I really enjoyed this listen. It was a slightly unhinged, twisty, fun, summer thriller. There was lots of blood, killing, feminine rage, and even some sapphic kissing. A few plot points required quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, but if you're picking this up, you should already know what you're getting into. It was a quick read (even in audio), so I didn't feel like I needed to dwell on the parts that I didn't think work as well.

Tess Sharpe narrates. I'm usually kind of ambivalent about authors reading their own fiction. I have to say, she didn't do much to change my mind. While she was animated and did a more impressive job than some authors, she did tend towards exaggeration. She turned the dial to 11 and kept it there for much of the novel. I didn't hate it, but I can see how it would rub some people the wrong way.

Book: 4 / 5
Narration: 3.5 / 5

Overall, a strong recommend for me.

This one was… meh. The story was fun, if not convoluted at times. The narrator is really what killed this one for me. Something about her tone and cadence really threw me off. There are times where she drags out her words painfully slowly, then rushes through the next sentence so fast I missed it entirely. Enunciation is nonexistent and a lot of the character voices got on my nerves.

If this had been a written novel, it easily would have been a 4 or 5 star read, but the audiobook experience was subpar

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an advanced listening copy of this title.

There were parts I really enjoyed about this book. That combined, with the narrator (the author herself), is why I rated the book five stars.

However, there were parts of this book that I really didn't enjoy. The timeline jumping felt very random, and the scenes from the past didn't feel as fleshed out and put together as the scenes in the present did. We go straight into the past with Mel and Chloe's relationship already there. We're told that they've had feelings for each other, but we weren't ever really shown any of that. How did they meet? When did things start in relation to the night the past is revolved around? Show us that, not just tell us. I also think that Nat's relationship with Mel wasn't very well put together. Again we're told that they're close. But we're never really given a how or why. It made the scenes in the past feel very unmoored and jumbled.

It also felt like too many things going on at once with all the little mysteries thrown in together. It left things feeling a bit muddied. However, the scenes set in the present were the reason this book got a high rating. The older versions of Mel and Chloe felt very grounded. You could feel their shared history and their feelings for one another. And for that, I'm going to give the author's other books a try.

4.5 rounded up. I couldn't get through this fast enough to find out what was going to happen. I wish there was more of an "after", I'm so curious to know what happens right after the book ends. I would not be mad with a follow up!

3.5⭐️
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I felt like I was watching an 80’s action movie. The book is a perfect mix of action, suspense and comedy. Also, pacing was perfect.

How many times can "Bag of Dicks" can be thrown into this book? Not enough.

A fun, suspenseful tale about the repercussions of running from your past, holding murderers accountable, and the pull of your first love.

I loved this thriller romance from the author of The Girls I've Been. It feels like a grown up version of that book in a lot of ways, and since I'm a big fan of The Girls I've Been, I appreciated that. P.I. Mel has a lead on the girl who ran out of her life six years ago, but when she finds her hiding in the Canadian wilderness, it's clear she's on the run from something big. Claire never expected to see Mel again, but when the private plane they're flying home on crashes, the truth about what sent her running all those years ago finally comes out. Sharpe found the perfect balance between thriller, mystery, and romance in this one. I couldn't put it down. The dual timeline really enhanced the suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat as the story slowly pi9eces together everything that's happened to Mel and Claire. Full five star recommendation.

First and foremost, thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio as well as Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD for providing this ARC copy in exchange for my honest review

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⚝ Rating ⚝: 3.5✩ / 5✩’s (rounded up)

⚝ Review ⚝: I have slightly mixed feelings about No Body No Crime. It was very enjoyable, but also...pretty far-fetched?? Which I guess makes sense for a thriller, but sometimes it was enough to kind of jerk me out of the story.

Mel and Chloe have one thing in common: At 16, they killed a man. Now, years later, Chloe has disappeared, having gone into hiding in the Canadian wilderness, while Mel has become a PI in their hometown. But now Chloe's dad is dying, and so is Mel's mentor and Chloe's dad has hired Mel's mentor to find Chloe. In turn, Mel's mentor hands the assignment to Mel.

Using the information given to her by her mentor, Mel gets to Canada and is able to track down and convince Chloe to come home with her. But things don't go according to plan. After their plane crashes and Mel wakes up to find Chloe once again gone and determines they were drugged, she runs into a strange man, asking if she needs help, but something is off, and then Chloe shows back up, killing the man without question.

