4.25 stars

This was such a great debut! It honestly read like it was written by a seasoned author. The pacing flowed smoothly, the plot held my attention, and the characters felt well developed and engaging. I did end up figuring out the ending before it happened, but it didn’t take away from my overall reading experience. If anything, it made me appreciate how well the story was constructed. I’ll definitely be picking up more from this author in the future.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, and Minotaur Books for the gifted copy!

A missing father, a long estranged daughter is called back home to the small town. It's Halloween, this town's favorite day of the year - the day they go all out and celebrate - but it's also the day that horrible tragedy befalls the town almost every year.

Delores hasn't been back to town in a very long time - about 20 years. Her father's new wife and kids have grown while she's been gone. But she couldn't face it - her last Halloween there and all the things that happened after. But her father is missing and, being a forensic pathologist, she'd like to assist in any way she can with the FBI investigation.

This was such an interesting mystery. The cover threw me off - I thought this would be much more slasher horror or even fantasy paranormal - but it's not at all. It's a very grounded mystery - one that kept me absolutely guessing until the very end. I loved the twists, the interesting town drama, and the secrets that had to slowly unravel to show everyone's true intentions. This is a perfect Halloween season read! I loved it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

No Rest For The Wicked is a well written story about a woman who has to return to the home she left nearly 20 years ago once her father goes missing.
While I"m not a huge fan of mysteries where cops play a big part in the story, I still enjoyed the read. it was atmospheric and just the right amount of spooky set in a small town obsessed with halloween.
For a more indepth review you can check out my spoiler free youtube review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb9r-BuopZM&t=183s

2.5 stars.

Honestly, I don’t even know how to rate this one. The premise is fantastic—it’s got everything I want in a horror novel and it definitely pulled me in. But there were just too many clichés along the way. The whole “woman returning to her hometown” setup has been done so many times, and while I usually don’t mind familiar tropes (I actually tend to gravitate toward them), the redundancy here kind of cut into the story for me.
That being said, it’s really not a bad read at all. If you’re looking for something atmospheric to add to your spooky season lineup, this one definitely works. Just don’t expect anything groundbreaking.

The Cover, phenomenal!

Thank You NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions, are of course, my own.

Halloween is the most fun holiday of the year - a crazy anything-can-happen time with frights and surprises at every turn. Having a town famous for their Halloween celebration is right up my alley! The mystery of the missing Senator during Halloween follows the strange happenings during a Little Horton holiday. This case is spooky, and has eerie ties to past crimes. But this tale also explores the lengths people go to protect those that they love, to hide their misdeeds, and to overcome their past by remaking themselves. As links to past crimes bleed into the current case, Dolores needs to remember the past and reconnect with her missing father so that she can understand the scene in front of her. This book ends with a terrifying stunt that cracks the case open like a dropped pumpkin! Thanks go to Steve Erickson of St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for granting me an ARC of this spine-tingling book! I enjoyed the spookiness of the Halloween setting, the search for the missing man, and the heartwarming way that Dolores reconnected to her family. A great read anytime, but with chills made for October!!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of No Rest for the Wicked.

The premise sounded intriguing but familiar tropes and the repetitive nature of the narrative kept this from being a winner for me.

I understand cliches are common in most novels especially thrillers. Tropes are familiar and we gravitate to the familiar.

Here we have the popular trope of a woman (or any main character) returning to her small hometown after a devastating secret shattered her life and family.

Dolores is back after her father is declared missing after signs of foul play are discovered. As a result, she has to face her personal demons and make amends with her family anad those she left behind or she might be next on the killer's list.

#2 popular trope: Dolores ia hottie with her dark hair and long, long legs.

Nearly every character, minor or supporting, makes mention of this, including the sleazy FBI agent who can't take his eyes off Dolores' body as she performs an autopsy.

#3 trope: incompetent and/or scuzzy law enforcement who can't tell their elbow from their ass.

#4 trope: I could have overlooked all of the above if not for the worst trope of all that made the narrative fall apart - when the agents rope Dolores into autopsying one of the murder victims.

There's no way in real life this would happen in since its a breach of ethics and protocol. Wow.

Because of this break in the relative believability of the narrative so far, I was no longer invested in the story and what happened to the characters.

