Every time I am able to dive back into the dark and wild work of Dark Harbor, I get so excited! Hannah Morrissey has such a way of writing intricate stories that feel like watching some kind of Law and Order episode. I can’t wait for the next one!

Wait. Just wait. Tell me this isn’t going to be the final book of the Black Harbor series. I may actually cry.

I decided to read all of the BH books over the last 2 weeks, and damn are they good! Morrissey is now an auto-buy, absolute favorite author. I don’t often find myself highlighting passages to go back to later, but she has such a way with words that I want to absorb and remember all of them. With each book, you become so attached to the characters (Even the ones that we should absolutely hate. Yes, once you read this you’ll know who I’m talking about).

This one brings us back to Nikolai Kole - one of BHPD’s finest, and Hazel, the transcriber from the first book. You don’t need to read the series to pick this one up, but you will NOT regret it if you do. As soon as Hello, Transcriber ended, I knew I needed more of Hazel and Nick, and I am SO happy that Morrissey delivered here so we would know how their story continues.

Hazel is back in Black Harbor to solve the case of a murder of someone close to her in her past life (Not going to ruin this one for those who will star the series!) Black Harbor hasn’t slowed down in the underworld of drugs and crime. Violence has reached an all-time high, and a new drug, Xombie, is taking over. I honestly can’t say too much about this without giving things away from the earlier books - But Morrissey has reached Karin Slaughter level in my book and this series will go down as an all time favorite in my book. 1o/10 recommend.

Hannah Morrissey does it again ! What a great crime thriller ! Loved being back in the town of Black Harbor. I really enjoyed this one. I liked Hazel and Kole's characters and their relationship. Give this one a read if you like thrillers, suspense and crime stories. You do not need to read the other books in the Black Harbour Series to understand the story but It is does help if you do. Plus, they are all great books !

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

I always love revisiting Black Harbor but I was especially excited about this book in the series because we finally got to see Kol and Hazel again and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Hazel comes back to Black Harbor after her (awful) ex-husband is murdered. I loved reading about the undeniable connection between Kol and Hazel and learning more about Kol’s back story. Of course this is Black Harbor so there was murder, drugs, robberies and a couple of crimes to solve. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I always love my visits to Black Harbor! Hazel and Nik have some interesting chemistry, and it was great to seem them back at it again (even if it is complicated). I will continue to rave about this authors writing! Her writing is so immersive and I love how all the pieces come together in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the invitation to read and review this book.

Other reviewers have offered synopses and details, and I will not repeat their efforts. One reviewer did strongly recommend reading the Black Harbor series in order, and I agree, having done it backwards. I just finished reading The Unlucky Ones (book 4) and have started Hello Transcriber (book 1). (Books 2 and 3 of the series feature the same setting but different characters than books 1 and 4.) Reading book 4 before book 1 constitutes a giant spoiler, so be aware of that as you decide which book to read first. .

This book was rather more gritty and gruesome than most of the mysteries and police procedurals that I read, and quite frankly I prefer a lot less grit and gruesomeness. Having said that, though, of course I know that police work can be very gritty and gruesome. I just don't want to see it. My biggest problem was not remembering from scene to scene exactly who some of the secondary characters were and how they fit into the plot. Perhaps I would have done better if I had read the earlier book before the later one. But that's entirely on me, and an author is not obliged to retell characters and plot points from the earlier book(s) in a series.

Overall, the book is well-written, if not entirely to my personal taste. I would not recommend this book to readers who are put off by violence and blood and detailed descriptions thereof. So I am giving the book 4 stars, for good writing and hoping that reading the earlier book will clear up some of the backstory details I couldn't keep track of in book 4; but not 5 stars for the sake of my own personal taste.

Hazel is back and Black Harbor has more secrets. Now that Hazel has given up her transcribing career to become a writer, one would think trouble would stay far away. Unfortunately, the murder of her ex-husband Tommy Greenlee has brought her back to solve the crime. Many thinks she may have done it, but Kole knows the truth and they will work together to find the real killer.

This was only a 3 for me. I had such high hopes for Hello Transcriber, and that also ended up being a solid 3 for me. It was too hyped. On this book, I absolutely love the cover. It’s a really neat lead into the book. I’m guessing maybe the reading style is just not for me, most likely will be the last I try.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: March 25, 2025
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

The way I got so excited when I saw book #4 in the Black Harbor Series…!!!! I love Hannah’s writing and I OBSESS over this series. Ate It UP! Here we go again…buckle up folks because we are back to solve a murder and one that hits a bit to close to home for Hazel…her ex husband she escaped years back and now she’s got to find out what happened before something happens to anybody else. This read was full of secrets, twists, turns, anxiety (haha) and Morrissey’s clever writing. I love Hazel & Kole were excited to have them back in this book. I recommend reading the first three books and then this one because why would you not want to immerse yourself in this series?!?! Absolutely recommend this to EVERYBODY.

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books

After eight years, Hazel Greenlee is back in Black Harbor, but it's hardly a happy homecoming - her ex husband Tommy has been murdered.
There are secrets everywhere, and aside from the bad memories and ugly, gritty reality of Black Harbor, Hazel must face her former lover, detective Nikolai Kole.
On top of Tommy's murder, a new drug is infesting the streets, adding to the dangers.
I love police procedurals and was happy to see Hazel and Nikolai again. The writing is compelling and atmospheric and kept me turning page after page to see what would happen.

I recently finished The Unlucky Ones by Hannah Morrisey. I would definitely recommend this book. I thought it was great.

