The Reaping by J. Loury, published by Thomas & Mercer, is the second book in the Steinbeck and Reed Series.
This book is not stand alone, I recommend to read the books in order. The previous book is The Taken Ones, the introduction to storyline, setting and characters.
But back to TR. This case leads partners Van Reed and Harry Steinbeck on a wild goose chase.
A thrilling masterpiece, literally unputdownable, twisty, angsty and full of unexpected twists and turns that had me guessing till the last page.
Blurb:
Forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck and BCA agent Van Reed must catch a cold-case killer who’s returned to abduct a small town’s children one by one in this heart-stopping novel.

In 1998 an Alku, Minnesota, family of five was murdered in their sleep. The event shook the community but, without any leads, was relegated to the cold case files, where it moldered for twenty-five years. Until today.
Agent Harry Steinbeck hoped never to return to the northland, a place that holds terrible memories. But when a recent case is connected to Alku’s murder, he and cold case agent Evangeline Reed have no choice but to investigate.
As an trail leads to a truth more sinister than either imagined, Harry knows there’s only one way to crack this he must finally face the secrets of his own past—even if doing so will cost him everything.

4/5: Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved the Taken Ones and have been waiting for book two with Steinbeck and Reed! The Reaping felt slow to start, but the second half was anything but slow with plenty of twits and turns all the way to the end!

The cliffhanger at the end has me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book in the series! Keep them coming, Jess!

Obviously in the minority on this one, but just could not connect to this storyline at ALL. I enjoyed the first Steinbeck and Reed and was looking forward to watching the duo solve a new cold case, but I felt like the rollout of this mystery made little sense and it could not captivate my interest, no matter how hard I tried.

The pair is back in a small town after a gruesome murder seems to share some of the same characteristics of a fifteen year old unsolved family annihilator case. It seems like the close-knit community is closing ranks and deliberating avoiding helping the investigation -- and they need to figure out why before anyone else gets hurt. This case also hits a little too close to home for Steinbeck, who needs to return back to where he grew up -- and where his younger sister disappeared -- around the same time as the first murder case.

I stuck with it because of so many other good reviews, but there was something about this one that I just did not like. Honestly wasn't invested (or starting to understand the plot) until the last 15% of the book, which is never what you want. Will continue reading the series though and hope this one was just a miss for me!

I adored the first book in this series so much, so when I saw The Reaping on here… well, I acted quickly. And this one did not disappoint!

Jess Lourey really knows how to take elements from horror, thriller, and mystery genres and spin up a masterpiece.

The dynamic between Steinbeck and Reed is unique and so much fun to read. I definitely would love to continue exploring these two even further. I also appreciated the deeper dive into the backstory of Steinbeck’s missing sister.

The pacing on this one is a solid slow burn. But once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down. I’ll definitely be highly recommending this one)

Thank you for the opportunity to preview The Reaping. I didn’t realize this is a book 2 in a series. This is a crime novel set against the backdrop of Minnesota. This is atmospheric and well written Two detectives with secrets and pasts come together to solve a mystery and crime against children. But they are up against sinister forces and their own trauma to solve these murders.
3 .5 stats

When I heard this a Read Now option on NetGalley, I immediately chose it as my next pick! After loving The Taken Ones, there was no question it would be my next read. The dumb thing is now I have to wait for the next book! *face palm*

I love Evangeline Reed and Harry Steinbeck. In The Taken Ones we find out about Van's traumatic history and how it affects her life as a detective. There is a fantastic cliffhanger causing readers to want more information about Harry. The Reaping gives us Harry's history while he partners with Van to work on a cold case near his home down of Duluth, MN.

Jess Lourey is the queen of dread-filled Minnesota towns. Especially since I just read Bloodline earlier this month, The Reaping felt familiar with the other-worldly small town setting and creepy, secretive residents. It's dark and weird, and I was into it. If you loved The Taken Ones, you'll know what I mean by dark and weird, and you'll likely enjoy this one too!

I'm not typically a series gal, but I love this crime-solving duo. They find one another mysterious, interesting, and sometimes baffling while recognizing the deep hurt each one holds from their pasts. There is something beautiful about how they are getting to know and respect one another.

I'll say it here now. I really hope their relationship doesn't get messy. Let the chaos stay within the cold cases, and let us readers have something good in this world!

Rating: I really liked it! (4)

"𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕?" 𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅.
"𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒉, 𝒃𝒖𝒅𝒅𝒚," 𝑷𝒆𝒌𝒌𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅. "𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒉, 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅."

Just as much a piece of folklore as it was a thriller, THE REAPING is the second installment featuring agent Evangeline "Van" Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck. I was hooked with their interesting dynamic and polar opposite personalities in the first book, so I was eager to see where this case took them.

