A very persuasive novel dealing with child protective services in the USA. I was impressed with the dept that the author went into and how well the characters gelled together.

This story really showed me what a gifted storyteller can do. A story that seems to be used a lot but can be done in a way that makes you think it is a brand new idea that hasn't been done before.

Mike the lead to the police on this case was fun to see and just interesting all around. He has a strong work ethic and he didn't expect things to come easily either.

I enjoyed the ending tremendously and am very happy to have read the book. Can't wait to see what comes next.

TJ. Brearton has written another phenomenal book in the North Country Series, number six titled Next To Die, I’ve read a couple of Brearton’s books but not a full series, I’m certainly going to look into more. Next To Die can easily be read as a standalone, there is plenty of back story to pick up and understand the inner workings of Detective Mike Nelson and his cohort Lena Overton.

Imagine a career that you settle into that no matter what you accomplish an enemy is made of you, that’s what Bobbi encounters in daily life as a social worker. A counterpart of Bobbi’s is brutally murdered and the police have the unenviable task of trawling through the past cases, trying to piece together the scenario which lead to Harriet’s death. Is it a case of mistaken identity as Bobbi was off sick and Harriet was covering for her, or is there more to it and is Bobbi next.

I quite liked Bobbi as a character I warmed to her easily, she is a bit apprehensive but also an open book when it comes to her mannerism, the anxiety she exudes is due to a past relationship but she has tried to put it behind her and carry on with her life. This has given her the strength to look to initiate a new relationship, but is her past catching up with her, is she being stalked.

Oh for the love of god Nelson needs a shake, hahaha…….. he can’t see what’s in front of his eyes, maybe he is blinded by his indecisions. I’m not going to say any more about it!

The characters even though there are quite a few are all portrayed in a way that you can easily digest which ones you will take a shine to and who you think deserves to receive the reception that befouls them. I certainly had my favourites.

Brearton opens a wormhole to a sequence of events which surrounds the social services in real life and in the narrative of Next To Die. The research pertaining to Next To Die is obvious in the way he perceives the situations a social worker can find themselves embroiled in, a lot of red tape and hoops to jump.

Next To Die is one story inside another, I tried as hard as I might to uncover the perpetuator in this police procedural, I failed, but I’m not the best detective out there, so Brearton lead me a merry dance that I was happy to participate in.

Thanks to TJ. Brearton for an amazing and unmissable police procedural in Next To Die, where I was given the chance to read an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks also to Bookouture and Noelle Holten for putting up with the mad ramblings of a book blogger.

How intriguing is this book title! Of course every reader will be wondering who is the next one to die and why. I mean, I wondered that AND who was the first one to die. How could I not?

To begin with, me and T.J.Brearton's novel weren't exactly BFF's as, despite the chilling start, I couldn't help but feel a bit deflated at the lack of pace. However, once the book had reached the halfway point, I found myself drawn into the complex and secretive storyline like there's no tomorrow. Yes, 'Next To Die' and I may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but boy did we have a firework finish!

There's been a murder. The first murder Lake Haven had seen in eighteen years - is anyone safe? The social work community are scared out of their wits, wondering if anyone else from their line of work will be targeted, but, if they are - WHY?! Who are they? Why did they choose to kill a social worker and leave the body in full view of colleagues? Something extremely fishy is going on - thank goodness for Mike Nelson and Lena Overton....I think.

I think I may have giggled at the unlikely pairing of the two detectives as they really are chalk and cheese! One of them seems to enjoy passing the buck and leaving the hard graft to the other one, yet one of them seems to be working at 60MPH and moving nowhere. Lena Overton was my favourite! Her confident and hard-nosed persona made for fine reading, yet she still came across as such a relatable and likeable character. Mike Nelson however, well, I'm still on the fence with that one!!

Overall, I really did enjoy reading 'Next To Die', the storyline kept on shocking me with every page I turned, delivering the gritty situations with such ease and unexpectedness. I am very glad I preserved with this book as it ended up ticking a lot of my boxes.

