime thriller. Her ability to craft twists that you won’t see coming is stellar and relying on her career to shape plot and characters offers authenticity, thereby increasing anxiety. It’s as if readers are standing alongside the characters and sensing their desperation and pain.

“Only in a place like Black Harbor is the line for the morgue longer than the queue for a Chick-fil-A drive-thru. Too many bodies, not enough of them warm.”

Congratulations on a fantastic cover!

I was gifted this copy by St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.