The author created the perfect sinister, atmospheric Minnesota town of Alku, a village founded over a hundred years ago by seven families who were banished from Finland and call themselves the original settlers. The town is full of odd rituals, tales of the Veri Noita, or Blood Witch, and the startling look of the inhabitants, with their distinct craniofacial abnormality, long necks, and high foreheads suggesting...inbreeding?

While Van and Harry are in town investigating a brutal murder that has ties to a 25-year-old cold case, their pasts intertwine. Van carries around the pain of escaping from a cult when she was younger, and Harry laments the loss of his 10-year-old sister, who disappeared without a trace when he was a teenager. While this knowledge helps strengthen the bonds of their friendship, it will prove to do even more.

I thought I had become accustomed to the quiet revelations this author drops in her books, but there was one thing that just blindsided me and made me so eager for book 3!

Unsettling, odd, and deeply atmospheric, THE REAPING steps one toe firmly over the lines into horror. While this book can be read as a standalone, I highly suggest that you first read THE TAKEN ONES because there are some things about Evangeline that are important to know.

Thank you so much to the author for my place on her ARC team and for this early copy. THE REAPING will publish October 8, 2024.

I have to say, I have never read any books by this author before and boy, am I blown away! I'm normally a stickler for reading series in order. However, when I downloaded this book I had no idea it was #2 in a series. I devoured this book in two days and found it difficult to focus on anything but what happens next. I now want to back track and read the first. I fell in love with all of the characters and cannot wait to see more! I also enjoyed being able to jump right in and not feel as if I missed something.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

🐰 BOOK / REVIEW 🐰

I never wait to read a book by @jesslourey (regardless of the official #pubdate happening in September 2024 🫠) because I am obsessed with writing. Thank you, @netgalley and #thomasandmercer, for my #ARC - I finished this in 24 hours!

#thereaping DID NOT DISAPPOINT 👏. I went in completely blind and this book terrified me if I am honest. We get reintroduced to Van Reed and Harry Steinbeck, whom I adored in #thetakenones, and their characters really blossomed. It was nice to learn more about their past, even if those revelations and secrets were hard to share. Part of me also feels like their could be a romance coming between the 2 - and I am not sure how I feel about it.

The setting of Alku and CCTC (a nursing home for #serialkillers) was horrifying 😱. Cell room 36 and the creepy atmosphere surrounding this town add such an awesome element to the story. Not to mention the INSANE traditions that the town holds (I don't want to give too much away) and the gruesome murders. It was delightfully f*cked in the best ways possible.

Do not read this one at night!!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one started out a little slow for me but then picked up. I kept trying to figure it out and put the pieces together before the detectives but I never did! I liked how their relationship grew a little stronger and they felt they could open up to each other a little bit more. I really enjoyed this one and loved the bomb drop in the epilogue. I was absolutely not expecting that!

For fans of Wendy Corsi Staub, you'll absolutely love Jess Lourey! "The Reaping" is book two in the Steinbeck and Reed series. What a book!

Wow, what an amazing book. I was captivated from the start – I’ve read the previous Steinback and Reed mysteries and couldn’t wait to see what would happen in this one. Agents Harry Steinbeck and Evangeline Reed are working together again on a case in Alku, Minnesota. It’s a very tight-knit community of Finnish families whose ancestors immigrated a few hundred years ago and founded the town. Their complete control continues to this day. Harry and Van are investigating a recent murder that is connected to a cold case homicide when an entire family was murdered in their home as they slept. Alku has already seen so much tragedy and yet, it continues.

While Harry and Van are investigating, the children begin to disappear. They can’t believe what’s happening – haven’t these people suffered enough? But the more Harry and Van try to help, the more closed off the community becomes. Wouldn’t they fully cooperate to keep their people safe? Or does this town have darker secrets than anyone suspected?

Not to be gruesome, but there are some gory details to the crimes in this book that I just loved. It’s a pleasant change to your typical shootings and stabbings. And the way the author describes the eeriness of the townspeople is so vivid that it will stick with you long after you finish the book. The whole story stuck with me; I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And that ending?! How am I possibly supposed to wait for the next installment? You have to read this book - it will leave you riveted and in serious anticipation for what comes next!

This is an action packed story with seriously creepy vibes that border on horror - and I'll be the first to admit that I am not a fan of the latter genre. But Jess Lourey has an undeniable gift for exploring the dark side of humanity, and she's done a great job with this book.

A quarter-century-old cold case appears to be coming back to life with a vengeance, as Steinbeck and Reed - an unusual dream team of investigators, given their opposing personalities and habits (which nevertheless make for some interesting chemistry) - soon discover.

The recent emergence of a similar case, which has the MO of one particular convicted criminal all over it, forces them into revisiting the mass murder of a family that took place in a small village named Alku, in Minnesota, many years ago. Unfortunately the criminal concerned has been in prison for some time, so could not have committed this murder himself.

