Tess Sharpe does it again with this absolutely thrilling read!
Set between two timelines, this one left me desperate to know more.
I was hooked from the first page, and with its fast paced plot, I was zooming through this with an intensity that is only ever matched with another Tess Sharpe book.
I love the plot, the characters, the realistic way Tess describes things.
This was an instant new favourite of mine.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Chloe Harper ran away when she was eighteen years old, and Mel Tillman has been picking up the pieces ever since. Once-secret girlfriends Mel and Chloe reunite on the other side of their teenage years when Mel is hired to track down Chloe at the behest of Chloe's parents and Mel's dying mentor. And well, things certainly don't go as planned (and that's an understatement).

Their already tumultuous reunion is thrown into chaos as shady men who will do anything within their power to get their hands on Chloe and the secrets she carries. All because Chloe Harper killed Toby Dunne on her sixteenth birthday. Except, Mel was there too and Chloe's been doing everything in her power to make sure no one else figures that out.

No Body No Crime is a fast-paced mystery-thriller following PI Mel Tillman and runaway Chloe Harper as as they try to outwit and outrun the people who have been hunting Chloe for four years.
Almost immediately, they're forced to face the consequences of their past head-on when it comes back to haunt them; because Toby Dunne was more than just a lackey. They buried him in the woods, not knowing about the treasures he had stolen.

Sharpe manages to create some incredibly fun and interesting characters with solid senses of self. She balances plot and characterization so beautifully and there was never really a moment where I wanted to put the book down. No Body No Crime is intense and serious, but also not afraid to poke at itself with silly, almost cartoonish villains and gotchas.

The storytelling was nice and fluid and even the POV changes felt smooth and made a lot of sense. Rather than jumping around just because, we get some really nice intentional switches that breadcrumb at what happened all those years ago. There was a lot of room for frustrating miscommunications galore (which, sure yeah there were some), but they're handled well in ways that don't make you want to scream at the characters for being so thick skulled.

The dialogue was a little heavy handed at points, with some weird pauses for exposition and conversations that definitely should not have happened where they did, but in general I really enjoyed the characters' voices and the overarching plotline.

All in all, No Body No Crime was a fun and easy read that was just tense and action-packed enough that I didn't want to rip my hair out while still keeping me on the edge of my seat. Definitely a great little weekend read to pick up.

I read The Girls I've Been duology and enjoyed it so I was excited to be able to read Tess Sharp's new book. However I did not enjoy this one as much. While I like that this book drops you into the action I felt like it needed to give me something to hold onto to. It whips through timelines, POV's and mysteries so quickly that I sort of lost interest in anything. I think it was trying so hard to keep me off balance that I found myself just wanting to sit it out.
I was never given a lot of reason to root for the characters. They were never developed as people beyond the characters the story happens too. I felt there love story was so underwhelming that I wonder if it should have even been there.

Overall this was nothing wrong with this book it was just very mid for me.

What an amazing book. From the first page you are trown into the action, you have so many questions like what the hell happened. Slowly through the story it will become clearer.

Their was a lot of action in this book, also mysteries and badass characters! Chloe and Mel are absolutely amazing, but when they work togheter you will have to be careful!

The story was original, there were so many amazing moments, I laughed so many times! This book will surprise you in good ways.

In the beginning I had a bit of trouble with identifying from who was who, I had to go back a lot to see from which perspective I was reading. The more you read the more it will be obviously.

Last but not least I want to thank the author for providing me with an earc.

3.5 stars

If you've read The Girl's I've Been by this author, you know you're in for an action-packed and fun adventure. While this one is classified as an adult novel, the tone of this book is definitely similar to Sharpe's YA releases. Which is good or bad, depending on what your tastes and expectations going into it are. The dual timeline builds tension, but the plot twists are pretty on the nose. The story does need some suspension of disbelief, but it's fun and I was hooked. I'm also very here for the bi rep.

Thank you to Tess Sharpe, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review (unpaid).

Imagine if after the Yellowjackets got rescued, Taissa disappeared and Van spent six years trying to track her down. That's how I would describe Mel and Chloe's relationship dynamic in this book.

I was delighted by the constant action and the constant twists in this book, truly delighted, this book pulled me out of a nearly two month slump. The characters were super fun (even the villains) and I loved the dual timeline - and no one does that better than Tess Sharpe 💕💕

Really enjoyed this one! Very action packed and fun and the dual timeline made it very interesting to see how their characters developed. The relationship between the main two was fascinating, and while I felt parts of the ending were wrapped up too easily, fantastic overall.

No Body No Crime is described as Veronica Mars meets Yellowjackets. Now, I have not watched Yellowjackets but being a Veronica Mars fan was basically my entire personality back in high school. I had magazine clippings of the ads in my clear book, I wrote reminders on the blackboard of when it airs locally, and I unapologetically and unironically described self as snark-astic. All of that plus this being a *sapphic* mystery? Count me in.

This book follows the story of Mel and Chloe, schoolmates turned secret lovers turned partners-in-crime… literally. After swearing an oath of secrecy to each other about the events of Chloe’s sweet sixteenth, Chloe skipped town which left Mel confused and heartbroken. Years later, Mel turned to a life of surveillance as a private investigator and was given the job to find Chloe.

