The fourth outing for PI former cop Tess Grey and her partner, ex-con Po Villere in this action-packed thriller series.

I do not connect with the characters, nor do
I much care for them. The dialogue is stilted and the plot is protracted, making for a loooong read.. Stick with the Joe Hunter series; it is much better and MUCH more engaging

I got this book from Net Galley in trade for an honest review. Thank you Severn House Publishers for this opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the first book from the Tess and Po thriller that I read and I really enjoy it!

The book opened with a view from a soon to be victim, standing on the cliff. What I like about this scene is how the author described it with the elements that describe the place instead of blatantly said “she’s standing on a cliff”.

EXCERPT
“The ground crumbled underfoot, and dirt and pebbles rained. She heard their clattering fall and the distant splashes as they struck water. She stood at the precipice and the only way to go was down. She rested her weight on her back foot”

What happens next is what set the next chain of events. Apparently, the victim left a delayed Facebook message to contact Tess, her friend. She got curious and started her own digging into the past. Apparently, all the victims were connected with her college past. Talking about a bullying case went too far that lead to revenge in the present. Apparently, all the victims were killed in the manner of when they bullied their friend or to face their worst fear.

In the mean time, Po had his own problems. His bar is being smashed and targeted by some punks. He had to defend his interest and friends as well. He can’t be a knight in shining armor for Tess. Things getting action packed when Tess found out who had been targeting her friends and she was a target herself. I like the chase and rescue attempt by Po. I also like Tess’s effort to escape.

In short, this is a full action pack story. No nonsense here. No weepy stuff. I was left tethering on the edge of my seat, curious on what will happen next.

All the characters also have strong attitude. Tess appears to be a strong headed and strong willed woman. Po on the other hand, appears strong, but has a soft side for his friends. There are also some interesting characters like Pinky, Charlie, some LGBT reference. It makes the story more colorful.

What makes me a bit sad is the part of the bullying. This might be a good case to read into when some of us might not know how a bully could drive someone to murder or take their own life. The frustration, the hatred, the helplessness, it’s just not right. By the end, the perpetrators were also the victims.

Bravo to Matt Hilton for waving the words artistically to pictured the situation of the characters. The background and events are not being told straightforward but through unique details that makes me enjoy reading it so much. Can’t wait for the next book from the Tess and Po thriller.

Recommend for those who like full action pack story, no nonsense attitude and strong attitude characters.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, even though I had not previously read the first instalment. I did guess the perpetrator well before the reveal, but that did not detract at all. Perhaps a tad unrealistic at times, but an enjoyable jaunt.

Well done thriller. I'd not read Hilton before and thus was unfamiliar with Tess and Po, who make a dynamic team. Why are Tess' college friends dying? Why did Chelsea, who was afraid of heights, even get near a cliff much less throw herself off one? Tess and Po need to sort things out before Tess becomes a target. There's an old secret, of course, and Hilton did a good job of not telegraphing the solution to the mystery. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm going to look for more Tess and Po books!

The plot for this thriller is derivative from every slasher/horror movie you've ever seen.. The main character, Tess Grey is an ex-cop turned P.I. and her partner is a sort of Jack Reacher clone who helps her solve cases. So back to the plot, which centres on a group of young friends who were all together when SOMETHING BAD happened. Guess what, the offended party returns many years later to wreak revenge on all those present when the BAD THING happened..
Obviously this is a well trodden plot device so it's not difficult to guess the conclusion .but, I have to say this was a cracking good read. The heroine is suitably stoic, the sidekick predictably indestructible and the villains
memorably hissable. Of course there is a certain predictability in the plotting, but the whole story is told with such gusto and pace that you will be swept along by the storytelling..
Highly recommended.

Great story, great plot. Would read again. Another good author to ad to my list.

A young woman, Chelsea Grace, falls to her death from a cliff in what appears to be a suicide, but she is terrified of heights. Chelsea left a social network note requesting Tessa Grey, her university roommate, contact her on her death. Tess has lost contact with Chelsea and so begins to investigate why such a note was left. Tess and her partner Po find that other old university friends of hers have also met untimely deaths and they fear that Tess herself could be in danger.

This is the fourth book in this series and they have all been very satisfactory without necessarily hitting the heights. Both Tess and Po are characters that I can associate with, like a comfortable pair of slippers. The story does get bogged down a fair bit, just after the start, but does pick up again all the way to an excellent and unexpected ending. I have read similar storylines before but this one did keep me guessing most of the way through.
I did prefer Matt Hilton's earlier standalone stories and I hope that he does write one or two more outside of this series. Having said that, I find myself looking forward to the next instalment of Tess and Po's private investigative and also romantic shenanigans. Tess is an ex-cop and Po is an ex-convict and so they bounce ideas off each other which always makes for interesting reading. As per my title, this is good, solid crime writing with an exciting story at its heart and I commend it. There is quite a lot of throwbacks to the previous three books in the series and so I suggest that at least one, if not all of these books are read before tackling this one.
Digger 95

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

This is the fourth book in this series by Matt Hilton which features Tess Grey, a former police officer, now a private investigator and a range of supporting characters, not least ‘Po’ her ex-convict lover and erstwhile partner. Although new to me, it quickly became clear to me it was part of a series as there were quite a few references to previous situations that Tess and Po and found themselves in – not least the fact that Tess had sustained serious injury to her hand in a previous encounter.

It may well be that I needed to read the earlier books in the series to form a relationship with Tess but unfortunately she just didn’t inspire me with anything, not tedium or boredom; not her great deductive skills; at most just a mild interest in seeing how things would pan out. I did feel a flicker of irritation with the predictability of the car failing her just when she needed it (surely she could have predicted this herself); and I did mildly enjoy her attempts to escape from the well, I thought that was described well.

