GENRE: thriller/mystery/true crime
VERDICT: it’s complicated
MOOD: 🫣😐🫠😵‍💫

Oh man, this is so hard to review. On one hand I enjoyed the online crime sleuth storyline (think Reddit) and thought the format of a tell-all book by one of the amateur true crime junkies was unique and engaging. I liked the cast of characters, their chemistry and the found family aspect reminded me a bit of Only Murders in the Building. The portrayal of grief and loss experienced by our MC Jane, and how she ended up obsessed with the online crime forums was probably my favorite aspect and most believable.

However, I had real issue with the major storyline being inspired by the Idaho college murders from 2022. I think it’s semi problematic because so many details were exactly the same from this real life crime and I feel this is the opposite message the book is trying to convey! There’s a lot of discussion/commentary on the dangerous fascination with true crime & shows the consequences that come from this obsession. But then at the same time it uses a real murder case as inspiration? And mirrors the details almost perfectly? I felt this could’ve been an amazing book had it not actually been inspired by true events/was more loosely inspired by real events. It just didn’t sit right with me considering this case is still ongoing, the suspect still hasn’t been on trial and the families haven’t received justice or closure yet.

I have read many books by Ashley Winstead and was excited to read this one early. The characters were likeable so that's a plus and I really enjoyed the true crime forum convos and online chats, but I found this story to be predictable. I still enjoyed it but at times it seemed extremely too long and could have been told in much fewer pages I will continue to read her books because I love her writing style. I just wish I wouldn't have figured out the twist so early on. Thanks again NetGalley for allowing the chance to read for my honest review.

After the death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with a true crime forum, befriending armchair detectives who try to solve crimes from afar. Soon their investigation takes them from behind the computer to IRL.

If you're a true crime fan you will love this. I recommend reading the authors note first as Ashley Winstead talks about pulling inspo from the Idaho murders.

As with most thrillers you have to suspend disbelief a little bit but this kept me engaged thru out. When i got to the last 75 pages I couldn't put it down.

I really love reading her books but I really couldn’t get into this one or the characters. I did not finish this one

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp is longing for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with the world of true crime, befriending armchair detectives who show her the ropes on how to hunt killers from afar. In this dark, internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose and even glory...

I was immediately pulled into this amazing book and kept at the edge of my seat for the whole wild ride. The story is told to use by Jane, a year after the events have taken place.

I love a good book with footnotes because in my opinion, it just adds that little something special to an already good book, so obviously I loved the use of the footnotes and I liked that the online conversations were separated out clearly from the text.

This was just one really good book and I highly enjoyed it. I'd never read anything by this author before but I will definitely be looking into her backlog now. Great story that kept me hooked from the beginning to the very end.

This book is expected to be published: March 25th 2025.

You can also find my reviews: www.goodreads.com/brandisbooks.

Thank you to both Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Was super excited for this book! It was well written, good story line, overall gave four stars because there were some parts that were hard to follow and I didn't feel as satisfied with the ending.

Thank you to Sourcebook and Netgalley for allowing me to read This Book will bury me by Ashley Winstead. Ashley Winstead is an author that I read before and enjoyed. This is a riveting book about a college student who is obsessed with solving crimes with strangers who she meets online that become friends. The group focuses on three college girls who were murdered. I found this book to be fast paced but, I was bothered by the footnotes at the end of the chapters.

“The fact that everyone has turned on us, that they’re calling us villains—well, I had no choice but to write this book. Read the rest, and then tell me who’s the villain.“

Another banger from Ashley Winstead. Save this post as a reminder and/or simply preorder ahead of its release in March—I promise you won’t want to miss this one.👏

While I’m certainly interested in learning about true crime, I don’t read nonfiction; it’s just not for me and that’s okay! So the chance to explore *fictionalized* true crime is exciting (and less depressing), especially when it’s done so well.

In that vein, it’s perfect for fans of The Night Swim, Listen to the Lie, None of This is True, Notes on an Execution, etc etc.

It’s a long book, but it flies by. You honestly won’t want to put it down. 🔥🔥🔥

Thank you#netgalley for the early copy of This Book Will Bury Me. I unfortunately dnf’d this one at about 25% because of the writing style. I couldn’t make myself care about the main character or the victim of the story. The forum parts took me out of the story and were just unrealistically written. I may give this another chance later on but for now this one is not for me.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all fallen down the true crime rabbit hole before-scrolling Reddit and debating theories with friends.

