Action-packed and by turns dark and hilarious, I loved this lesbian drama. Sharpe crafted a plot with so many twists and turns I felt like I had whiplash in the best possible way. Every time I thought I knew exactly what had happened, I found a new surprise around the corner. Not only is the plot adventurous and fun, but the love story woven throughout is both sweet and spicy. A wonderful new addition to the queer canon.

No Body No Crime is a fun and twisty murder mystery involving two main protagonists: Mel and Chloe. After a conflict went off the rails at Chloe's 16th birthday party, things have been a mess and then a few years later Chloe goes missing. Mel becomes a private investigator and a few years later is tasked with finding Chloe. I loved how this story not only switched points of view but also went back and forth in time. This really helped build suspense and, though I'm usually frustrated and dislike when authors do this because it feels like it's taking away from the story, Sharpe really made it work. These changes in time along with changes in point of view really added to the story and developed the plot, characters, and suspense even more instead of detracting from the story. The characters and twists and turns reminded me a lot of The Girls I've Been--in a good way because I also loved that story--and, since for a lot of the book Mel and Chloe were teens and then even later in the book only in their early 20's, this still felt like it could be a YA book in many ways (though I do see why it would be categorized as adult too). I think anyone who loves Sharpe's other writing, mystery, suspense, alternating points of view, or a fun read would love this one too. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

This read like a black comedy action film that I honestly would love to watch. There are some flashbacks of a murder involving a high school drug dealer, but that's just the appetizer -- that dealer worked for (and stole from) a very powerful family that funds their politics with their drug empire.

Estranged former high school girlfriends reunite, get captured by the Bad Drug Family All Named Richard, and find a way to get vengeance and $$ (and maybe also become peacock conservationists?). One of the villain Richards had POV chapters as well, which may have been unnecessary but also brought additional flavor and comedy. The dysfunctional family dynamics of the Dicks were a definite highlight.

I kept hoping Big Daddy would show up (I imagine him as a cameo of a famous serious actor), but the plot twist at the end was great too. All in all, an entertaining and violent romp through the wilderness with arrows, bullets, diamonds, and peacock feathers.

Part mystery, part romance, and all kinds of thrilling, this one kept things interesting. The twists kept me reading but the story fell a little flat for me.

4.5/5 Going into this I had high hopes (based on Sharpe’s previous books) and I’m glad to say she didn’t disappoint. Characters were well written, the story was well paced and engaging (not surprising) and I felt like part of the adventure the entire time. My only complaint is that at times the plot almost felt too much, and I found myself lost or confused. Please note that this could just be me as I have a very low attention span when reading and often have to reread pages multiple times. Of course it would be silly of me to not mention the sapphic romance which was the cherry on top of this already enjoyable book. I can’t wait to see what else Sharpe releases in the future!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for letting me read this early (despite the late review sorry…)