The novel drops you right in the middle of the action and goes back and forth the timeline in flashbacks and multiple POVs. This style kept me on my toes and created effective (and sometimes frustrating) cliffhangers in between chapters. However, with so many unanswered questions, the pacing was a bit slow. At 30% into the book, I felt like I was just presented mystery after mystery without anything to hold on to so I can continue reading. The were also revelations that were not paced well, like at some point it’s kind of obvious what would happen, but it would only happen in the next 2-3 chapters. I have to say though that the ending, though not super satisfying, was something I was not able to predict.

I also love myself a good funny villain which made my enjoy Rick’s chapters. In fact, I feel like I understand Rick’s motivations better and even enjoy his snark more than our main girls. It would have been nice if dynamics of the Newells were explored more.

As a crime mystery thriller, it passed; but the romance didn’t really make the cut for me. I didn’t really understand why they fell for each other in the first place? Was it just because they committed a crime together? Since I was not convinced of them being so in love with each other, their internal monologue of longing and yearning didn’t give me that painful pang in my chest… it just became annoying. This got in the way of how much I enjoyed the book since the first few chapters were riddled with their bantering and bickering. There were multiple times that made me roll my eyes when they thirst after each other in the middle of nowhere while some psychos are trying to hunt them down. **FOCUS, LADIES!**

Overall, it’s a fun read but not edge-of-my-seat thrilling. It's perfect if you want a good pageturner but not in the mood for an emotionally draining read.

6 Times We Almost Kissed is one of my favorite books, not because I think it’s perfect, but because Tess Sharpe crafts such immersive settings and realistic characters that I feel homesick for them when I finish the book.

No Body, No Crime achieved the same feeling for me. Now with the added bonus of a mystery unfolding, we dive into the pasts and presents of Chloe and Mel. While I was concerned that the frequent jumps back and forth in time would get confusing, I ended up enjoying the little glimpses into their high school lives as we got to know both women as adults.

Pros:
- The sapphic longing is A+. This wouldn’t be a Tess Sharpe novel without some top-tier bi girl angst and she fully delivers once again.
- A really fun cast of characters (including the peacocks)
- Jumps right into the action, no slow beginning to slog through.

Cons:
- A little overly cryptic at times. They love to remind you that there is information that you don’t know
- I will be the first to admit that Sharpe throws so much into the build-up of her stories, that the endings can feel a bit rushed and anti-climactic. This book falls victim to this, although like her other books, the journey is enjoyable enough that I am not left feeling unsatisfied.

Although her success is in traditional publishing, Sharpe has voiced her familiarity with fan fiction and I think this shows in her writing. She tackles the raw, angsty elements of the fan fictions that we all stayed up late at night to finish reading, but delivers them with finesse and polish. The result is an intense, gripping book that you can’t put down, convincing yourself that you’ll read “just one more chapter”.

By now, Tess Sharpe is an auto-buy author for me. I've enjoyed both her adult and her YA books and I love how she's able to pivot between the two--two different age groups that come with their own inherent rules--while maintaining that style that leaves you just KNOWING you're reading a Tess book.

NO BODY NO CRIME is another Tess Sharpe thriller in the vein of BARBED WIRE HEART. Mel and Chloe rarely interacted before the night of Chloe's Sweet Sixteen party when they murdered Toby Dunne. Toby, a teenage drug dealer, was involved in a hit-and-run Chloe witnessed and he beat up Mel's brother. When Chloe confronted him, it went wrong and Mel and Chloe's actions were partially in self-defense, but it led to a snowball effect that sent Chloe on the wrong and inspired Mel to become a private investigator to find her. See, Toby had stolen diamonds from the local family of drug dealers/politicians and they're determined to get their stolen property back. But Chloe has been off grid for years until Mel finds her and tries to bring her home. One plane crash later, they're in the Northern California wilderness trying to survive together.

Whew! The whole book unfolds like that, one twist after another, one reveal after another. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, something else came to light. I loved that, that Tess kept me on my toes. I could barely look away from the book and read most of it in one evening, too absorbed to put it down. The pacing was so great--not a slow moment to be found.

I also loved that we got dual point of view and got to be in both Chloe and Mel's heads, and we also got various timelines, woven throughout the narrative. Tess is a master at writing non-linear books and that's on display in NO BODY NO CRIME.

I have to talk about the romance, of course. Mel and Chloe went from people who barely knew each other to people bonded by trauma, to lovers for a too-short time, to two people who spent years apart longing for each other. Tess Sharpe writes sapphic characters SO well. I really felt their desperation to protect each other.

NO BODY NO CRIME is a fast-paced thrilling read that touches on found family, friendship, love, and how far you'll go to save someone you care about.

Breadcrumbs. That’s the word that came to mind as I turned the pages of this book.

The first chapter grabs you. Alongside Mel, the reader is just as disoriented and confused as to her whereabouts. Just as her adrenaline kicks in, so does the reader’s. And the hints tease the reader to want to find the “why”.

