I love a good woman’s revenge story. The entire premise of this novel was right up my alley and the author handled it well. It was fairly anticlimactic for the genre up until 2/3 of the way through, however. I liked the women individually but their “friendship” never really translated for me. Nonetheless, their common goal was certain. Instead of flashing from past to present, I think the big reveal towards the end would have worked just as well if the story was told in chronological order. I might be questionable for saying this- but I wanted the “action” scenes. If you know you know. More importantly, I wish we got more into the head of ALL of the women involved. It’s without question that I stood behind their pain, I just wanted to get to know them more. I think that would have enhanced my reading experience quite a bit for this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katie Collom, and Random House Publishing for the eARC. A fantastic take on the vigilante trope—packed with twists and turns and ultimately so satisfying to read.

With “Peter Miles Has To Die,” Katie Collum delivers a riveting debut that will keep you reading long into the night. Is murder ever morally not only acceptable but required? This is one of the thorny questions faced by three friends in “Peter Miles Has To Die.” Before there were four friends: Dylan, Isabel, Priya, and Beck. Then Beck was brutally murdered, and the remaining friends were certain that Peter Miles had tortured and killed her.

The police questioned Peter Miles during their investigation of Beck’s murder, but he was not arrested. It appeared to the friends that he got away with murder, possibly because he was part of the brotherhood in blue.

Peter Miles, a local cop, had dated Beck for a few months before she tried to breakup with him. He seemed unable to get the breakup message and was stalkerish for awhile. Ultimate, though, Beck got through to him and the breakup was successful. Or, at least it was until one fateful day when Beck accepted a ride from him from which she would never return.

Dylan, Isabel, and Priya decide that Peter Miles has to die for what he did to Beck, and that since the state seems unable to do its part by arresting and trying him, they will do it themselves. Dylan comes up with a plan for their deadly undertaking, and Peter Miles dies. His shocking murder is reminiscent of Beck’s, and soon the media are characterizing it as a revenge killing.

The investigation into the killing of Peter Miles is assigned to the detective team of Bree Rhigetti and Mike O’Malley. Bree was already involved in the case in several ways even before being assigned to it. The pressure on Bree and Mike to solve the case are enormous.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Dylan, Isabel, Priya, Beck, and Bree at different times throughout the before, during and after of Peter Miles’s death, along with content identified only as “Texas State Penitentiary,” interspersed throughout. The suspense gradually intensifies as the novel progresses and more about the backstory and the consequences of Peter Miles death are revealed.

“Peter Miles Has To Die” is perhaps the finest debut novel I’ve read in the past several years. The deliberately mounting suspense is uncommonly well done for a debut author, as is the characters’ debate about the morality of murder. Collom’s telling of the story from multiple viewpoints in non-chronological order is masterfully done. Most highly recommended.

Thank you to Katie Collom, Bantam Books, and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

This is my first book by Katie Collom but it won’t be my last. Loved the premise of this- three friends look to avenge their friend’s murder. What follows is a twisty thriller that kept me up late waiting to find out what happened. This is a perfect story for summer reading.

Peter miles has to die is a debut thriller by Katie Collom. In the wake of their friends murder, three friends band together and make a vow to avenge her by murdering,
Peter, her cop boyfriend who they suspect of the crime. What follows is a story of revenge, friendship, guilt, and trauma. This is a story about carrying the weight of the past, domestic violence, guilt, corruption, etc. while fast paced and action packed-, this thriller does still carry a bit of witchy with the heavier themes. This twists and turns as the suspense turns up and there is a twist at the end that you shouldn’t see coming. I would recommend this but be 4prepared for a little bit of heaviness in the reading

Thank you to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in Exchange for an honest review.

Three women take justice into their own hands after their best friend is murdered—and things spiral fast. Revenge is easy, but living with it? Not so much. With rising tension, unexpected twists, and a detective who’s got her own secrets.