thank you to netgalley & farrar, straus and giroux for providing me an advanced reader copy of this book in return for a honest review <3
damn. i think i went into this with too high expectations. someone on twitter was raving about this and it really sounded up my alley…. but i fear the story fell into a few pitfalls.
first, let me go over what i did enjoy! i really liked mel. no shade but she is what kept having me come back to this book. she felt so fleshed out, so dimensional, and so realistic. her dialogue was always witty and funny, and i really was rooting for her.
the mystery surrounding chloe for the first half of the book was really interesting as well. i was super engaged in finding out what secrets she was hiding, why she was on the run, etc.
…and that’s it. i mean honestly i enjoyed mel enough to have a good time with this book! but i can’t say i had a *great* time. i think there’s two glaring issues as to why this wasn’t a higher-rated read for me. the first glaring issue is that the chemistry between mel and chloe is there, sure. but it feels forced because their dynamic’s inception happens off the page. why do we never get more flashbacks where they were together as teens? it makes their dynamic in the present time feel unrealistic because they keep going on and on about how they love each other and how great they were, but i never got to see that! i just got to see them be messy queens in the present and i was just sat there thinking like “….do they actually like each other?” like of course i knew they loved each other, they say it at every goddamn opportunity, but do their actions say so? and my response is… no not really. the second glaring issue i have kind of leads on from that, which is, chloe is….. a nothingburger. i won’t say she doesn’t have any personality, but she’s just kinda reduced down to “tell not show”. we keep being told chloe is like a cockroach for the Dicks, but at most we see a glimpse at this. if anything what we’re shown is the complete opposite! here the text is telling me that she’s like a navy seal in combat, but the story is telling me she fumbles clear shots, walks into situations unarmed, and makes the worst decisions at every turn. like what are we doing? the story and the characters are contradicting each other.
other than those two issues, i did have some minor nitpicks. in general, i couldn’t care about any character except mel. they felt flat, one dimensional, and had like One personality trait.
the tags on this book are really odd because…. they’re not really romance or thriller. i mean to me it’s more like a contemporary mystery. this might seem like a pedantic nitpick but this book set my expectations up to have a lot of romance! and there was barely any! and to me this book was barely a thriller because…. the plot decided whenever the girls were in a situation they shouldn’t have been able to escape, the plot has something random happen so they can get out of it alive. i felt this happen the most glaringly in the last half of the book, but especially with the peacocks & the ending. it didn’t feel authentic, it felt like the other characters were having to act wildly out-of-character so mel and/or chloe could escape. it felt cheap and kept throwing me out of the book.
finally, i really didn’t like the way information was conveyed. it’s not even because the book was told non-linearly! it just felt like crucial information was being conveyed to the reader a lot later than it should’ve been, and some things in the plot were “foreshadowed” to be a lot more serious than they ended up being. like from the sounds of it, i was expecting chloe to have been a mass serial killer on the run, nat parker to have tried to kill mel’s entire family, etc. and instead when it was actually revealed i was… disappointed? because half the story had these plot points built up, and then once the truth was told to the reader, it ended up being less than what the tension created was. i think if information was given a tad earlier, maybe this issue wouldn’t have annoyed me as much. but im also not a writer so.
anyways. i expected more gay shit. you have the lgbt+ tag. you gotta give me more than like two kisses. and you also gotta Thrill me. i don’t think my heart rate went above 90 at any point reading this, because i either had no attachment to what was happening because it was chloe being fucked over, i knew mel/chloe would get out of the situation due to who knows what, and/or i actually wasn’t being told what was happening by the story not revealing the past to me, so i was more focused on finding out the truth rather than if x dies. i do admire this book for branching outside of the “classic” genres you will find sapphic couples in (e.g. fantasy, contemporary romance, horror, YA), but i don’t think it was done amazingly well. it was done to a serviceable level. i can’t even say i had fun reading this… but i didn’t hate it. i didn’t even dislike it! i’m completely ambivalent to what this book was. and i think i would’ve rather if i hated it, because at least then this would’ve made me feel something. instead i am wistfully thinking of what this book could’ve been if it was longer and i had more Gay Shit happening during the book.

Tess Sharpe is a must-read for me and her latest NO BODY NO CRIME reinforces that. Sharpe's work is particularly original because she combines crime/criminal actions with the depth of richly written characters and themes of found family. The author also gives her characters the space to make bad decisions, then figure out how to manage or find their way through the consequences. NO BODY NO CRIME feels especially sharp (no pun intended!), perhaps because of its twists, timelines, and two POVs. At times it did feel like the story asked me to stretch my suspension of disbelief a bit too far, dipping perilously close to melodrama. Overall, this is a solid read with two dynamic main characters.

No Body No Crime promised a high-octane, high-stakes action-adventure thriller, and it delivered...mostly. It's a fun read, full of murder and manipulation, plane crashes and political intrigue, but it stretched my willingness to suspend disbelief a little too much, a little too often. It's quite over the top - which I'm down for! But some of the leaps of logic I had to make were a little much for me. Add to this the fact that, because of the non-linear way it's (mostly) written, and the parts of the story that *aren't* actually shown, I felt like it was missing any real emotional heart. I didn't get to see Mel and Chloe get to know one another and fall in love, I saw them before and long after their time of relationship-building, so when the novel insists on the intensity of their love and their attraction, and the way their relationship can persist despite distance and secrecy and...well, everything going on in this melodrama of a plot, it leaves me cold. And unfortunately, it turns out that without that believable heart at the center of it, all the fun action, high stakes drama, and Secrets Revealed don't totally land for me.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately there was a lot about this that didn't work for me. A thriller with not one, but two strong female leads? Yes please! But the execution didn't do the concept justice. It starts out promising, dumping us into the middle of some action, but after that the story jumps around not only in time, but in point of view. The characters are surface-level caricatures, there are too many explanatory monologues that kill the pace, and the mystery ended up being pretty ho-hum.