Unexpectedly thrilling, 'Next To Die' kept me on my toes until the very end.

Next to Die T.J. Brearton

How do you draw up a list of suspects when the deceased has made enemies every time they do their job.

And, what if the dead person is not even the intended target, but it's a case of mistaken identity by the killer.

Imagine the type of plot line you could write with just those two principles. Well you don't have to imagine it anymore. T.J. Brearton has taken these two strings and knitted one hell of a story.

The book starts with the killing of a Social Worker who has been working late into the evening and is the last to leave the office. She has made enemies, lots of them, people who have kids taken from their parents often do, but is this what got her killed.

Bobbi, is one of her co-workers, and although a lot younger, bears a passing resemblance to her, and she drives an almost identical car. Was she the intended victim, there are good reasons she could have been.

Detectives Mike Nelson, State Police, and Lena Overton, Lake Haven Police, take on a joint investigation. Working together brings them closer together and there is a definite chemistry between the two but will it hamper the investigation.

As they start to look into the murder they find a unsolved crime from 10 months earlier. If the two are really connected does that mean that there have been other crimes that have not been reported, is somebody attacking Case Workers from Social Services. If they are does that mean that the attacks haven't finished, who will be the Next to Die, and can the detectives from 2 different agencies work together to stop the killer.

Nobody in this book, except Nelson and Overton, are who they first appear to be. Everybody has something lurking in their past, but does that make them a suspect or a future victim.

I have rarely read a book which kept me as engrossed. Every string of the plot is gripping, the story as a whole is addictive.

The characters are well written; the scenes are well described; the plot is captivating.

T.J. Brearton has quickly moved to the top of my list of authors whose books I look for as soon as they are available. He has gone from the "to be read" pile, to the "Must be read" list

Reading his biography it is easy to see why; he studied psychology, philosophy, and religion to gain a degree in Social Sciences. He has been a photographer and a film maker.

What does this tell me about him?

As a photographer and a film maker he will have observed people; as a student of psychology and philosophy he will understand the people he observed.

That is why his characters are so good. Those characters make excellent stories.

Its early in the year but I should imagine this will be one of the best books I read in 2018.

Pages: 356
Publisher: Bookouture
Publishing date: TODAY GO AND BUY IT

This is the sixth book in the North County series..... in general I do not like picking up books in the middle of a series, however this book did work as a standalone.... The only thing I probably missed out on is the connection with the characters.... not sure if Mike and Lena are in previous books (I’ll need to check out the blurbs of the previous books).....

The book starts out with the murder of a woman who works for child protective services..... is it connected to a previous murder of a woman in the same line of work? Is it a case of mistaken identity? Is it her son? This book definitely did not have a shortage of suspects..... i’d have to say the author did a really good job of keeping things complicated, but simple..... The book went in a lot of different directions, yet I was never lost or confused.... additionally I found the ending very plausible and satisfying... even though I didn’t necessarily see it coming....

Where the book fell just a little short for me was with the characters.... I would’ve liked even more backstory when it came to Mike and Lena.... now this could be because this is the sixth book and I missed that in the previous books.... so that’s really on me.... I do have to say though as a plot driven police procedural (not always my favorite) this book definitely held my attention.....

Recommend to all fans of police procedurals with a very strong plot...

*** thank you so much to the publisher and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***

It was about average. Nothing stood out to me at all. I would recommend that you skip reading it.

Is someone targeting case workers from the Department of Social Services?

Setting -- Lake Haven in the Adirondacks. A DSS worker is stabbed to death in her car outside the office after hours one night. Harriet Fogarty wasn't scheduled to be working that evening, so perhaps Bobbi Noelle, who was meant to be on duty but was home sick, was the intended victim? Things in the small town heat up pretty quickly as Detectives Mike Nelson from the New York State Police and Detective Lena Overton with the Lake Haven Police start to work the case.

