2.5 Stars

I really enjoyed the mystery and suspense of this novel — did the man (Anders) stalking Shaw really kill her sister, Thea — but I struggled with liking the characters. The main reason for this was the dialogue and internal monologue of Shaw. There were so many clichéd sayings and idioms, sometimes she read like a caricature. I could never take her seriously.

🔎 M Y S T E R I O U S M O N D A Y review 🔍 featuring “Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell” by Gillian French!

16 years ago, Thea mysteriously disappeared and her sister Shaw is still haunted by her unsolved case. Shaw is now a fingerprint analyst and has seen her share of brutal and gory crime scenes. She is obsessed with uncovering the truth about her little sister’s disappearance, regardless of the wedge it is creating with her husband and two sons. She is hell bent on getting answers and even starts to take calls from a man named Anders who claims to have committed the crime.

Anders is calculated and relentless and knows too much about Shaw’s personal life. He drops breadcrumb hints about what happened 16 years ago and Shaw is torn about whether to believe him or not. What follows is a sick, twisted and dangerous game of cat and mouse as Anders taunts Shaw and her family with threats!

Will Shaw find out the truth about Thea? And how far will she go to find answers?

👀 HOT DAMN, it’s been a minute since I read a stalker thriller and this one was a banger! I love a twisted game of cat and mouse, and Gillian French sure knows how to write a story that is tense, gritty and full of suspense 👏!

Thank you kindly to @gillianfrenchwriter @minotaur_books @stmartinspress @netgalley for my #gifted advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review. This book releases on June 17, 2025!

This book started off a little slow for me. At times, I had to put it down and come back to it or force myself to keep going. Towards the end of the book, it got better, and I was able to fly through it without a problem. The main character was, at times, funny but kind of fell flat for me.

This was an extremely good mystery and police procedural. Readers of Patricia Cornwell and Karin Slaughter will love this book. The main character, Shaw, is likable and relatable, and I loved the writing style and pacing. The mystery was not predictable and I was absorbed until the end. A 5 star read for me!

Thanks for the opportunity to read in advance!

“Nothing to do, but let the dread eat her alive.”

A cat and mouse game of the highest order, this psychological suspense novel teems with tension as a thirty-four year old finger-print analyst, still grieving the loss, decades earlier, of her teenage sister, encounters the relentless stalking of a man professed to be her killer.

Shaw Connolly, our main third person POV protagonist, is brash, funny, tough and a born nurturer. With two young boys, a still-hearttugging ex-husband, an ailing elderly father, and a much younger college-bound sister, Shaw is a complex character doing her best to cope, survive, and keep her family safe, in the face of steadily mounting episodes of unsurmountable terror at the hands of a psychopath.

Endlessly atmospheric, this is a taut and absorbing read, rich with procedural forensic details, and peopled with characters both authentic and vulnerable. Highly recommended for lovers of Patricia Cornwall, Kathy Reichs, and anyone with a crime/mystery bent, I enjoyed this book and would love to meet with these protagonists again.

A great big thank you to Minotaur books for an ARC of this novel. All thoughts presented are my own

*** four and a half shiny stars

This book follow Shaw who has a stalker that claims to know what happened to his missing sister from sixteen years ago. I really liked Shaw's character. She has a really cool job (fingerprint analyst) that I don't know much about and is determined. The cold case was very interesting and I liked the way working the case helped bring Shaw closer to her family.

When I requested this book, the premise was interesting. When I started reading it, I just really wanted this book to end. There was so much tedius dialogue that I skipped over. The endless pages of the fingerprinting details were also skipped over. We knew who the killer was almost at the beginning and since there was no twist, nothing to surprise you, it stopped being interesting. The dialogue between the main character and the killer was boring. I kept reading thinking maybe there would that twist, but in the end, I was just happy the book was done.

