I devoured Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols! I read this fast-paced thriller in just two days!
The writing style is engaging, making it easy to immerse oneself in the story.
The character development is excellent, giving me a deep understanding of their motives and perspectives.
An excellent thriller, well written and equally entertaining. There are many ‘twists and turns’, action-packed and keeps the reader ‘on the edge’ throughout. It is exciting, absorbing and at times stomach churning
Absorbing, wonderfully written, and fraught with tension, Granite Harbor will keep you in its grip until the very last page.
A murder mystery that you will not want to miss!

Thank You NetGalley and Celadon Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Granite Harbor is the name of a small town in Maine that holds tightly to its past. It’s a quiet town where a British writer who has run out of stories can get a job as the town’s only police department detective. Alex Brangwen followed his wife to Maine where they soon divorced after his writing career folded. He stays because they share custody of their teenage daughter Sophie and he is a good father. He’s a decent police detective.

Granite Harbor has a colonial history that is honored by The Settlement, a small historical reenactment village. Isabel, a former teacher digging herself out of the hold she and alcohol dug, has just started working there. It’s one of those towns where people recognize each other on the streets. But then there is a murder, a grotesque murder of a high school student, a close friend of Isabel’s son Ethan.

Ethan is a great kid. He joins Sophie and his friend Jared in mourning their friend. Then Jared is murdered and Alex and Isabel begin to fear their children are next.



Peter Nichols creates a Granite Harbor with streets you can walk down, salt breezes you can taste, and people you know nearly as well as your neighbors. The sense of place and multi-layered character-building are delicious. The setting and the people are perfect for the police procedural that readers will expect.

But things take a turn. The murder is grotesque and the murderer’s back story is bound to traumatize even the toughest reader. This backstory is the sort of thing that is found in horror stories. It was too out of sync with the setting and the characters. It felt like a betrayal.

And then, it violates the rules of The Detection Club. There’s Rule Two: “All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.” This is especially annoying when old-fashioned police work gets there on its own. There are also too few people who could be possible suspects so you will solve the mystery too quickly.

I am annoyed because the place and people promise so much and it should have been a great mystery if only it were not so horrific.

Granite Harbor will be released on April 30th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Granite Harbor at Celadon Books
Peter Nichols on Wikipedia

This is the first time I’ve done some of the book via audio and some via print.

While I enjoyed the tone and pace of the narrator, I think I would have enjoyed it more reading full print.

All in all- the premise of the book is solid. Minimal character development though.

Some of the narration was cringey to hear spoken - particularly moments about serial killer’s past or how the women are described. I also did not enjoy listening to the animal abuse or the accidental death of a dog. I did skip a few minutes during a specific scene because it’s too more gore for me.

This was great. I really enjoyed reading it and didn’t want to put it down. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

This mystery follows a small town in Maine shook by a sudden strange serial killer. The young men's deaths take the author-turned-police detective from an uncertain place in life to finding a cause. His determination to find the true killer is strong. The relationships between the various parents and teens in the small town and the effects of grief are all underlying themes to the mystery. I was enthralled by the setting and the living history settlement and enjoyed trying to pick the killer out from the red herrings. I would enjoy seeing another story featuring this detective.

Wow! This one consumed my entire weekend!! A teenage boy goes missing in a small town in Maine. The local detective, who is also an award winning novelist, is utilizing all of his resources to solve this case that has likely been committed by a serial killer. The mystery is told so well, without a lot of unnecessary misdirection (which is a pet peve of mine). Nichols paints the portrait of small town life and culture so accurately, it feels like you are there. Like you know these people, immmersed in this horrific and grotesque event together. If you watched Mare of Easttown, you’re going to want to grab this book! Thanks to @celadonbooks and @netgalley for this early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Firstly I want to say thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. Unfortunately this will be a DNF for me. I was looking forward to this book but it just felt flat. I’m accustomed to reading horror and thrillers so unlike many reviews I’ve seen, this was not the reason for my lack of interest. Ultimately this suffered from an excessive narrative. There was too many times where I found myself skipping pages and reading filler information that contributed nothing to the plot or characters. The mystery itself, while harrowing and dark, was also predictable and failed to keep my interest. The teen characters appeared one note heavily playing into teen angst. Though they lacked any other character development worth noting. I’m sure there will be many readers who enjoy this, as it reads like a television show and probably would do well as one. As a book for me it didn’t deliver fully.