Meanwhile, Alku has its own ghosts - and that refers not just to the spirits of the murdered family members in the mass killing case. Ancient Finnish traditions based on the heritage of the original settlers of the village are brought to life in re-tellings of the various legends and bloodthirsty superstitions of this community.

But the bottom line is, children from this village are continuing to disappear. Who is taking them - and why? Steinbeck and Reed need to find out what is going on quickly before any further tragedy occurs. This one is well worth a read.

OMIHECK! What an incredible book! Murder, mystery, horror, and the absolutely perfect detective team to solve it all!

When Jess Lourey created the team of Steinbeck and Reed (first in the Amazon e-novella “Catch Her in a Lie,” then in last year’s novel “The Taken Ones”), I was immediately pleading to the author to make a series out of the Minnesota odd couple, a forensic scientist and a cold case investigator. Harry Steinbeck is the uptight, by the book, dapper guy; Evangeline Reed is the impulsive, adventurous, messy type. Yet, they work beautifully together with their respectful banter and intelligent observations.

We know from the previous book and this one that Evangeline/Van also has a past as an abused child who escaped a cult and she has a supernatural skill: lucid dreams that lead her to the identities of truly bad people. Only now is Harry mostly comprehending her special talent. And in this novel, more of Harry’s past comes to light: he had a sister, Caroline, who was kidnapped without a trace when she was ten. Harry and Caroline’s imperious mansion-dwelling mother is still blaming him (as he is) and the long ago unsolved crime is part of the background since Harry and Van are near Duluth, the vicinity of Harry’s enduring angst.

Harry and Van were called north to investigate a heinous murder that matches a 25 year old cold case that took the lives of an entire family, all 5 shot and then bludgeoned horrifically (including a baby). The modus operandi then, and now, matches the deviant methods of convicted “Matty the Mallet.” But also then and now, Matty was securely locked away in a conveniently nearby hospital for the criminally insane, and is hobbled by wasting legs after a stroke.

The town where the murders took place is Uusialku, or Alku, an atmospherically super creepy village founded over a hundred years ago by seven families who were banished from Finland. Alku remains spiritually bonded together and the inhabitants seem to share a distinct craniofacial abnormality of long necks and too high foreheads. The residents also apparently have retained some secretive Scandinavian pagan folk rituals (uh, have you seen the film “Midsommar”? Those vibes.) And like other American parents warning their kids of the boogeyman, they have the Veri Noita, a Finnish Blood Witch, searching for naughty children whose toes she’d eat like grapes. Lourey’s last novel “The Taken Ones” had Bendy Man (Slender Man’s flexible family member), but the Blood Witch wins the creepy contest. The local children also partake in an Easter ritual that is akin to Halloween trick and treating — going door to door in animal masks and chanting “Your oven will break and I’ll make you ache unless you give me cake!” How adorable.

The tone is continuously spine-chilling, eerie, terrifying, sinister and WEIRD. But it’s action-packed as Harry/Van persist in trying to solve cold case mass murder for the sake of the current generation of children (there are some cuties) and finally determine what “the reaping” means. This book can definitely be read as a standalone novel, and it might be crossing into the horror category. Author Lourey has really nailed the pervasive tension-inducing mood. Harry and Van are such a terrific partnership, even with their unusual pasts, and they deserve more installments to their series. 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Evangeline does get greenish-gray circles under her eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO But there are cheerful daffodils trying to peek through the spring snow, even in Alku.

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Steinbeck and Reed are back! I was so excited to read “ The Reaping” after the ending in “The Taken Ones” left me wanting (needing) to know more. “The Reaping” is a story about a cold case in a Minnesota unincorporated village that keeps to themselves. I loved how the author made you feel like you were digging into the secrets of the town with the main characters. This one is told from 3 view points like the last but left me a little confused. I wish the author had explained a little more about Rannie in the first chapter before jumping into his point of view. I really got into this book about half way through and couldn’t put it down. After this ending, I’m ready for the next one!
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Jess Lourey does it again! Every one of the books I’ve read by her are tense, creepy, and thrilling. I especially love the dynamics between Harry and Van, and in this installment we get to learn more about Harry’s origins and backstory. Plus the setting is familiar as I’m from the Duluth area. Like many of her books, I can’t put them down and finished this in one day. The ending sets us up for wanting more and discovering more connections between Harry and Van! Five stars!!!
Thank you to NetGalley, Jess Lourey, and the publisher for an advanced read copy!

The Reaping is a follow up book to The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey. Reed and Steinbeck are officially a team when they are looking into a cold case in the Duluth area. The location brings back ghosts for Harry Steinbeck that include his missing sister. The duo also get tangled up in a small town with unusual roots and traditions that will do anything to protect their town including protecting a killer and kill their own.

Jess Lourey is an automatic read for me now. They always come through with the perfect amount of creepy and spooky, and the characters are on point.