Thank you for the opportunity to preview Don’t Turn Around.
I have read Dolans books in the past but this one is very good.
This novel takes place in upper New York centered on a young woman, Katy wjj hi o at 11 years old found the body of a dead girl.
This event has haunted her and now in her 30s she finds herself trapped in her own world of despair. She is reminded of this incident. People think of her as the person who found the dead body.
Kate is complicated and she is a writer. She lives in Ohio and decides to return home
But she find herself caught up with another murder and lots of complicated individuals who seem to want something from her.
But as the bodies pile up, Kate finds herself caught up in the mystery of who is the murderer and will the secretS she holds from that night over 20 years ago drive her to the brink of death or insanity.
Well written. 4 stars

This was a good story which kept me turning the pages throughout the night. Great mystery, writing and plotting will recommend to all my friends who love this genre.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

This was such a great thriller novel, it had everything that I wanted from this type of book. Harry Dolan has a great writing style and it worked overall with the use of a serial killer, it’s scarier to me when the killer is doing something randomly.

The premise was so intriguing, I thought I would really love this one, but the writing style just did not do it for me. I wasn't able to continue this one unfortunately.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. It didn't disappoint! Must read!!

The book fairies must be working over time...

Don’t Turn Around, was one of my most anticipated books for this year.

I had high expectations for this book but Harry Dolan, surpassed them.

The minute you open this book you are going to plunge right into a different realm. You will lose track of time and reality. You will speak about these characters as though they really exist. Don't be alarmed with the side eyes people throw your way when you get excited talking about these folks as if they were real. It's all good, you can come to me, I will understand exactly what you are talking about.

This book had so many twists, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

The secrets that become exposed are WILD .

Before I spoil something, I am going to leave you with this teaser :

The police call him Merkury. He’s a killer who seems to choose his victims at random. He leaves no evidence behind, and no witnesses. Except for one. But what did she really see?
When Kate Summerlin was eleven years old, she climbed out her bedroom window on a spring night, looking for a taste of freedom in the small college town where she was living with her parents. But what she found as she wandered in the woods near her house was something else: the body of a beautiful young woman, the first of Merkury’s victims. And before she could come to grips with what she was seeing, she heard a voice behind her—the killer’s voice—saying: “Don’t turn around.”

Now, at the age of twenty-nine, Kate is a successful true crime writer, but she has never told anyone the truth about what happened on that long-ago night. When Merkury claims yet another victim—a college student named Bryan Cayhill—Kate finds herself drawn back to the town where everything started. She sets out to make sense of this latest crime, but the deeper she gets into the story, the more she comes to realize that it’s far from over. Her search for the truth about Merkury is leading her down into a dark labyrinth, and if she hopes to escape, she’ll have to meet him once again—this time face to face.

Don't Turn Around is my first read by this Author and overall it is an ok psychological thriller. The Author does a good job at providing depth to the characters and providing the trail of bread crumbs to get us to the conclusion that no one saw coming - but it isnt epic. The pacing is steady - at no time did I feel like I had to keep reading to find out what happened next. I would consider reading other titles by this Author

To say this book is not for me would be an understatement. There wasn't any real character development and there was too much randomness thrown in to seemingly fill the pages. There were plot holes and wandering ideas that led nowhere. I really wanted to like this one because the description sounded great and I always root for every author to do well. Two Stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for this ARC.

This, unfortunately, ended up not being my cup of tea. I couldn't get into the story and finally had to give up.

My Rating: 1⭐️ this completely punked me!!!

The police are calling him Merkury. He’s a killer who seems to choose his victims at random. There is no evidence and no witnesses… except for one. Kate Summerlin was eleven years old, when she climbed out her bedroom window and wandered into the woods to look at the lake.

Kate comes across the body of a young woman who she thinks is sleeping… but Kate soon realises the woman is dead. Before she can react he hears a voice say - Don’t Turn Around.

Now, Kate is 29 she is a successful true-crime writer, but she has a secret from that night. She didn’t tell the police the whole truth of the night she spoke to the serial killer Merkury. Now he’s back and her search for Merkury is leading her down a dark and dangerous path…

WOW so upfront this book started out pretty good.. the premise was juicy and the writing wasn’t bad. Short sharp sentences, not too long paragraphs mostly pretty good. I feel like I was being lured into a false sense of security because… this book went south really quickly and it never recovered.

