All in all, while the pacing was quick and the mystery was solid, the story lacked focus and didn’t fully pull me in. The frequent shifts between plot points and the inclusion of unnecessary details made it difficult to stay engaged. The repetitive prose and occasional awkward sentence structure also disrupted the flow, making it harder to fully enjoy the book. That said, these aspects did improve as the story progressed. If you’re a fan of small-town murder mysteries and don’t mind a somewhat scattered narrative, this could still be worth a read. For me, it just didn’t quite hit the mark but it was good.

This story had some excellent elements. Intriguing mysterious, unsolved crime, a true crime podcast, a traumatic past. Despite all that gold, the pacing was so slow and there were so many tangents that didn't forward the story whatsoever. The ending was also both satisfying and disappointing.

3.75 stars rounded to 4 - Overall a book that kept my rapt attention. The main character was a flawed protagonist but you kept rooting for her. The overall arch of the story was good and kept my attention to find out the who, what, where., etc... Where it didn't flesh out well was the backstory - some of the backstory to get to understand the main character wasn't as polished.

This was every bit as fun as the title suggests. I totally judged the book by the cover! All I saw was the title and pretty colors when deciding to read this one and I was rewarded quite nicely! Marty's brother disappeared twenty years ago from their small town. She has never stopped looking and wondering. Now three more people have disappeared. Marty is coming off of an attempt at podcasting that failed spectacularly and decides to try her hand at solving the case. She notices similarities despite the police not seeing any connections. Marty is a hoot, and I loved following her around the murder town. There are a lot of characters to keep up with, but I think the author made it fairly simple and everyone was fleshed out decently. It did have a few slower moments, but overall, it was a great debut! I loved the ending and how it all tied together. I look forward to reading more from Rian Wynne!

Thank you to #NetGalley and Rian Wynne for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Instagram and other retail and social media sites upon publication.

I liked reading this. It was a fun mix of small-town intrigue, mild suspense, and thriller-style showdowns.

Energy: Bummed. Curious. Tenacious.

🐺 Growls: The repeated reminders that the main character is good at being persistent got old fast.

🐕 Howls: Some of the main reveals show up a bit conveniently for the main character, but it wasn’t too contrived. I was hoping for more cringe, but the MC was more naïve than weird – it still worked it was just different than I was expecting.

🐩 Tail Wags: The missing hiker case. The pacing dives right into the action and fills in backstory as we go. Solid pacing. The eerie ghost town. Mostly satisfying resolution – the MC fills us in on things and one mystery stayed unsolved, but it was kind of like how real life often plays out.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Plymouth, Oregon, USA
Perspective: A 28-year-old who is living in their childhood home, doing odd jobs after a failed attempt at a true crime podcast that got them ostracized online and within their small town. Also get snippets of the main character’s Welcome to Murder Town podcast, articles about the podcast, and interviews.
Timeline: Linear. 2020s. ☀️ Summer, heat wave
🔥 Fuel: What happened to the main character’s brother when they were kids? What did she do on podcast that made people so angry? Is she misunderstood or unreliable? Where are the missing hikers? Did an accused murderer actually do it? Is our main character putting herself in danger with her sleuthing?
📖 Cred: Plausible

Mood Reading Match-Up:
Porch light. Flip flops. July sun. Blue stain. Casa Taco. Mike’s MMA. Rotten hamburger meat. Gold rush ghost town.
• Characters speaking to us, deep in their mind, theorizing (first person)
• Cinematic, direct writing style
• Bumbling, morally good, morally ambiguous, and tunnel visioned characters
• Getting the tea from media snippets
• Mostly abandoned gold rush tourist town
• Cancelled true crime podcast
• Rich kids behaving badly, small town dynamics
• Cat-and-mouse pursuit and close calls
• Closed (and cold) cases revisited
• Guilty or innocent main suspect
• Howdunit, whodunit, whydunit
• Missing or murdered?
• Not like the other sleuths
• Overcoming loss and failure

Content Heads-Up: Corpse (discovery of, handling). Death. Drugging. Drugs (dealing, producing). Grief (brief moments). Heart condition. Loss of sibling (as adult; as child). Missing child. Online threats, cancel culture. Overdose (off page). Physical attack, attempted murder. Rape (multiple perps; attempted; on page). Victim shaming, disbelief.