This was my first time reading this author and I really enjoyed this book. Peter Nichols writing was smooth and easy to follow. The story of Granite Harbor takes place in Maine and is a murder mystery about a serial killer who goes after teenage boys. Although I’ve never been to Maine, I could picture from my reading what it all looks like and it sounds very beautiful although rather cold. I also learned about some of the areas back history regarding ships and the local commerce. The main character, Alex, was once an author who had written and published 2 books but after experiencing a dry spell, has switched careers and is now the towns local detective. The story shows what it’s like for the residents living in a small town, the hard times they go through both financially and some being single parents and what they do to generate revenue from tourism. The description of the practices done to the boys by the killer was a bit gruesome and parts I didn’t fully understand the reasoning behind it but it’s what made the story interesting. Overall, I thought it was a really great read and it’s a book I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys reading mysteries about small town murders. I’d like to thank Celadon Books for the invite to read and NetGalley for the arc. I was really pleased with how the author wrapped up the storyline and I’d love to read more of his books in the future. I’m giving this a 4 star rating.

This book started off with a bit of a slower pace and with a lot a characters being introduced but it picked up around midway through and became very suspenseful and immersive. The murder descriptions were kind of graphic, which didn't put me off, but I didn't like the animal cruelty. I enjoyed the small town setting of this book. I'll be looking for more books of Peter Nichols.
Thank you NetGalley, Celadon Books, and Peter Nichols for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my review.

A small town is terrorized by a serial killer

In the small town of Granite Harbor, life is supposed to be like all small towns, a safe and quiet place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. All that changes when the body of local teenager Shane Carter is discovered, slit open and displayed in macabre fashion at the Granite Harbor Living History Settlement. Normally a venue for visiting tourists and school groups looking for a peek at what life in colonial times would have been like, it is now an active crime scene. The town’s only detective, Alex Brangwen, is new to the job; an author and British ex-pat whose writing career and marriage did not live up to their early potential, Alex turned to police work in order to make a living and be able to share custody of his daughter Sophie with his wealthy and forceful ex-wife Morgana. Shane’s closest circle of friends include Ethan, whose mother Isabel just started work at the Settlement and who had dated Alex for a period of time; Jared, whose divorced mother teaches yoga in town and who is dating a somewhat older tattoo artist in town; and Sophie herself. With no clear motive or suspects the town is panicked, and even though an FBI agent has arrived to assist Alex and his boss, Police Chief Billie Raintree, little progress is being made. It seems that the citizens of Granite Harbor do not know one another as well as they thought. Suspicion falls upon one of Isabel’s co-workers at the settlement, who certainly is exhibiting odd behaviors. When a second teenager is found dead and it is clear that the main suspect could not have done it, fear spikes even higher, and Alex struggles to manage the terror he has as the parent of a teen as well as the deep-seated concern that he is out of his depth. Will the killer be identified and stopped, or will more people have to die?
Equal parts psychological thriller and portrait of small-town life, Granite Harbor is a page-turner featuring a disturbed killer with an unknown motive for killing his victims in a most unusual manner and a cast of characters who have plenty of secrets and/or trauma in their past. As they struggle to come to terms with the fact that there is someone in their midst who has masked themselves in normalcy while harboring something truly disturbing, parents try to protect their teens from becoming the next victim while also battling the usual rebellions that their children are displaying. Alex is smart and observant, but he never thought that he would be matching wits with a serial killer, and what training he has received as a detective certainly didn’t cover this level of investigation. His wife is, to put it mildly, a piece of work, and he is discovering things about his daughter that he wishes he hadn’t. There are plenty of suspects from whom to choose, more than a few misdirections tossed in to keep a reader guessing, and a group of flawed but likeable people whose everyday lives are sent spinning by the evil in their midst. A great book to curl up with on a stormy night, one which would be enjoyed by fans of authors like Alex Findlay, Tess Gerritsen and Imran Mahmood. Could this be the first in a series featuring Detective Alex Brangwen? One can hope. Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for allowing me early access to this unsettling novel.

This book was just ehh too me. The characters were forgotten everytime I put the book time. I found that the synopsis gave most of the book away. The murderer was pretty obviously through most of the story. It just did not give me that "I can't wait to turn the page and read what happens next" feeling that I loved with mysteries. Maybe it was my mood, maybe just me but I did not find this one to be incredible.

thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy

This was a very atmospheric thriller set in a coastal town of Maine. There is a gruesome serial killer running amok and must be found.

Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is the best unless you are a thriller than twist away. I found the mystery part not very mysterious but that is not a dealbreaker for me as a reader.

The use of animals for gore and creepiness didn’t work for me but that’s a stylistic choice of the author. I thought it made the story weaker.

Not awful but not something I will rave about reading.

Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols is a recommended murder mystery/police procedural set in Granite Harbor, Maine.

Police detective Alex Brangwen was a novelist in Great Britain before he moved to Granite Harbor. Now he is a divorced, single father and the sole detective on the police force. When a local teenager is found brutally murdered in the Settlement, the town’s historic archaeological site, Alex is the one who must find the killer. His teenage daughter, Sophie, was a friend of the victim and his friends.

This is a character driven murder mystery with gruesome murder scenes, which some readers may want to take into consideration. This novel veers more toward horror so those who enjoy that genre mixed with a procedural may like it more than I did.

The narrative is told through the point-of-view of Alex and Isabel Dorr, a parent of one of the teens and a character player at the Settlement site. There are also chapters sharing information about the killer's past incorporated through out the novel, although the identity is hidden. From the opening we understand that the killer may still have the teens in his sights. Take note that there is a twist in the plot further along that was too incredulous for me to accept the sudden insertion of it.

As a character driven novel, developing the characters into believable, sympathetic, unique individuals is essential. Alex and Isabel achieved this level of development, but the other characters fell short. Alex was the most fully realized character and if another novel featured him I would likely give it a read. Thanks to Celadon Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I really wanted to like this one, but for me it was just okay. I don't know if it's because I wasn't completed invested in it, but I had a hard time keeping track of which characters were which and who was related to who. The back story of the murderer was sad and absolutely horrendous, but I guessed right off the bat which character it was, so it was very predictable. I wish there was more focus on what he went through as a child instead of the town as a whole. But other than that it was a decent read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Granite Harbor
Author: Peter Nichols
Source:  ARC from Celadon
Pub. Date: April 30, 2024

Granite Harbor is a look inside the mind of a small-town serial killer located in a coastal town in Maine. It turns out that this killer is every bit as bad as you can imagine, and wicked evil. Peter Nichols crafts a scary AF story about a murderer with a unique signature “kill” and a wild modus operandi. Be prepared for a great story with some stomach-churning details. I thought it was fantastic and enjoyed the book immensely. I’ll update this review closer to the publication date and the Little Free Library gift date from Celadon Books.  

#thriller #serialkiller #smalltown #maine #knife #teens #abuse #clairvoyent #frogs #rebellion #GraniteHarbor @peternicholsauthor @celadonbooks @netgalley #fiction #celadonreader #horror #crime
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I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this novel.
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Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols is aa smart and engrossing read! Great plot and characterizations. Well worth the time.

“It felt self-indulgent, sinking into a chair with a book. This was what he loved to do, almost more than anything else: read, tune everything out, leave the confused and messy world around him for the contained and organized world of a book.” SAME! I feel seen 👀.

This book is as much one police officers delve into a local serial killer as it is looking through a microscope into a small rural town in Maine. And it is dark. It is graphic. And it is NOT for the faint of heart. But I do think this book would make an awesome miniseries or movie!

Loved the Book Of The Month shout out too!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Celadon Books, and the author for the ARC.

This book was not for me. I liked the premise of it, but it was too violent and gruesome. I also never felt like I connected with any of the characters.

Granite Harbor is some gritty crime fiction from Peter Nichols. There's an inexperienced detective that used to be a writer. There's a historical site with re-enactors that's the scene of a gruesome murder. There's some woo-woo with mushrooms and magic jam. An stereotypical FBI Agent that jumps to conclusions. (And of course his name is Brad) And a killer hiding in plain sight that carries a grudge for a long time. I liked how the ending came together. There was a lot of tension around how the case would work out. The murders are disturbing. There are too many character descriptions/backstories. And some odd sentence structure that slows the pace of the story.

Read this if you want some dark, gritty crime fiction.

I listened to the bulk of this novel while I was running a half-marathon race, and I can honestly say I felt like the run was creeping by!

This novel had the potential to be a really intriguing read, but it just fell flat for me. I think some of the content was too much, other parts happened to be the narrator not quite lining up with my envisioned narrator.

TW: abuse, bullying, incest, mutilated murder.