But there is a lot more going on in Lake Haven. Suspects are identified and the investigation painstakingly plods along as more questions are raised than answers can be found. There are parallel plots and it is all quite complex. Red herrings abound, but most astute readers will figure out where this is going though it takes a long while to get there. There are so many characters that sometimes the names all became a jumble and they were all very superficially constructed. The main character of Bobbi narrates part of the story as it alternates between her and Detective Mike. There's also a romantic element for both of those two (not with each other) that really didn't add anything to the forward movement of the plot.

This works find as a standalone though I've read others in the series. I enjoyed it but it seemed like it took a lot of pages to get to the denouement and the final showdown when all was revealed. I'll definitely read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.

When a social worker is brutally murdered, Detectives Mike Nelson and Lena Overton are straight on the scene. There is a long list of potential suspects, will they work out who's next before the killer strikes again? It's Lake Haven's first murder in eighteen years and the community is terrified- especially Bobbi, who was not only supposed to be on duty that night, but also has the same long dark hair as Harriet and drives the same blue car. Now Bobbi lives in constant fear that the murderer will be back for her.

We get both the personal lives that merge into the professional ones. The story is told mainly by Mike and Bobbi's point of view. We also get some of the killers thoughts. There are plenty of twists and turns in this well written book. This book is part of a series but can be read as a standalone. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author T. J. Brearton for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit of a slow burner for me.
It starts off with a shocking murder but while all the investigations I found myself losing interest a bit as there seemed too many lines of enquiry.
One query raised is that the victim was covering at the DSS for Bobbi who was off sick and looks like and drives a similar car to the dead woman so the question is, is Bobbi going to be next?
The Police provide extra protection for Bobbi and her colleagues when they visit families but they’re struggling to find who is responsible for the gruesome murder.
I guess I felt their pain when trying to work out who did it but the final few chapters pushed it up a gear, and I liked the ending.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

One word - amazing! This book is superbly crafted, page turning perfection from the nail biting start to the gripping finish. I love this author and his books just keep getting better and better with every one. I thought this book was flawless - still thinking about the characters. This story will stay with me for a long time. The author takes crime writing to a new level. Brilliant and very highly recommended.

I was really looking forward to this based on the blurb, but was left a little disappointed. Full disclosure, I didn't realize this was a series of books when I picked it up, but it can be read as a stand alone, although I may have been more invested in some of it if I"d read the other books.

While the start was good, I was hooked and ready for more...it the really slowed down. We have one current murder...no attempts on anyone else until much later in the book. After the first couple of chapters until about 3/4 of the way through it was kind of slow and draggy. Nothing exciting happening to keep your interest and Bobbi just wasn't a character I could care about.

So, this book was perhaps a 3 1/2 for me. Mr. Brearton writes some terrific characters and does a wonderful job of giving them backstories. But, it is almost to the point that you feel like you are missing a book somewhere. Like starting to watch Grey's Anatomy halfway through a season after they've introduced all the new interns. Next To Die is apparently is a loosely connected series of books, North Country series, that isn't noted anywhere. Perhaps if I had started at the beginning of the series the missteps I felt took place in this book would have made sense. Additionally, while I am not a reader looking for pretty packaged endings that tie up everything perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after, I do want my questions answered. And I also like to not figure out the "bad guy" almost immediately. No clue why I did this time, but I knew and it made the time spent on other suspects a bit annoying. In regards to the story itself, I enjoyed reading a book that brought to the forefront the crazy work environment social workers are subjected to and how even if the best of conditions the fall out can be horrific.

[True-rating is actually 2.5 stars!]

This book is book 6 in the North Country series however it can be read as standalone, as can all the other books in this series.

The premise of this book was very interesting; when someone one who works at the same place as Bobbi and looks slightly like Bobbi and drive the same car as Bobbi is murdered Bobbi starts to question if it should have been her that was killed instead? And if so, does that meant that the murderer will be coming after her next?