Rep: American. Norwegian (peripheral). Pale, pink, olive skin tones. Asthma (peripheral character).

📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Rian Wynne and NetGalley.

This book was about a girl, Marty, who could not move past her brother’s disappearance when she was young. She found herself searching for answers regarding other situations in hopes of closure. The book was paced well, however I did find the plot relatively predictable as characters were introduced and woven together.

This book had a lot of potential but it just didn't do it for me. The connections the main character was making were large jumps that didn't always flow well. I liked the addition of the podcast element, however, when reading it, it was hard to follow as the text wasn't vastly different and it was hard to tell when it stopped and transitioned back to the story (maybe this is better in print instead of ebook?), would have been better in an audiobook setting as well. It was a struggle to get through this book (dayssss), and it was less than 300 pages; this would usually take me less than a day to finish but I just couldn't do it. I would recommend this book for high school level readers instead of adult.

This was great! I thoroughly enjoyed this.
I highly recommend, for a good time!
I loved how everything tied up and came together.

How have I not heard more about this book. It's a fully immersive thriller that is incredibly addictive and keeps you fully grouped. The story line is relatively unique and the multiple twists and turns makes you keep guessing and trying to work out who the guilty are. I loved it and couldn't put it down. Will be looking out for more
by Rian

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

A clever fast paced mystery about a well meaning protagonist who has lost confidence in himself trying, once again, to solve a twisted mystery and get justice for the remaining family members in a series of murders for which an innocent woman was indicted.

Wholly engaging and well written, I recommend this excellent mystery.

The premise really interested me and that's why I requested it. Unfortunately, it did not live up to it for me. I wasn't able to get into the stories or to connect with the characters so I had to DNF.

Welcome to Murdertown by Rian Wynne is a suspenseful murder mystery that will draw readers in with intrigue and a well-written plot.

Marty Gray is determined to overcome her disastrous past podcasting failure. When three people are found dead, Marty is not convinced by the local cops assertion that the deaths are just unrelated events. Diving head first into an investigation of her own, Marty is fueled by the disappearance of her 8-year-old brother twenty years ago. Desperate to make a difference Marty starts digging deep into the secrets of this little town. But the more she digs, the bigger the target gets on her back.

I was really invested throughout this novel, trying to piece together events right alongside Marty. Marty is a great main character, relatable and imperfect, but you really empathize with her. The pacing was good, my only complaint is some parts seemed a little disjointed but I was still highly invested to keep reading late into the night.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rian Wynne for this ARC. Publication day was March 1st 2025.

I think that Marty Gray is a totally relatable character.
She lost her brother and is so hopeful for his return.
After the 2 backpackers are never seen alive again she relates to the not knowing and wants to be helpful.
While she might not have gone about everything the right way she just wanted to help the families like how she wanted closer too.
I always love twists in books so I really enjoyed learning the connection between the two murders and then learning who the killer was!! Didn't see that coming!!

Two unsolved mysteries in a short time in a small space. One disgraced podcaster that tried to solve another. Marty Gray has been called a lot of things. But one thing people seem to have forgotten in Marty Gray the sister of the lost. Everything Marty does stems from the loss of her brother, never to be found.

Obviously, these things are connected. So Marty starts to wonder, while looking at her murder board, why no one else is noticing this. There is a history in murdertown. A lot of overlooked or under-investigated crimes.

The story behind the crimes is not surprising or hard to see coming. It's hard to read because it is far too easy to believe. Marty fights back against everything. The town that turned against her. The parents that left her. The brother missing. And she follows the case all the way to the very bitter end.