Four girls were best friends but one of them had been killed by the guy she was dating. Beck was dating a cop named Peter Miles but she had broke up with him and he stalked her afterwards. Beck had went to talk to an officer about his behavior and the officer was Bree. One of Beck’s friends was Dylan and she was a bartender and after the killing Peter kept showing up at the bar. Then the remaining friends Dylan, Isabel who was a teacher and Priya a nurse came up with a scheme to get Peter Miles back for taking the life of their best friend. Great book and was hard to put down. There are definitely some twists and turns in this book.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Peter Miles Has to Die is a wildly entertaining blend of dark humor, small-town secrets, and steadily mounting creepiness. Katie Collum crafts a plot that is as unpredictable as it is addictive, starting with moments of sharp wit and absurdity before unraveling into something much darker. At the heart of the story are a group of girls whose lives are tangled in layers of deception—and a town that seems to be hiding just as much as they are.

The pacing is pitch-perfect, allowing the humor to land while steadily tightening the tension. As the plot unfolds, the tone shifts from playful to unsettling, keeping you hooked with the promise that something bigger—and far more sinister—is just around the corner. Collum excels at creating characters who are flawed yet magnetic, drawing the reader into their messy, secretive world.

By the time the creep factor reaches its peak, it’s nearly impossible to put the book down. Peter Miles Has to Die manages to be both funny and chilling, offering an offbeat take on the thriller genre that’s as clever as it is compulsively readable. This is one small-town mystery you won’t forget anytime soon.

I DID NOT SEE THAT ENDING COMING! This book had me glued to the pages. It alternates between the past, present and an unknown person who is in jail. The entire time I thought I knew who the unknown person was, but boy was I wrong. The plot is unique and refreshing for the mystery & thriller genre.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine | Bantam for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Peter Miles Has to Die is a lightning-fast, revenge-fueled thrill ride. I love a vengeful woman—but a whole crew of friends avenging their murdered bestie? Yes, please.

Dylan, Priya, and Isabel have one mission: kill the dirty cop who got away with murder. The plan is simple, the execution flawless… until the aftermath starts closing in. As threats pile up and a relentless detective digs deeper, the heat shifts from Texas summer to ice-cold fear.

This book is sharp, tense, and impossible to put down—because revenge might be sweet, but survival? That’s the real challenge.

Thank you NetGalley, Ballantine and Katie Collom for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick read and despite gruesome acts in the book, most were off page or not detailed.

There were four best friends until one was murdered, leaving the others reeling from the loss and pain of the injustice when her killer hasn’t been charged. When he shows up at one of their jobs, they decide he must die.

The book details each of the friend’s perspectives on the current timeline, the murdered friend’s perspective from the past and an unnamed perspective from jail.

The story was really interesting and engaging. My biggest complaint was the three best friend’s relationship was very strained to the point where they didn’t seem like very good friends. That being said, love to see woman supporting their friends when they’ve been wronged.

This was solidly ok- not bad, not great, but fine. I really liked the premise, and I understood the need for multiple POVs, but due to the amount of them, I feel like I didn’t get to know or truly invest in any of the characters. I am pretty character driven reader, so that made the book feel pretty surface level to me. With that being said, I am not the target audience for this book because as I was reading it, I was thinking of people I would recommend it to. A good premise with a good theme, I just wish I would have been captured more by the characters and invested how each of their stories ended in the book.

Peter Miles Has to Die
by Katie Collom
Pub Date: Aug 12 2025

Peter Miles Has to Die is a powerful debut that stays with you long after the ending. It’s fast-paced, full of twists and turns flawed characters. The descriptions of grief, guilt, and revenge felt so real.

Synopsis: Peter Miles has to die. And Dylan Darcy, Priyanka Shah, and Isabel Guerrero—a bartender, a nurse, and a student—have to be the ones to kill him. As they see it, this local cop deserves death for murdering their best friend and getting away with it. All they need to do to pull off the perfect crime is stick to their carefully prepared plan.

Many thanks to #PeterMilesHastoDie #NetGalley and #Ballantine for providing me an E-ARC of this book.

This debut is excellent, and I was very drawn in by this tense story of friendship, justice, and revenge, with plenty of turns and excellent characters who deal with the events in the book in ways that felt authentic and varied.

This was just ok for me. I didnt find it exciting or intriguing. It was pretty predictable. I felt like the the back and forth time line in the beginning left me confused and I had to keep looking back to remind myself of what I read. Overall for a teen or young adult this maybe a good book for them but for me it was just meh.