Now the two need to get through the wilderness and somehow get home while being pursued by one of the most powerful families they know of, but they are tangled up in so much more than one dead boy, both holding pieces to a puzzle that has cost lives.

This was a Dual POV (kind of a Triple POV as it occasionally jumped to Rick), and Dual Timeline. While at times it was a bit hard to follow from the bouncing around, that's definitely more of a 'me' problem that could have been fixed with physically reading the book over listening to it. ESPECIALLY considering most of the antagonists were named some variation of 'Richard'.

Even still, it was entertaining, decently paced, and while I wasn't 100% sold on the relationship dynamics between Mel and Chloe, I enjoyed them enough as separate characters to keep going.

⚝ Audio/Narrator⚝: This is the first time I've either read or listened to by anything by Tess Sharpe. For the vocals, I wasn't disappointed. Her voice is easy to listen to. The only critique I had for the characterizations was the voice choice for Junior. Now, I know he's supposed to come across as a petulant and spoiled individual, but every time he had dialogue, it gave '6 year old'. I was shocked when they mentioned he was old enough to be running for a political office, more so than when he mentioned wanting to stab Chloe.

⚝ Representation ⚝: Sapphic, Bisexual, Lesbian

⚝ TWs ⚝: Blood, Murder, Strong language, Death, Child Abuse, Gun Violence

My monthly reading breakdown for June will be posted to TikTok, IG, and Threads the first week of July.

What happens when you murder someone with the girl you'll eventually fall in love with? Nothing really for a handful of years. Nothing...until you're hired as a PI to find the girl you helped because she's been missing! Has she really been missing though? Or has she been protecting you from potential harm because she's hiding purposely?

At times the story was a little lost on me with the flipping back and forth between not just narratives, but past and present. In that sense, I would definitely recommend reading it via physical/ereader format and not in audio so you can easily reference points. I would have loved to have it more focused on the present with sprinklings of the past so that we as readers would still get a bit of knowledge about the characters we encounter.

Overall I truly thought the concept was there, but overall, it was a bit of a miss for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC.

What an incredible read! This book tells the gripping story of Mel Tillman and Chloe Harper, who, on Chloe’s sixteenth birthday, together murdered and buried Toby Dunne deep in the woods. The most surprising part? They didn’t really know each other that well before that fateful night, but I guess nothing bonds people quite like committing a crime together.
Years later, Mel is a rural PI, hired by Chloe’s family to find her—she’s been missing for six years. When Mel accepts the case, she can’t resist the chance to hunt down the one who once stole her heart. But when she finally finds Chloe, everything is different from what she expected. Chloe’s reasons for hiding are more complex—she’s been protecting Mel from a powerful family, Toby’s family, who held something over him before they murdered him.
This story hooks you from the very first chapter and doesn’t let go until the final page—be prepared to lose sleep over it. It’s a romantic thriller that truly delivers on its promises. The narrative alternates between past and present; although I usually don’t enjoy this device, Tess Sharpe masterfully uses it to add depth to the story and deepen the characters’ backgrounds.
The main characters are truly badass, and I appreciated how their strength and resilience come through through their actions, not just words—a quality I find rare and refreshing. Their chemistry and connection feel authentic, and Sharpe excels at writing compelling romances. My only critique is that sometimes the pacing felt a little uneven, and the multiple villains named Richard confused me a bit, making it hard to keep track of who was who.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. It’s a masterful blend of suspense, romance, and character-driven storytelling that will keep you hooked until the very end. Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and Tess Sharpe for the ARC!

3 stars

This is a great concept, but I struggled to get into the read for a couple of surprising reasons.

Almost every time I listen to an audio version, I find that I get even more into the read. I really enjoy a good narrator and the distinctions that a pro can bring to multilpe characters and emotions. I do not think it's the narrator's fault that I found certain parts of this really difficult to listen to. The characters experience stress and are even noted as going up in pitch by other characters. I'd have rather imagined what that sounded like than actually listened to it, it turns out, and I found this vocalization so grating over time that I really think the intended stress pitchiness made me enjoy this less than I might have if I'd read by sight alone. In other words, the narrator may be doing their job too well for me!

The more significant issue is that while these characters have a lot of backstory, I somehow still found it hard to connect with them or understand the depth of their bonds to each other. The characterization felt too surface level, and with a fairly predictable set of outcomes on the horizon, I needed something to hold on to here.