This was well written, but the loop backs and twist just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t like the concept about Marty losing her brother at a young age. I couldn’t see why that was relevant in any part, aside from “kind of understanding someone going missing”. But her experience wasn’t the same because she was young and losing someone by them going missing could also be reflected for someone passing.

This was an interesting murder mystery that kept me engaged enough, though it didn’t totally pull me in the entire time. The writing was good, but felt a bit jumpy and disjointed at times. I do wish we got to know the main character more, as the only thing I could really tell you about her is the trauma with her missing brother, which is the main drive behind her desire to find closure for others (and for her failed podcast that this book is named after). We didn’t get much of a view into the character outside of her trauma and her current investigative efforts, making her feel one-dimensional to me. I liked her straightforward attitude, but that’s about as much personality as we got to see.

Overall I enjoyed the plot, and the conclusion makes sense to me, so it made for a solid ending. I feel like it was a bit over-explained at the end, and was basically just a chapter spelling out everything that happened, which I feel like you wouldn’t need if the rest of the story is written well enough for people to be able to connect the dots themselves at the end. I don’t mind a bit of a direct explanation, but this was an entire chapter. Overall I did like it, but it definitely has room for improvement.

I love a good small town murder mystery and this book did not disappoint. I felt at times however there was a lot happening and it felt disjointed. It pulled away from my over attention from the main plot. With that being said, it did hold some merit, having more than on mystery that at the end were interconnected which had be wanting to get to the answers faster.

The characters themselves were well fleshed out well. I really loved Marty, she is quite likeable,

An overall great read!

Welcome to Murdertown by Rian Wynne is a captivating and suspenseful mystery that follows Marty Gray, a determined but often dismissed amateur investigator. When two seemingly unrelated deaths in her small town are quickly closed by the police, Marty’s instinct tells her there's more to the story. Despite a disastrous podcasting past, she plunges headfirst into her own investigation, uncovering hidden secrets that the townspeople would rather leave buried. As she ventures through eerie streets and haunted trails, Marty’s relentless pursuit of the truth puts her in grave danger as a killer lurks just out of sight. With a perfect blend of dark humor, mystery, and tension, Welcome to Murdertown keeps readers on the edge of their seat, questioning who can be trusted and what lies beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful town.

Rian Wynne’s Welcome to Murdertown is a compelling mystery that draws readers into a world filled with suspense, intrigue, and a gripping sense of discovery. The novel follows Marty, an engaging protagonist whose journey keeps the reader actively involved in unraveling the mystery.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its immersive storytelling. Wynne crafts the plot in a way that allows readers to experience the investigation alongside Marty, making for an engaging and interactive reading experience. The pacing is well-handled, ensuring that the twists and turns remain compelling without feeling rushed.

However, while the concept is strong and the execution largely effective, certain sections could have benefitted from deeper exploration. Some moments lack the descriptive depth that could have further enriched the atmosphere and heightened the emotional stakes. More vivid imagery and character development in key scenes might have made the narrative even more impactful.

That said, Welcome to Murdertown remains a solid read for mystery lovers. Wynne’s ability to build tension and maintain intrigue keeps the story moving, making it a worthwhile pick for fans of the genre.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This was a really fun and entertaining thriller. I was hooked from the beginning and I always love when a book has a podcast element. This was a bit different than your normal podcast since the MC had already stopped the podcast but the episodes were still included.

I adored the MC, Marty and Peabody especially. They were a lot of fun as characters.

There were quite a few mysteries that are going on at the same time and very interconnected. I didn't expect the twists and how every one intertwined. The ending was also satisfying, which I love!

My only reason for this not being 5 stars is I feel like it was just missing something to make it a fully stand out read. It was great, no complaints, but there was just something missing from pushing it to the best of the best category. Plus I thought it would be a little more eerie with the title and the setting and it was just a thriller.

But overall, a fun and a fast read I would recommend