After losing her dad, Jane Sharp, was looking for something to distract her. Cue her new obsession: solving true crime cold cases. After a brutal murder leaves college students dead in a small town, Jane and a few internet sleuths decide to investigate in person. As they get closer to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes.

This one was heavy and in true Ashley Winstead fashion, she lists the trigger warnings (I’m happy to share these with you). Ashley also openly shares that this book was inspired by real-life events (the Idaho massacre). Something to keep in mind before reading this one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and there is more to it than just the true crime aspect. It’s layered, intense and packed with surprises. If you’re already a fan of Ashley Winstead, you’ll want to add this one to your TBR!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5/5

I’m a big fan of Ashley Winstead! This book was another favorite and one I will recommend to everyone. Read this if you love twists!! I loved the internet chats and the short, quick chapters. The format being a book written by the main character with her added comments as footnotes was interesting.

While Jane was struggling through the loss of her father, she stumbled upon an online group trying to solve the murder of a local woman. She then gets invited to the inner circle of this group and it starts to take over her life.

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Ashley Winstead for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In this dark and creepy thriller, Jane is struggling with grief after moving home. She stumbles upon a true crime internet community and suddenly regains purpose when she helps solve cold cases and finds she has a talent for it. She not only finds herself, but also newfound friends within the internet community. She and her friends are drawn into a new and gruesome set of murders in a college town but in doing so, she may put herself at risk as well. Told from Jane’s point of view in a book written after the fact, the reader can’t be sure if Jane is giving the true version of events… or not.

I absolutely love Ashley Winstead’s books (both her thrillers and romances) and this one was quite a ride! The style of a book within a book was such a fun and creative twist. She utilized several true crime stories as well as real shows and people to model the book after, and so it really reads like true crime. Jane is a character that is so complex- you can feel sorry for her while also frustrated with the choices she makes. It really adds to the feeling of reading about something that’s actually happened. I had to put the book down while reading alone at night because I was scaring myself, so it definitely has a creepy factor to it. I advise people to check content warnings prior to reading and turn on the lights at night if you scare easily like I do! However, it was an excellent thriller read that captures the dark side of humanity as well as the struggles and complex nature of grief.

Thank you so much to Ashley Winstead and Source books for the arc and opportunity to be an early reader and reviewer.

I have decided after much consideration that I will write a review for this book, but will be abstaining from providing a true rating of this book. To preface, I am a super-fan of Ashley Winstead - I have read everything she's written and find her writing style to be captivating and keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. The same is true for this book and if you can suspend your knowledge of the subject matter of this story, you'll probably love this one!

I am not ignorant to the thought that many authors write stories that are largely inspired by true events (and also not the first time that Ashley has been inspired by true crime, for certain!) so that's not my issue here. My issue is that this is so closely based on the murders of the Idaho college students that I was so distracted by drawing parallels and couldn't even focus on what was going on in the plot. On top of that, basing your novel on an ongoing and open case, which hasn't gone to trial and the victims not having received their justice yet, made this story altogether too icky. I hope that once published, there is an author's note acknowledging the case because as it sits right now in my ARC, the lack of regard is entirely disrespectful. By writing this novel, Winstead is taking part in the behavior she attributes to true crime internet sleuths and armchair detectives in her story, behavior that is absolutely despicable considering where the real case stands today. This book is an exploitation of tragedy. Well-written but disrespectful.

Hot damn! I loved this one!

Jane Sharp has lost her father and needs distraction from her grief, so she joins an online true crime website for amateur sleuths. She quickly makes a tight knit group of detective friends that work together to solve crimes. When a serial killer case develops in Delphine, Idaho, they are quickly sucked into the high-profile crime. Written a year after the case’s dramatic close, Jane is telling her own version of the events.

What I loved:
🕵🏻 Short chapters, mixed in with online chat room streams, made the reading quick and exciting.
🕵🏻 The small group of online sleuths that Jane joins become like family to her. This cast of characters was exceptional. Not all thrillers have characters with a lot of emotional depth and backstory, but Winstead took time to develop this cast of characters without compromising the fast pace of the story. So well done!
🕵🏻 This book had its fair share of twists and turns. Yet each twist worked perfectly with the next, they didn’t come out of left field (which I hate). And each twist helped with the development of the story leading to an incredibly satisfying resolution.