This is not a bad book, but it did leave me wanting in several areas.

Action packed with twists and turns. This is a little of a detour from my norm, but I really enjoyed it. The violent parts weren't gory, which I appreciated. The love story is a small part of it, and that's okay! I liked how it was an underlying part of the story. I was entertained throughout. The author narrated this one and that always makes me a little leery. She was a great narrator though! I don't love how she narrated the male voices but it didn't distract me too much from the story. I always will think a book as action packed as this one would do better with duet narration. This one would make an amazing graphic audio with a full cast!

3.5 stars. Story is great and is what kept me going. The characters drove me absolutely nuts. So annoying and listening to them made it even worse. I would probably buy this in print for my library.

I thought this book was pretty good, if sometimes a little hard to keep track of the switching back and forth between timelines. Overall an interesting iteration on a murder mystery.

I've waffled between a three and a two stars. I could not get into this, at all. Which is so disappointing considering how much I loved "The Girls I've Been".

The story follows Mel and Chloe, two women who have been separated since they were teenagers after they killed a boy and hid the body. Chloe seems to have become a total paranoid survivor-woman living in the woods while Mel is hired as a PI by her family to find her. But other, mysterious figures are after Chloe, and the two women must survive the danger together.

Two main things were lacking in this: the characters and the plot. It's told with alternating viewpoints, with the occasional flashback to when they were teenagers. However, the flashbacks just make the reader most confused than add intrigue or give any context to what's happening. I didn't get a grasp on any of the characters, their motivations or personality. We're TOLD they loved each other just sooo much in the past, but you don't really feel that in any of their scenes. The author keeps teasing mystery after mystery, but without any answers whatsoever along the way, it gets more tedious than captivating. With the flashbacks, and retelling the story from different POVs, the plot to drags on unnecessarily.

The writing is also just not very exciting. It's overly descriptive for the genre, which makes the action scenes feel slow and the scenery is boring. Without any attachment to the characters, and a slow plot, I kept skimming and/or pausing the audio to do something else.

For the audiobook version, I do think author Tess Sharpe does a good job. Her inflection is entertaining, the voices are varied enough, but unfortunately it does not save the book from its flaws.

Overall this just isn't gripping, and lacked characters I connected to.

No Body, No Crime by Tess Sharpe is a fast-paced thriller about a missing girl in a small town filled with secrets. The premise is intriguing, blending mystery and revenge with a fierce, flawed protagonist who keeps you rooting for her. Sharpe's writing effectively establishes the scene and maintains reader engagement, though it may be challenging to follow in certain chapters.
However, the plot sometimes faces limitations because of foreseeable developments and characters that resemble archetypes rather than fully fleshed-out individuals. The ending, while satisfying, didn’t quite land the emotional punch I was hoping for. It is an engaging read for enthusiasts of thrillers; however, it does not achieve the lofty standards set by the genre's exemplary works. Thank you Netgalley for this advanced audio ARC. I would give this book a 2.5/5

I have a feeling this book would be better read than listened to. It was easy to get lost in both the characters and which timeline we're in. Overall, I enjoyed the story and think Tess Sharpe is a great author. This is my first book by her and I have looked into some of her other works already. This book definitely keeps you on your toes and second guessing every conclusion you think you've made. This is a great book to kick off Pride month with!

I enjoyed this story a lot! Chloe and Mel were secret girlfriends in high school, until Chloe mysteriously vanishes just after graduation. In the years that pass, Mel becomes a fully licensed PI and is tasked with finding Chloe.

What follows is an entertaining story about Mel and Chloe and what actually happened in their small town more than six years ago.

One of my favourite parts is that the bad guys all belong to one family (father, son, grandfather, cousin) and they are all named Richard, and Chloe lovingly refers to them as the bag of Dicks.

I love how the story shows these strong, smart women absolutely OWNING these Dicks. The ending is completely satisfying, with all of the loose ends neatly tied up.

Such a well woven, well told story. I wasn’t sure how everything would work out in the end (duh, kind of the point) but Tess did such a masterful job of tying up all the loose ends and making everything make sense. I was invested in the characters and the plot which I think was bolstered knowing they
the author was also the narrator.

This was fast paced and intense from the start. There were lots of twists to keep you on your toes. A fun action packed read! 4/5 stars