DNF @ 15% - the writing style just wasn’t it for me. normally I love a detective-police procedural, and maybe I’ll pick it up again at a later time, but I just couldn’t get into it… it was definitely a choppy, ton of little detail, dialogue and monologue plot (which was a tad too much and kept getting me lost). I was invested in the plot about shaw’s younger sister, but I just couldn’t get past the writing style and didn’t want to skip multiple chapters of fingerprinting details that felt like overkill… but a huge thank you to minotaur for sending me an early copy to preview!

Gillian French is a great author and this story is a great one! It's a page-turner and definitely kept me intrigued and interested. The story takes place in Maine and I felt the New England vibes as I read it. I love crime fiction and this was top tier. The characters are likable and interesting to read about. A great thriller!

3.5 stars rounded up-Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell is a thriller where a missing persons case has haunted a family for years. Shaw Connolly is a fingerprint analyst for the police department, a career that can be linked to her obsession to find her sister, Thea. Currently Shaw has a stalker who keeps calling to tell her details of her sister’s disappearance and death. Her marriage has fell apart and her elderly father lives with her to help care for her boys. Their lives are darkened by Thea’s disappearance and an apparent threat from Shawn’s stalker. Stalking progresses to arson and murder as Shaw follows every lead for herself. The story is suspenseful but there’s not a deep dive into the characters that allows for a little detachment overall. The whodunnit is never really questionable but the action and suspense builds until the end. This is a little better than average and would consider reading another novel based upon these characters. My voluntary, unbiased, and non-mandatory review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

Gillian French's first foray into the world of adult fiction is definitely worth the read - interesting plot, intricate characters, and well-paced.

This had a great start and compelling initial mystery, but found the characters to be rather flat. Writing style left much to be desired in the overall execution. Not terribly impact as an overall read.

Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell has some compelling moments, but overall, it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. The premise is intriguing, and there are flashes of strong storytelling, but the pacing drags in places, and some character arcs feel underdeveloped. While I appreciated certain twists, the execution didn’t fully pull me in, making it a somewhat uneven read that didn’t quite live up to its potential.

I unfortunately didn’t like any of the characters and the story. It wasn’t a bad book it just didn’t interest me.

I was really excited for this book — particularly the parts on fingerprint analysis — but it didn't hold my attention. The dialogue came off forced (I kept thinking "Who actually talks like this?" which is not a great sign) and the plot wasn't enough to keep me reading.

Well written but don't think it is right for my students, parts are too graphic and many have dealt with stalkers, missing family members so might be triggering. The fingerprint info is informative and up their alleys but overall not right book for me to suggest to them

This book was both interesting and at times hard to get through. Shaw, a fingerprint analyzer, is obsessed with solving her sister's cold case. This affects all her relationships, her husband who has left, her father who lives with her and her two sons and exposes her to danger. This is a disturbing man calling her, claiming to be the killer. Tense book

I had high hopes of liking this one but I did have a hard time connecting to the characters. It was fascinating to learn about the science behind fingerprint analysis and the suspense was well done. Just not as I expected. I will be giving other books by this author a shot.

The thriller elements are undeniably compelling—especially the tension in Shaw’s pursuit of justice—but the story felt more like a family drama than a traditional thriller. I really appreciated the many characters (dad, ex husband, sons, sister) and at times they reminded me of my own family. It was sometimes inspiring to see Shaw chase justice for her sister but there were moments when I wished she had given up because it was greatly affecting her loved ones. The push and pull of those moments stood out to me.

The dialogue at times felt a little cringey, though I do think this was intentional - it seemed that Shaw was meant to be the cringey, out of touch older sister (in more ways than just dialogue).

Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read Shaw Connelly Lives to Tell. I did like this book. I love mysteries, This is a Coldcase,where someone has been missing for 16 years. The missing person is Shaw's sister, Thea. Someone has been contacting Shaw, claiming to be her sisters abductor. This has affected her family, her husband and their marriage. Shaw needs to put his mystery to rest, and find out just what happened to her sister and why. The more she learns, the more she puts herself and her children at risk. She can't stop until she knows, and she could die trying. I give this book a 3.5 out of 5.