No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe is a twisty thriller about two women whose lives become entangled in a dangerous plot involving betrayal, revenge, and survival. Told across different timelines and through dual POVs, the novel weaves a suspenseful story that keeps the reader guessing until the very end.

I absolutely loved this book. From the very first chapter, it grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. The time jump and the use of two perspectives worked perfectly to build tension and keep me hooked throughout. Both main characters felt incredibly well rounded, with depth and nuance that made me invested in their journeys.

What stood out most to me was the relationship between the two leads - it was strong, layered, and completely believable. The side characters also added richness to the story, each playing their role in a way that felt purposeful and engaging.

For me, this book was chef’s kiss. No notes. Just amazing, amazing, amazing. It delivered on everything I want in a thriller and more.

A well-paced, evocative thriller that falls off a little at the end, No Body No Crime was a very enjoyable and engaging read for me. High school sweethearts Mel and Chloe who covered up a murder together many years ago of a boy separate when Chloe disappears from the town and Mel now a grown-up PI goes looking for her when Chloe's father is stricken with cancer. The story unfolds initially in a very compelling way, going back and forth from the night they did the murder to the present time when they are both in a plane crash and all the events that led to both events, piecemeal-ing a timeline of their relationship together while also splicing in the POV's of the perpetrators, snot-nosed whiny little nepo baby men who run the drug business in their small town. Unfortunately in this tapestry, the actual meat of the initial relationship is lost, leaving a sort of general vibe of albeit hot and exciting yearning and conflicted feelings between the two women who the story is revolved around. We don't really get a lot of how they even fell in love in high school, just the consequences and events surrounding the murder itself which makes the yearning adults a little vague on what exactly drew them to each other and how they are said to be sneaking around with each other, especially as the book really picks up the pace regarding the chase between the drug dealing men and the two women, leaving little time for a sort of dissection of their initial relationship beyond "you left me". The ending also felt a bit disappointing, with a lot of the plotlines left in the air (maybe for a sequel idk?) and/or hand waved away as "eh we'll figure it out later."...which does not help either the central romance or the thriller aspects. Still a fun and well-written read.

this was sooo cool!! i was hooked from the start and wanted to know everything!

thank you netgalley for the e-ARC

No body no crime hooked me from the first chapter, Mel's grumpy tiredness when she wakes in the middle of plane crash sets the tone of the whole story.
I can't believe how much i laughed out loud on a book with so much murder and crime. The whole novel is very action packed, tense and so so funny.
No body no crime follows Mel & Chloe, who haven't seen each other in 6 years after Chloe disappeared. They have so much tension between them, especially considering everything that happened between them, starting from Chloe's sweet 16 party.
The main character's chemistry is palpable as well as the tension and their point of views read so distinct from each other, i loved the glimpses we got of some of the other side characters and the way the past and present interconnected to what was happening at the moment.

I really enjoyed No body no crime and i recommend anyone who's interested in it to pick it up.

I believe this is Tess Sharpe's first novel for an adult audience, though the book alternates between the main characters at age sixteen and twenty-four. So there's a bit of a bridge between the two audiences which makes this book appealing to teens as well as adults.

Mel and Chloe grew up together and had a special bond that they kept to themselves, seeing as they both lived in a small community where everyone knew everyone else's business. At age 16, the two girls conspired to cover up for the unintentional death of a sixteen-year-old boy. Then they went their separate ways and never spoke of what happened. Eight years later, Mel is a private investigator who's been hired to find Chloe and bring her back to see her dying father. Mel discovers Chloe hiding deep in the booby-trapped forest, living in a cabin she built herself.