Peter Miles Has to Die by Katie Collom was a quick and fun read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written suspense filled with twists that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
An intriguing story with characters who draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
The characters were all realistic and very well developed. 
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself gripped, turning the pages, not knowing what was to come next. 
It was suspenseful, mysterious and unpredictable.

This was fast-paced, filling with twists, turns, revenge, guilt, friendship, loss, and some serious heart-in-your-throat-tension. The loss isn’t just the friend who was murdered, and the reason Peter has to die, but the way the guilt and paranoia over being caught eats away at the three friends over the years. Collom does an excellent job bringing that psychological aspect to life. We get to see the different ways the guilt affects each character, as it isn’t the same across the board, and it makes them feel even more real that it’s not the same for each. They're flawed, real, and even though they thought things through, there's rarely such a thing as the perfect crime. Once I began reading, I was hooked, and I enjoyed getting to see everything from planning, through a very shocking twist, to the very end (no spoilers).

Dylan Darcy, Priya Shah, and Isabel Guerrero—a bartender, a nurse, and a student - decide to exact revenge for their best friend Beck's murder. Beck had been dating Peter Miles, a cop, and the 3 women are convinced he is the one who murdered her. He was never convicted, and the case is still open. The women don't feel like justice will be served because he is a cop, so they decide to take justice into their own hands.... Peter Miles has to die. The book goes back and forth between the main storyline and the Texas State Penitentiary in 1999. I was confused at first, thinking the prison scenes were flashbacks, but the entire story takes place in the 90's.I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel and look forward to reading many more by this author.

📚: Peter Miles Has to Die by Katie Collom
⭐️: 3.5/5 (rounding up on #goodreads)

I saw another review for this book that said, “I support women’s wrongs,” and if there’s one sentence to sum up this book, it’s that.

Without giving away too much of the plot, this one is fast paced, twisty (although in my opinion, the best twist comes fairly early on), and embodies feminine rage in an early 1990s setting.

Thanks to Ballantine via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Peter Miles Has to Die is out today 8/12!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars!!

I support women’s wrongs!!

Despite my three stars I really enjoyed this book and would recommended reading it! There is just a couple things I would have changed before giving it a higher rating.

This was such a fast paced read!

I loved Dylan and Bree. It helps that I’ve always loved Dylan as a girl’s name. They stood out to me as characters more so than Priya and Isabel.

I wish it focused more on showing the friendship between the three girls. We saw that they met up for girls nights, but it was more told than shown. I know they were going through a traumatic thing, but they never really seemed to get along all that well. I wasn’t very convinced they were super close friends. Especially with Dylan and Priya at each other‘s throat most of the book.

I usually never say this, but I could have used this book to be 100 pages longer. It almost would have been nice to see Beck still alive for a little bit and interacting with the three girls so we could really see how close of a friendship they had. Other than just flashbacks.

Even things like Dylan finding out about Bree would have been interesting to see! It just skipped to the next thing right away.

I did like how it was split into different parts. That flowed well.

I could feel how much the three girls cared about Beck and I instantly hated Peter because he was a disgusting man and I was sad for her death, but I didn’t really feel that connected to her. I was still supportive of the three women because I knew Peter was a bad man.

It is sad to see what women go through. This was a very dark book throughout. No real happy moments.

As terrible as this sounds, I almost wish the girls had no remorse. It was very realistic how they were all feeling after it happened though. I think this would’ve been a little bit more interesting if it was them working to try to not get caught instead of more the emotional side of it. It wasn’t like it was a bad thing that’s how it played out, I was just thinking it would be a little bit different.

I think I went into it thinking it would be a touch unrealistic, that these girls would completely get away with it, but it was very much so grounded in real life. If you go into it knowing that, the different expectations may help you like the book more.

But it was still good despite all of that.

I didn’t really have a clue where this book was going until the end, then I started piecing together the parts in the Texas penitentiary.

It was a sad ending. I should have known it wouldn’t have ended perfectly, but I was still hoping there would be more justice.

It’s a sad world women have to live in, and unfortunately a lot of what happened in here happens in real life too.

I hate to say this was an entertaining read because of all the terrible things that happened in it, but I still do very much recommend picking it up!

I posted this review on Goodreads on August 11th, 2025! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7643481222
And on Amazon on the release date of August 12th, 2025!