Where feel the missteps occur are in the flashbacks. There are so many prior events with differing moments it’s difficult to keep track. And throw in more than the two main characters thoughts and actions and you get the picture.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD ,in exchange for an honest review.

This book should’ve been my new favorite but something was missing and I don’t know what 😭 maybe it was all this jumping through several different timelines, different povs and a lot of missing info that had me confused.

I also wish we would’ve seen Mel and Chloe get together. When we meet them they’re already in love and we never see them FALL in love so I had trouble being invested in them.

However, I love Tess Sharp for writing queer stories with amazing female characters. All the main characters are women while the villains are men 😂 love that.

This was such a fun ride and all the twists and turns hit exactly how I wanted them too. If you love a high octane thriller mystery I think you’ll enjoy this. The alternating timelines in the first half of the book kept me on the edge of my seat slowly putting the mystery together.

I also had a great time with the romance between Mel and Chloe. We don’t see much of them falling in love as teens but the bond feels so palpable when they reunite that it worked really well for me. This book works perfectly as a standalone but I would happily read a series of Chloe and Mel solving mysteries together as P.I.s.

CW: child abuse, sibling with substance abuse, murder, guns

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book...where do I even begin? I haven't picked up a thriller in a hot minute, and golly gee, was this fantastic. Mel and Chloe were such great examples of strong, queer female main characters — I just could not get enough of them! The plot left me at the edge of my seat, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next.

4.5 Stars!!!

No Body, No Crime starts with the crash of a small private jet, a quick death by bow and arrow, and a pursuit. The pace gets even quicker from there! It is brilliant, tense and violent--with a happy ending. The novel shifts perspectives and times as we see what secret binds the two main characters Mel and Chloe. Tess Sharpe kept my interest in the back story, which is a hard task to accomplish. I'm someone who, once the action starts, just wants to stay with that, but the way Sharpe reveals the layers of the past that both keeps the two women apart and fosters their love for each other kept me from skimming the back story chapters.
I would actually not mind a more novels with Mel, a private investigator, though she and Chloe would probably have to move to a larger city for that to happen!

This was one of my most anticipated reads and it did not disappoint. Tess Sharpe is an auto read/buy author for me. Her books always pull you in right away and this one did just that. The action started only a few chapters in and I loved how we got to go back in time with Chloe and Mel and see how it all lead to the present. The last chapters made it seem like there will be another and I really hope we get more of these 2! I’d love to see Mel on another case.

Overall, No Body No Crime was a very well written mystery/thriller! It reminded me of an action movie because of how well I could picture the events happening. 3.5 stars overall!

In this novel we read multiple perspectives of a past murder and the subsequent events; mainly that a large political family is hunting Chloe, one of our main characters. Most chapters are from Chloe or Mel's POV, which was SUCH a good choice since we get to read through each of their thoughts on the night of the murder and the current events. We also read from Gigi, their friend, and Rick, who was a fun addition because his chapters were filled with hatred (and thus, stood out from the other chapters).

I appreciated that Sharpe pulled in some present day political perspectives, especially near the end of the book. Sharpe also uses comedy to break up the heavy-hitting and crime-filled dialogue, which I enjoyed. There were some word choices I didn't love, such as using "psychotic" in a stigmatizing manner. This wasn't out of line for the way "psychotic" is thrown around in US society, I do have a very specific perspective as someone who works in mental health research. This new novel was definitely in line with other books I've read from Tess Sharpe, and I enjoyed getting to read an early copy of this!

An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tess Sharpe's 'No Body No Crime' is a taut, gritty thriller that delivers both adrenaline and emotional resonance. With a dual-timeline structure and two fiercely complex women at its center, this novel is as much about survival and vengeance as it is about love and loyalty.

The story follows Mel Tillman, a steely private investigator with a buried past, and Chloe Harper, the woman who vanished into the wilderness years after they committed a crime together. When Chloe's family hires Mel to track her down, what begins as a reluctant mission turns into a dangerous chase through a remote, booby-trapped forest - and a confrontation with everything Mel thought she left behind.

Sharpe write with razor-sharp precision. The tension builds steadily as past and present unravel side by side, each reveal deepening the stakes. The survivalist elements are vivid and suspenseful, and the action scenes are cinematic without losing emotional weight. But what elevates this thriller is its heart: the complicated, aching body between Mel and Chloe. Their shared trauma, unspoken desire, and shifting power dynamics make for a romance that's both raw and believable,

There's a refreshing boldness to the narrative voice, especially in how it centers queer women in a genre that too often sidelines them. Sharpe doesn't pull punches - either emotionally or narratively - and the payoff is a story that's sharp, sexy, and satisfying.

Some readers may find the shifting timeless disorienting at first, but those who stay the course will be rewarded with a layered, high-stakes story that never loses it's grip.

Wow! This book is pure adrenaline. This is my first Tess Sharpe’a book (I know, I know, shame on me, shame on my cow!), but I really adore it. Can’t wait for the rest, can’t wait for her other books. I love her style, the plot, the romance. Oh my god, the romance!!!
I love it all! I think this is one of the best reading of the year.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

My first Tess book but not my last!
Plot twists you don't see coming and characters you'll love! this book has everything you want in a thriller!