#5 trope: Nearly all the men are scumbags except for Asher.

Not sure if you can call it a trope but this was kind of creepy; Dolores' very close relationship with her dad bordered on incestuous.

I understand the love and bond between parent and child is sacred but the way their relationship was decribed bordered on being in love. It was gross.

There are ways to describe the relationship between a parent and child as special but the author doesn't do a good job of it. It creeped me out every time Dolores mentioned how the love she saw in her father's eyes was magnetic or whatever adjective was used.

I did like Dolores brother and sister and would have liked to see more interaction between the three of them.

I didn't like Dolores; she didn't seem competent and intelligent despite being a pathologist.

Her personality and actions seemed immature and awkward, as if she had regressed into the teenager she had been when she left town.

I empthaized with her and the trauma she suffered changed her but her repetitive thoughts and constant monologuing about leaving and getting out of Dodge became repetitive and annoying.

It wasn't hard to guess whodunit and despite all the murders happening in this small town, there was a lack of urgency and suspense.

The narrative dragged and there was nothing new about the plot twists or story I haven't read in thrillers before.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reader's copy of the book. This book was really intriguing. It ended up being a sort of edge of your seat thriller mystery which was fun to read. I definitely didn't see the twists coming or figure out the big reveals, but I wld don't try to figure those things out. I like to find out as the story progresses. This was not what I expected which is a good thing, and this book was a nice change of pace. Kudos to the author.

Intriguing characters, a well-written plot, and a couple of twists creates an excellent mystery. When I read an excerpt in the free 'The Minotaur Sampler, Volume 17', I was instantly captivated. The rest of the book lived up to its premise and I will be looking forward to reading more from this author in the future. Other than cards, forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne hasn't had any contact with her family in eighteen years. When Delores receives a phone call from the FBI that her father is missing, she immediately flies back home. It's awkward as you would guess. When a murder occurs, Delores is pulled into the investigation. I received an ARC from the publisher through Netgalley. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. I loved that there is more than one mystery to solve, surprising twists and that the story is told from a few points of view. I also love how we see the range of emotions that Delores experiences. If I could, I would leave a 4.5 rating.

🐈‍⬛ ARC Review 🐈‍⬛
Comes out: September 16th
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟
Review:
Dolores Hawthorne, a forensic pathologist, fled her hometown of Little Horton, Wisconsin, nearly twenty years ago. The town, infamous for its violent Halloween deaths, holds bad memories for Dolores. However, when the FBI informs her that her father, the former mayor turned US Senator, has gone missing under mysterious circumstances, Dolores must return home.
This book is quite literally the perfect thriller/mystery for Halloween. The cover? Amazing,
The PLOT. 10/10. The twists and turns in this book? Phenomenal. The heartbreaking part of the story? Devastating.
I am completely shocked that this is a debut novel! The small town close knit folks is so well done.
Everyone knows everyone and boy do they gossip and keep secrets… the twists were absolutely insane. Never once did I know who was doing what. My head was spinning and like I told Rachel, it felt like a punch in the face!
The Halloween twist to this book is just the sprinkles on top, and adds to the atmosphere of spooky mystery of the book.
If you are looking for the perfect book to read on a chilly fall day with some hot apple cider (or pumpkin spice latte) with Halloween lights. Then this book is the way to go. It will be the perfect introduction into spooky season, you will not be disappointed.

Amazing read! Dolores Hawthorne Diaz left her hometown of Little Horton in Wisconsin eighteen years before when she receives a phone call from an agent in the FBI telling her that her father is missing and that they would really like to speak with her. Of course they could speak with her from her home in L.A., but it would be much easier if she could return to her hometown. She agrees to return to her hometown. As the investigation into the disappearance of Alexander Hawthorne continues, other murders are happening and memories from the past are stirred up. I don’t want to give away too much so I will just say that this is an amazing read and well worth your time to read.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the opportunity to receive and read an advance copy of this book.

Apart from the cover being gorgeous this is such a fab Halloween horror!! Def pick this one up to get in the spirit

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book

2 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur books for the e-arc.

I went into this book prepared to love every last part of it. From the lovely black cat on the cover, to the twisty plot described in the blurb, and the word Halloween everywhere reminding of a twistier version of those old Halloween Town movies I w
watched as a kid.