Meanwhile, the employer of the boy who died eight years ago is on the hunt for Chloe. He thinks she knows the whereabouts of some stolen diamonds and he wants to get them back. On their return flight home, the plan crashes and they are the only ones who survive. They must survive the wilderness and outsmart the men hunting for them as they also try to figure out how they fit into one another's lives now that they are reunited.

I recommend this to fans of Yellowjackets for its plane crash and survival perspective. And of course, anyone who is already a fan of Sharpe's works will appreciate this book.

You know that saying, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover’? Well, No Body, No Crime is not one of those books. You can definitely judge. The artwork is fantastic, and the insight it gives to the adventure that awaits is a thousand percent correct.
Told from multiple POVs, but mainly from the two MCs, No Body No Crimes is a thrilling mystery. Chloe has done nothing but hide and run for the sake of those she loves. When her ex-girlfriend, Mel, small town private investigator, is the one to find her she is furious, frustrated, but also still a little bit in love.
While Chloe just wants to stay hidden, Mel tries to show her that life can go back to the way they once dreamed it could be, before a bully tore everything apart.
With the help of friends, Chloe and Mel solve a puzzle and destroy the family who have kept them apart for too long.
Tess Sharpe has written a blazing page turner. Her characters are fun and witty, with banter and truth bombs thrown cleverly throughout the story. Her characters are strong, smart, and willing to fight for what they believe in.
If you’re looking for a sapphic, fight or die till the end, whodunnit style book, No Body No Crime is one to check out now.

I’ll start with my con as there’s only 1, the layout of the book made it quite hard to follow. With 2 different before and after for 2 different people and then someone else’s POV. For me it would have been better if it was separated into sections however I do understand why the author wrote it this way.

I did really enjoy the plot, it left you trying to work out the truth especially in part 1, when it was all unraveling it flowed really well and explained everything so good.

Overall it was a great book and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

No Body No Crime is an action-packed adventure full of secrets. Six years ago, Chloe went missing, but Mel has finally tracked her down and is determined to get answers about both the past and the present. Now, they find themselves in imminent danger and must fight to survive.
The premise of this book is really interesting and the last third is full of twists and drama, but the beginning of the book dragged a bit. There were just too many different mysteries going on at once and I lost interest, but it got more engaging towards the end of the book.

4/5 Stars – Sharp, Tense, and Satisfyingly Twisty

No Body No Crime is a clever, fast-paced thriller that blends small-town grit with razor-sharp suspense. Tess Sharpe crafts a story full of secrets, betrayals, and shifting loyalties, where nothing is as straightforward as it first appears. Her prose is crisp and engaging, and the characters feel vivid and real—flawed, complicated, and often unpredictable.

The book shines in its tense atmosphere and well-timed twists, keeping the reader hooked from beginning to end. Sharpe balances the thriller elements with strong character work, making the stakes feel both personal and urgent.

If there’s a drawback, it’s that a few plot turns feel slightly over-the-top, and the pacing dips briefly in the middle. Still, the overall ride is exhilarating, and the ending lands with satisfying impact.

A gripping, smartly written thriller—perfect for fans of layered mysteries and strong, resilient characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoy Tess Sharpe's novels so I was thrilled to receive this ARC. This was a fast-paced, gripping story and I devoured it in one night. Is it extremely realistic? No. But its fun and empowering to see read about these kick-ass women in action.

I can easily see this being a Netflix series. And it would do very well.

“indestructible. undeniable. inescapable.”
you know the second a new tess sharpe book gets announced i am preordering without hesitation! the twists and turns!!!! every chapter had me rethinking everything i thought i understood. the way the time jumping back and forth fills the gaps in of the story slowly, to the point where you THINK you know what happened only for the next flashback to turn everything upside down, in the best way. i very occasionally got a lil confused but i was slumping really hard when i got to this book so i will absolutely blame my brain. also, i just love these traumatised, badass bisexuals. the dynamic between chloe and mel from the very beginning HAD me. also loved these side characters too, gigi being a highlight for sure. this was fun, suspenseful and twisty af. i flew through the second half of this book so so so fast, i just needed to know everything as soon as i could.