Hazel returns to Black Harbor to solve the murder of her ex-husband Tommy. Once there she is reunited with Kole and rekindles their relationship. This city is filled with drugs and crime and this is one gritty police procedural that makes you feel part of the action. I liked how it was dark story but the romance lightened it up some.

I thoroughly enjoyed Morrissey's first book Hello, Transcriber featuring Sergeant Nikolai Kole and was hoping she'd write another book to start a series...and voila...she did and it's better than the first one. Thank you for the advanced copy!

Thank you to the publisher for a free netgalley of this one.

Ok. I really liked When I am Dead , which is part of the Black Harbor series by this author. So when this one was on Bookstagram, I got excited and was just as excited to be granted a copy.

But I felt there was almost way too much going on here. Maybe it is because book 3 in the series was my initiation for lack of a better way to say it. I did not realize it was a series with overlapping characters. But again, I just felt meh about this one.

Kole and Hazel are in what I would call the Carrie/Mr. Big relationship. So many people are cheering for it, but man was it a toxic relationship. Their characters, in my opinion, had ZERO chemistry. None. Hazel, who has clearly been through enough, is not ready for a relationship in any way. SO the way her and Kole go back and forth through this book was actually annoying. I felt it slowed the plot down and brought nothing to the table.

With all of that being said, I love the setting and the core team of these books. The backdrop is well written, and I love the author's writing style. This plot line for this specific book just felt way to overloaded with the relationship of the two main characters.

Thank you for the ARC COPY. This was a great and quick fast paced mystery thriller! Black Harbor was an interesting place to visit and I really enjoyed reading about Hazel and Kole in this one. It was action packed and was hooked from page one. Trying to figure out who murdered Tommy ( her ex-husband) and it was interesting and to see who the killer was. Great police procedural story and very well written.
Thank you Hannah for another great story! Def be sure to pick this one up in March 2025!

Black Harbor is a dark place; crime ridden, derelict, drug filled. Hazel, a former police transcriber escaped the town and her abusive ex husband, Tommy, eight years ago and wrote a successful book based on Black Harbor. When that husband is killed, she returns there, but why? Is it just to find out what happened to Tommy or to re kindle something with her former lover, police sergeant Nikolai Kole? As Kole and Hazel investigate, the true underbelly of Black Harbor is exposed.

Morrissey paints a grittily atmospheric picture of Black Harbor, a town that most people long to leave. Well written and plotted, with strong character development, this was an engrossing read. There are rays of light in this dark tale.I did find Hannah’s motivations sometimes difficult to understand.

This is the fourth in the Black Harbor series. I read the third one that featured other characters, so this was my first introduction to Hazel and Kole who were protagonists in the first installment. This can be easily read as a standalone as the author recounts their history in the narrative.

Hazel Greenlee has returned to Black Harbor and as expected trouble soon follows. Her ex-husband is brutally murder while wearing his old wedding ring, was this due to Hazel or because of his usual exploits?

No one has changed and things are far worse tha n what they seem. Morrissey’s talents take center stage here: moody, razor-sharp prose; scrupulously plotted chain of escalating events, and dark and raw characters. Black Harbor is a cruel and miserable place, but I’ll follow Hannah Morrissey there anytime - book form of course.

I can't say that I was any more impressed with The Unlucky Ones than I was with the previous book in the Black Harbor series. Both books presumed a working knowledge of the characters and the community, and I thought I would at least have that going into this book. But it turns out that the protagonists of the previous story aren't more than occasionally mentioned secondary characters in this book, and someone who was a secondary character in that book becomes one of the protagonists in this one. Although the books aren't really explicit in nature they are very grim, taking place in a community full of corruption, murder, addiction and just about anything else you can think of. In this story, the woman Nikolai Kole had an affair with comes back to town when her ex-husband turns up murdered. His death turns out to be only one in a drug war that's quickly getting out of control and that seems to involve half the town. Plus there seems to be no good reason for Hazel to come back to town beyond the fact that she can't quit Kole. She doesn't even know why, and yet she finds plenty of time to do things that are stupid and put her in danger. I'm not sure if Morrissey is trying to pitch the idea that there are people in Black Harbor that are worth fighting for; even the good guys seem pretty morally dark gray. Other people might like these, but the Black Harbor books, after having read two and giving them a shot, just don't do a whole lot for me. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Talk about unlucky?? This book begins with a woman on a bridge who remembers her abusive ex and is planning to jump. Then we move to The Mineshaft--a biker bar where one client is dead. Synthetic fentanyl, weapons, lottery tickets...what do they all have in common? This book is like a movie on cocaine! It's a race to the finish with the reader speeding through town knowing that nothing good awaits them at the end! My head was spinning a mile-a-minute and I couldn't get through this book fast enough!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I would strongly suggest you read the first book in this series, Hello,Transcriber before you even read the description for The Unlucky Ones. The fourth book in the series focused on characters that were prominent in the first book.
Black Harbor is still a dark dark place……. That is, it. It is impossible for me to say more without leaking spoilers like blood from a gunshot wound. I will say that I loved this plot and was dying to see how this would end. If I had not read the second and third books, I might think the author was done with Black Harbor. Fingers crossed that she is not, but if that is her plan, it has been one amazing dark and disturbing ride.

I really go back and forth on this series. I really think the first one was by far the strongest. This one isn't bad but I have never been convinced this needed to be a series. This book comes back to a lot of what happened in the first book which I liked since I liked that book as much. But then that makes the other books feel like filler even more. How can so much happen in this town and why does anyone live there?