The plot was twisty if a little predictable. Overall, No Rest for the Wicked was a mixed bag for me.

Let’s start with the good stuff:

I loved the setup of this town. It sort of felt like a spooky Stars Hallow at first but only at first.

I felt that the trauma rep and the way Dolores forgot so much was realistic to my experiences making her sort of relatable, if only on that front. Also, a realistic representation of how other people handle the particular cause of her trauma.

Overall, I also liked the meandering pace of the book and once it hit the gas on the plot it didn’t slow down.

The stuff that didn’t work for me:

The thing with the cats. If you’re attached to cats this might not be the book for you.

How Dolores is in the middle of a divorce and goes on a date with a guy she doesn’t want to and then talks about how her job is just a red flag. Liking a job more than wanting to date someone boring isn’t a red flag. Also, speaking of her job – this part is so unrealistic to me it hurts. She’s a medical examiner so the FBI lets her do autopsies on a case she’s close to. This was so unrealistic that it just pulled me straight out of it. Also, she doesn’t like Halloween at the start. I get what the author is trying to do here but Halloween is a staple for this book and to hear her complain about it sort of sucked the fun out of it.

I really didn’t like any of the characters in this book. They either fell flat just to play their roles or were overly ‘roughed’ up in the way they spoke or thought. It also felt as if we got a few more POVs than we needed sometimes and combined with the flashbacks to her high school years it was a little jarring.

I felt like this book could’ve been so much more but at the end of the day it’s a quick read that is as twisty as it promised, if a little predictable.

The cover of this book is terrible (imo) but the story itself is phenomenal. I'm not going to lie, I thought about not reading this one but I saw some crazy good reviews and decided to give it a shot. It's creepy, it's thrilling. It gave me a lot without giving me too much and kept me wanting more (but in a good way?) This is definitely going to be a fun and popular fall thriller this year during spooky season.

Contrary ti the cover, this is not a cute Halloween read. I knew this going in, but I fear most readers will not. It’s a dark and haunting story, perfect for a spooky read, but nothing supernatural either. Aside from taking place in a Halloween living town, there isn’t much centered around Halloween. Dolores goes home after finding out her father is missing. She’s kind of the black sheep of the family and struggles with her return. Who she will see while she’s there and how her “family” will welcome her. Her mission is to find her father and what happened and won’t let anyone get in her way. I enjoyed this story a lot, despite the creepiness.

In one Halloween obsessed Midwestern town, everyone’s on red alert after a local politician goes missing. Little do they know it’s only the beginning.

Forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne left her hometown of Little Horton. The FBI calls with the newsthat her father, the former mayor turned US Senator, is missing under mysterious circumstances. Now she'll have to face her past to uncover the truth.

This book is a great way to start off spooky season. It's not a scary book, but the events in the book are definitely horrific for the characters. And there are creepy and gross moments for the reader. Overall though the story is about Dolores dealing with her past. Everything that is happening now is connected.

Dolores has nightmares which I wasn't a fan of. What happened in the past is not entirely clear for quite a while. While I didn't find it scary there are moments where I was emotionally invested, sending chills through me.

I had a suspect in mind for present day and I learned I was wrong in a gasp worthy reveal. I really should have had an inkling when my opinion about a character slowly changed or became fully formed. There is another twist I wasn't shocked by.

I can see this becoming a series even though the next one would have to be different.

Halloween. Some people absolutely love it.

It was 18 years ago when Dolores Hawthorne moved from a small town in Wisconsin to LA, leaving behind her family and everything she knew. She was desperate to escape a Halloween that turned into an everlasting nightmare. Now that her father was reported missing, she was on her way back. She would have to face the grueling past.

It’s a mystery and there’s a lot of family drama leading up to it. For all those who crave this time of the year, the image is perfectly clear with black feral cats, people dressed up in costumes with wild masks and a range of treats. This year, however, there was an FBI search for two murders, a missing person and a challenging case to solve.

It’s well written with a handful of strong and many scandalous characters. I wouldn’t say it’s ghostly, eerie or spine-chilling. Yet, it was a head-scratcher – one that leads the reader right into a surprising ending.

My thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley with the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of September 16, 2025.

Little Horton is a small town known for being the Halloween capital of the world.

Dolores lived in Little Horton and left as soon as she could.

A phone call from the local police letting her know her father was missing brought her back.

They believe it was murder, but there is no body or a ransom note.

Then the murder of a local doctor in a similar fashion happens.

Dolores is a forensic pathologist and gets in on the case even though she lives in Los Angeles.

It is pretty slow to start, and I wasn't sure what all the cats were about.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED was very well written, but it was a bit confusing and wasn't a favorite. 3/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

First off, this isn’t a cozy mystery and it’s definitely not warm and friendly about cats, despite the cover. There are a lot of trigger warnings— rape, murder, animal death, abortion, and more. It’s a pretty dark book and moves slowly for the first half. I almost DNFed it and actually went to Goodreads and read reviews that convinced me to keep going.

Our heroine is a beautiful (of course, stunning with a perfect body except for a secret scar) medical examiner who is a survivor of trauma and has left her rich, connected family back east in their tiny town known for being a tourist Halloween destination. Her elderly father has been kidnapped and when people start being murdered, the FBI asks her to do the autopsies. Yes, you need to suspend all realism with this one. You also need to suspend realism about trauma, memory loss, the FBI and more. The author acknowledges this in her thanks at the end and admits that she didn’t speak to any experts and knows the way she wrote things is not realistic. There are rumors that this is the first in a series of Dolores joining the FBI and I really hope the author starts doing so if she goes there.

The writing is good but it felt like the author tried too hard to be descriptive and original. For example, she wrote that the characters sat in mermaid-blue booths in a diner and I literally stopped reading because I was trying to figure out what color mermaids were. Another time a character looks at another character the way he would if she asked if her shoes matched her outfit and again I stopped reading completely because I was trying to figure out what look that would be and it made zero sense in the context of the situation. The characters are also constantly gripping things to keep from getting angry, digging in their feet to keep from running, clenching fists in pockets to keep from reacting, digging fingernails into their palms to maintain control, and at one point clenching teeth so hard to keep from talking that a character chips her tooth. I don’t think this usually happens as much as the author thinks, especially with multiple characters behaving this way.

Also, really big plot holes. And things that just wouldn’t happen. And the entire backstory and aggression regarding a female cop made utterly no sense. And things not being fully resolved. So a lot of things.

All that said, once I kept plodding on I enjoyed it. I would probably read more in the series but I would probably still point stuff like this out because this is how I am. 😉

I read an advance copy of this book via netgalley.

3.5 Stars Rounded up to 4

The fabulous cover art, great title, and Halloween theme of this unique small-town mystery called to me to review No Rest For The Wicked. Debut author Rachel Louise Adams writes well, and I really liked her protagonist, Dolores Hawthorne. The story is told in multiple POV and past and present timelines that add dimension to the characters and plotlines.

This book would have been a solid four stars for me but for my inability to relate to Dolores's family estrangements. She left her hometown as a young woman and cut ties despite the love she claimed they had for one another. The misunderstandings and decades of silence seemed more a mystery than her father's disappearance and challenged my ability to suspend disbelief. Readers who like Halloween themed stories might enjoy this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing an advance copy of the book to read and review. This review will post to Bayside Book Reviews.com at https://baysidebookreviews.com and its Instagram page on release day. Follow us! *NetGalley Top Reviewer*

I felt many emotions while reading this book. It has the right amount of eerie-vibes for the Halloween setting. There are a lot of characters and I found the MC, Delores, likable. I became invested with all of the characters and how each of their puzzle pieces were going to fit together.
I had trouble keeping two of them separate (the two main father figures) and I think that is because the author uses each man’s first and last names interchangeably (for each one). Something I found distracting was the use of odd words, like the author used a thesaurus to help choose descriptive wording. For example, here are some samples of sentences: “a floorboard 𝕤𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕕. Eyes that smiled 𝕨𝕖𝕥𝕝𝕪. The rug 𝕓𝕦𝕣𝕡𝕖𝕕 out a whiff.”
Overall, I enjoyed the book and found myself on the edge of my seat with anticipation of how things were unfolding. I will recommend it to fellow readers!