I found myself skipping through various descriptions of the journeys made in various vehicles. With no knowledge of the area, it added nothing to the mix to know that they drove down Road A, onto Road B etc., although I must admit when one knows the area this does offer verisimilitude to the text.

To be fair I am sure that there are huge fans of Tess and her cohorts but this just didn’t spark much interest in me to read any more. Sorry Mr Hilton because the story did hang together but just not my bag this time.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
POVs: Multiple, 3rd person
Setting: Portland, Maine
Writing style: 3/5

The opening chapter was great but it was followed by lots of background info to wade through and the rest of the story didn't have the thrilling impact I was looking for. The stilted dialogue, pop culture references, and caricature-style villains didn't work for me, either.

A good read, want to read on. At times characters are confusing.

I am a massive fan of this series and the characters are hugely appealing to me. Tess Grey a PI who was an ex-copper working alongside her partner and lover Nicholas 'Po' Villere. This latest installment starts out with Tess looking into the death of somebody she went to college with. Would her old friend really have jumped to her death when she was afraid of heights? It's ppretty clear early on that this is something more than a one off and somebody from Tess past is trying to even up the score.

Tess and Po are the characters that make this story (especially Po). Although this time around is isn't just Tess who has problems. Po's bar is being targetted and he is determined to get to the bottom of the who and the why with his own unique style! Meanwhile as Tess begins to dig through her own memories of the past she begins to see a pattern forming. The great part of this book is we see how and why the crimes are being committed before Tess does. Although I love this series I felt there was a little something missing. Maybe it's because I see Tess figuring out other people's problems as opposed to her own? That aside, this still made for a fantastic read.

My one small niggle was that we didn't see the appearance of Po and Tess good friend Pinky until far too late in the book. As usual he wades in with every ounce of his being to do what he can to help his two friends. The later part of the book was a little more pacey and I enjoyed it more than the first half because the action was ramped up to the maximum.

As ever another cracking read in this series that I love. I literally cannot wait for the next book as this series is firmly in my Top 5 of must reads. With original and engaging characters, and a storyline that will keep yu turning pages you can't really ask for too much more!

I didn’t realize this book was part of a series and as I was reading, I thought several times that these characters had amazingly in depth backstories for one book. When I discovered that three books preceded this one, well that explained the rich details. I didn’t feel that I missed anything vital to this story by not having read the others, though I did like this one enough to add Matt Hilton to my author list.
Tess Grey and Po Villere are the main characters. While Tess has a background in law enforcement, she now works as a private investigator. Po, her partner, lived his life on the other side of the law and this ex-con, now a legitimate business owner has some impressive skills that work well with those Tess possesses. When Tess is informed that an old friend from college, Chelsea has committed suicide, the scenario just doesn’t add up to her and she sets out to discover what really happened.
As Tess remembers the past, she starts to believe that there is some link between the former college students who all worked together one summer at a youth camp and Chelsea’s death. Tess barely remembers her former friends, but their story and connections come to life as she studies an old group photo and attempts to contact each one. Chelsea isn’t the only face in the picture who will be found dead and as the body count starts to rise, it’s up to Tess and Po to figure out who is behind these deaths and why.
I really liked Tess and Po, especially how well they worked together and apart. Each of them has their own strengths as well as weaknesses and they complement each other. This was a "can’t wait to find out what happens next” read for me and I put my To-Do list aside until I was done. The characters were engaging and the story was fast paced. What could they have done to unleash someone’s wrath after so many years? I don’t know if there will be another book in this series, but the answer to the mystery is revealed before the final page.
Thank you, Matt Hilton, Severn House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. If you have room for another series and really what lover of books doesn’t, I’d give Tess and Po a chance. The author has created great characters as well as a tight plot and after I read the other books, I’m pretty sure I will be hoping for book number five.

It would appear to be a suicide when a woman’s body is found beneath a cliff on a Maine beach. But a post on the woman’s social media account proves otherwise. It implores the reader to contact Tessa Gray of the Cumberland County Sherriff’s Office if something should happen to her. Tessa hasn’t seen Chelsea Grace since college, but she enlists the aid of her partner, Po, to discover what happened to the woman. They discover Chelsea is not the only one of Tessa’s old college friends to meet an unfortunate accident. Could Tessa be in danger herself? I liked the Maine setting, and the inner workings of the sherriff’s office, Hilton gets all the details right and thus makes this a mystery with characters that ring true

This is 4th in a series featuring Private Investigator Tess Grey and her partner, both professionally and privately, Nicolas 'Po' Villere, who not only is her back-up, but an ex-con as well.

Tess receives a call from the local sheriff's department telling her that a woman Tess knew in college has been found dead at the base of a cliff. SHe has written a note informing whoever that if she is found dead, Tess should be notified. The problem is that Tess hasn't seen or spoken to her in many years. And she has no idea why she would have left a note for her.

While the police assume a suicide, Tess doesn't believe it for a moment. The young woman was terrified of heights and if she was suicidal she never would have jumped unless she was forced to.

As Tess and Po begin investigating they find links to other deaths .... of her college friends the summer they worked at a camp for younger kids. And they are finding other deaths .. all seemingly accidents.

Tess' name is on a list ... but who wants them all dead .. and why?

I like this author's writing. There is much movement and excitement in his words. Story premise is excellent. The book is fast-paced, with characters that I really enjoy reading. It isn't until almost the end of the book where the biggest surprise is known.

Many thanks to the author / Severn House / Netgalley for the advance digital copy of WORST FEAR. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.