This is my new favorite from Ashley Winstead!

Thank you to @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

4.75 ⭐️ Advanced Reader Review!

After her father dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Jane Sharp’s life is thrown off kilter. She soon finds the online world of web sleuths, and quickly becomes enthralled with it all.

So when three college students are killed in Delphine, Idaho, true crime fanatics and armchair detectives like Jane and her friends are drawn to the case. But as they dig into the case further, things don’t add up. Details are sparse and the police are more focused on the media and social media attention than solving the case. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap…

My thoughts: As someone who has experienced the loss of a parent, this moved really moved me. This book perfectly captured what my experience was like after my dad passed in a way that no other book, movie, tv show, etc. has been able to do.

As far as the mystery goes, I loved how deep this story went. It felt like we were sinking into the thick of it with each chapter. I loved how one mystery connected to the other. I loved our main characters and their dynamic so much. I will say, I guessed the big twist at the end, which is always a bit of a bummer, but I still had a great time watching everything play out.

Overall, I loved this book! It is quite long at 480 pages, but I enjoyed every single moment. 4.75 stars.

Thank you NetGalley, Ashley Winstead, and Sourcebooks Landmark for the complementary advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book completely sucked me into a vortex and I couldn't stop until I finished. Winstead has done a wonderful job touching on the dangers of true crime and how social media lulls us all into believing we know more about others lives than we do. A thoughtful exploration of the dark pull of true crime wrapped up in a suspenseful package.

This was my first Ashley Winstead book, but will not be my last! I was drawn into this story from the very first page, and impressed by what I found to be a very different kind of murder mystery. It was part coming-of-age for our narrator Jane, part true crime commentary, and part page-turning thriller. When Jane experiences a traumatic personal loss, she searches for connection and purpose, and winds up falling into the rabbit hole of online sleuthing. She becomes obsessed with helping to solve a series of tragic murders with her new online friends, while also grieving her own loss. This story had heart and soul, as well as some great twists and turns. It explores how and why we as a society are drawn into certain kinds of 'crimes of the century', while also asking the question of how well we can ever truly know the people we love once they are gone. It examines how technology and social media have changed the landscape of murder investigations (for better or worse), and why some kinds of cases capture our collective national attention more than others. It does all of this without sounding preachy or judgmental, and merely explores what this might illustrate about human nature and grief and loss. I found it to be fresh and interesting and relevant, and Jane was a truly unique voice in her own journey with many flaws and complexities and yet, I rooted for her the whole time. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC!

The way I dropped everything to read this book! Ashley Winstead is an auto-buy author for me and this one doesn't disappoint. A slow burn of a story that builds to a flaming crescendo. The true-crime slant was an added bonus. All the stars ⭐️

This Book Will Bury Me is the true crime mystery you need this year!

Ashley Winstead returns with another excellent mystery, keeping readers stumped until the very last page. This story follows Jane, aka "Searcher," a burgeoning true crime aficionado who stumbles upon a group of armchair detectives dedicated to solving crimes in their own unique ways. With the support of this online community, Jane hones her crime-solving skills and starts trying to help those in need.

This fast-paced mystery is told in three distinct parts: the ramp-up to the mystery, the meat of the case, and the exhilarating conclusion. The ramp-up keeps readers on their toes, introducing themes of grief and self-discovery while presenting a "beginner" mystery to solve. As the true central mystery unfolds, the suspense builds into a deadly race to the finish that will leave readers breathless.

The voice of this story is as unique as its structure. Jane narrates through her "tell-all" response novel, offering a contrast to a competing mystery on the market. Readers can expect snarky comments, witty asides, and insider knowledge that propel the plot forward. The charm and humor of the group of armchair detectives provide much-needed comedic relief while also exploring grief from a fresh perspective.

Readers are going to LOVE Ashley Winstead's latest story. It’s perfect for both new and longtime fans and will resonate with readers who enjoy Riley Sager, Ruth Ware, and Shari LaPena.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!