Dea Poirier | NEXT GIRL TO DIE

Plot (via Goodreads):

It’s been fifteen years since Claire Calderwood’s sister, Rachel, was brutally murdered in their small hometown in Maine. Claire has finally carved out a life for herself as a homicide detective in Detroit, but the past comes calling when the local police back home ask for her help with a murder eerily similar to Rachel’s.

Still haunted by Rachel’s cold case, Claire returns home, hoping to solve the crime and finally put her grief to rest. As she starts investigating, the last thing she needs is tenacious journalist Noah Washington asking questions she’s not ready to answer. But like her, Noah won’t give up until he finds the truth—and Claire reluctantly finds herself relying on him more and more when disturbing new details about Rachel’s death come to light.

When the killer strikes once again, Claire knows he’s not done. Now he’s set his sights on Claire, who will have to find the courage she needs to survive a deadly confrontation years in the making.

Review:

A recent trend that I've noticed in the crime fiction world lately is when authors combine cold case murders (usually connected to the protagonist) and recent homicides and to be honest, I don't think I'll ever get sick of this. It's right up there with my love of multiple perspectives and alternate timelines. Well, NEXT GIRL TO DIE is the first in a new series by Dea Poirier and this one starts off with a bang and kept me intrigued, invested, and a little creeped out throughout the entire story. 

I absolutely could not get enough of the setting with this novel; almost allowing the small Maine town to be a main character of its own. I love visiting Maine and think it's one of those places that is so alluring and beautiful that you can never imagine actual crime happening there and I think that was what made this such a fun reading experience for me. The story was really paced well and had an equally good balance of police procedural, serial killer thriller, and enough emotion to make you really care for Claire but without being overly saturated or too mopey. Claire Calderwood is a bad-ass protagonist who is relatable, tough, and someone you just don't even question rooting for. My only hold-back with this one was that as much as I enjoyed it, I did notice a lot of characters were introduced only to disappear or not have much purpose within the story. There were also some similarities with Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn that came off as a distraction at times, but later on I came to the conclusion they were strong plot points that I think would make this novel enjoyable for anyone who loved that story as well.  I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to any crime fiction lover who enjoys a good serial killer thriller and I am eager to enjoy the next novel in this series.

Special thanks to Amazon Publishing for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 3.5/5