Why did I continue… this is a NetGalley book so I wanted to read to review, also I thought surely when I find out the killer it will be worthwhile… NO!! It was not. What an epic and utter let down.

There were a lot of things I had an issue with… the beginning kind of meandered but I can handle that while we get to know people and the things that make them tick… thats fine… but we flipped and flopped around for a good while. When we finally get into Kate’s juicy story its clear that we have things being held back from us again… which is fine. But to get to a point, any point well what a struggle fest.

The blurb states that Kate is a successful True-Crime writer… I have no evidence to support that after reading this book… from my recollection she had written one maybe two books (she is pretty dirt poor) and she is struggling with writers block and not really willing to write about the one true crime (her own involvement) that everyone wants to hear about…

We also start to go down a weird path where Kate has some deep seated issues… so that was kind of interesting she has some weird sexual fantasies (nothing that will put readers off) and it seems she’s self destructive… but this behaviour really quickly dissipates when the intent for it is used for fodder in an action packed halfway mark. That behaviour is never explored again… we never really find out if and how she overcomes it or why she decided to behave this way to begin with… it’s quite a massive plot hole.

Another thing with this book is Kate is your classic citizen gone rouge like so rouge you want to slap her into next week and tell her to butt out of police business. She literally gets in the way, obstructs justice, with holds evidence and basically acts like a complete twat… so you think surely this is to write her next book…NAHHHH still got writers block bro… all good I will just play fake detective and carry on like a twit for no apparent reason.

I am not going to get into spoilers… but I am going to allude to some things … so if you think that might spoil this book for you… then I suggest skipping on……

Back to the middle of the book literally at 50% I thought we were having the final showdown… I was like this is weird the book went quick. Checked my kindle nope not even close… but there was an epic action packed full on over the top ridiculous “event” that happens and you are left going… wow really… surely thats not related to the story… and while it is, kind of… it really isn’t. Without spoilers it’s difficult to explain but I was kind of dumbfounded by why we needed this amount of diversion. I did soon find out…

The biggest kick in the nuts moment for me was when we have the first reveal of who the killer is (not the actual reveal) but the first unveiling … OH MY GOD WHAT A F*CKING COP OUT… I am sorry but this was the worst. At this point I wanted to King Kong my way to the top of a building and throw my kindle into the river!!! I was so angry… but I though well perhaps this can be redeemed… NO IT CAN’T.

So I am going to stop there on the killer front… any more and it will be full blown spoiler territory but if you read this and HATE the direction this took please comment and tell me… cause I am MAD… if you don’t care about spoilers and want to know why I’m so mad… well just ask.

The writing also took a massive nosedive and we went into basic territory and while the beginning was meh at least the writing was keeping me going… I don’t know who say hang on … I am going to hand this over to someone else… but that was a bad idea…

I could keep going… but I am cutting myself off…

Overall, I have no one I would recommend this too, I just really didn’t like it… there were so many other ways this could of gone without it doing what it did…but essentially the “twist” ruined it forever… but there are so many other reasons for me not to enjoy this.

I do really hope others have a better experience and I think the writer can write… I just wish he kept it together for the whole book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atlantic Monthly Press and the author for an advanced copy and I am sorry I didn’t like this more but this is my honest opinion.

I was immediately intrigued by the plot of Don't Turn Around, but I struggled with the writing style. It felt very stark and almost emotionless, like the narrative was a series of actions being listed out, rather than a story unfolding. I don't know if this was intentional — and there's nothing wrong with it if it is — but it made it hard for me to get invested and keep reading. I hope other readers will connect with it more than I did, as the premise is really interesting.

Hmmmm that was a very strange , different, odd book?! Good book! But definitely different! The connection between the characters, I'm not sure I understood it lol its definitely a very interesting book! Unlike anything I've ever read! It had the usual, it had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, mystery, serial killer, a great who done it and some really crazy twists and turns! The storyline was freaky but very interesting! I will definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Its definitely different! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!