Keep This for Me opens with a chilling premise: a decades-old disappearance, a serial killer’s final confession, and a daughter returning home to search for answers. I was drawn in by the setup, but ultimately, this one didn’t quite land for me.

The mystery felt predictable, with reveals that came too early or didn’t carry the impact they needed. And while the story shifts between narrators, only Fiona’s chapters are written in first person—a choice that created emotional distance from the other perspectives and made the structure feel uneven.

I also struggled to connect with Fiona as a protagonist. Her mother’s disappearance is undeniably tragic, but I wanted more insight into who Fiona is beyond that trauma—more reason to root for her, especially when her decisions started to strain believability. And by the end, I was still unclear on what exactly her goal was. What was she really searching for? The story never fully clarified that, and the conclusion felt abrupt, leaving a lot emotionally unresolved.

That said, there are moments of atmospheric tension and interesting reflections on generational trauma that kept me curious throughout.

Thank you to Atria Books and Simon & Schuster for the advance copy.

A woman returns to the town she grew up in hopes of confronting the person accused of being responsible for her mother's death, and gets tangled up in a multi-generational tragedy as she (perhaps unknowingly) seeks her own redemption.

This was a good read, and really hit the sweet spot for me between genre fiction and literary fiction. Meaning: it delivers the suspense and I wanted to follow the primary mystery, but it also includes that interior journey that I want to see characters go on. Furthermore, it invites the reader to ask questions about the nature of evil and violent acts. Are perpetrators driven by some overwhelming and irresistible force that "makes" them do these things, or, at a certaion point, are they acting by choice? Is evil inheritable, inevitable? (A very Bad Seed kind of a question, if you know that play or movie!)

There's a lot more going on than that, though. Other things I liked: the lake town setting, the variety of ages and types of characters, and the subtle examination of how we (as people, as culture) are both drawn to and repelled by tragedy.

The book includes various timelines; patience as the various timelines are set up will pay off. The central mystery of the story was not based on predictable and overrused tropes, nor were there any overly contrived "twists." Just a good, solid, well-written piece of suspense for people that want to linger with a book, not race through it.

This was my first book by this author, and I enjoyed it! Well-written, dark, and reflective. Fiona has lived in the shadow of her mother's abduction and presumed murder by a local serial killer back when Fiona was only 2 years old. As such, she has no real memories of her mother, and as her body was never found, no real closure, either. When she becomes a mother herself and struggles to adapt to this identity, she finds herself returning to the town where it happened, hoping to seek answers from her mother's killer, who is now a sick old man living out the rest of his life behind bars. He also has a family who has been deeply and unalterably affected by his deeds, and the book features his son's POV as well. There is some dual timeline involved as we travel back and forth between Fiona's search for answers now, and the last night of her mothers life decades ago. There were some loose ends, IMO, in the ending of this book, but since most of it was well-constructed, I can overlook that. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book including the characters, the timelines, and the setting. This is a really strong sophomore novel.