The problem I had was with the characters. First off there was Bobbi, the case worker mentioned above and one of the POV we see in this story. I would have thought that if she seriously thought that the killer was after her or that her ex Jamie had somehow found her, then why the hell didn’t she take more precautions or be wary? Then we’ve got Mike (who was the second POV) and Lena who are the two main detectives in this case and I really felt like I was missing something here. They had a relationship that seemed to develop out of no-where and he developed feelings but there was no proper backstory for this romance. I’m fine with having a secondary plot but it needs to be developed and not have things just happen out of no-where.

This took me ages to get into and I really struggled and didn’t find that it picked up until around 60%. The story just didn’t seem to flow properly when it first started. The woman that was killed was called Harriet but apparently her nickname was Rita and they started calling her this without much explanation to begin with and I was so confused. There were a lot of characters who were introduced and it difficult to keep track of who was who and who the suspects were and where the investigation was going.

I can’t speak to the series but perhaps I didn’t enjoy this as much as I had hoped. After reading quite a few crime thriller book, I just felt this one was very below par. I’ve read the other books in this series so can only comment on this book.

4.5 Stars

Detectives Mike Nelson and Lena Overton are called to investigate the brutal slashing murder of a social services worker. She wasn't scheduled to work that night .... she was covering for someone else. Bobbi thinks it should have been her. Their cars are almost identical and except for the difference in age, Bobbi resembles the murdered woman.

Working with children in dysfunctional homes, there are plenty of suspects .... mostly parents outraged that someone should make the decision to remove their children from their homes.

During the course of their investigation, they find that another social worker disappeared a year ago and has never been seen or heard from since. Is this connected to their current case?

And then another social services worker goes missing.....

When Mike and Lena uncover a wide-spread grudge against social services, they know they’re close to uncovering the killer – but can they connect the last few dots and stop him before he takes another victim?

As has been the case with other books by this author, this is a well written crime thriller. There are suspects galore, many with reason to distrust the system that should have helped them, with motives that the detectives will have to sift through. Twists and turns along the way kept this reader intrigued and was hard put to wait to see what happened next.

The characters are finely drawn, with personal lives intruding on professional ones. I would love to see more of the backstory of both detectives. They bring a little relief from the somber business of murder and I enjoyed how they interacted with each other.

Many thanks to the author / Bookouture / Netgalley for the advanced copy of this action packed novel. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Next To Die is a well written thriller that starts off with every woman's nightmare getting into her car and someone is in the back seat.
Next To die has endless characters that bogged down the flow of the story and will have readers checking back to when they were first introduced. The cast of characters each play a roll in the story that will have readers wondering who is the killer.
This is the first I have read by T. J. Brearton and I am not sure if this book was part of a series because I was lost on the relationship between Bobbie and her relationships. With that being said the story is a stand alone novel that reader can pick up but trust me will never put down.
This reader will be checking the back of her car for several months to come.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher Bookouture
#TJBrearton. #NextToDie #NetGalley

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this story and decided to give it a go. I wasn’t disappointed.

Bobbi Noelle is devastated when her co-worker Harriet is murdered. She’s terrified as she believes that she was meant to be the target.

Detectives Mike Nelson and Leva Overton need to find the killer before he strikes again. They’ve got their hands full as there’s quite a few suspects.

I found this to be a well thought out and well written story. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

Good story with a few twists. Enough red herrings to keep you interested before the finale

Thank you to NetGalley for this advance copy, which I received for an honest review. I enjoyed this book, it has exactly the recipie for a perfect book in my eyes - a hideously brutal murder, which is described in graffic detail, relatable characters, a glimpse into the world of child protective services, all mixed in with some twists and turns! My only criticism would be the ending appeared slightly rushed. A good read, unique plot line and extremely well written. Recommend.

This is a brilliant book. It is a very dark thriller that I really enjoyed. A real page turn with an exciting plot. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and T.J. Brearton for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

I must start by saying why have I not heard of this author before now? I AM GUTTED! What a brilliant author and story, I feel like I have missed out massively now on his previous stories but never mind, I will catch up. A new favourite author to look forward too.

Anyway, woah! What a brilliant opening to this story even if it is a little dark and full on. It just pulls the reader straight in and then you’re trapped till you’ve finished, sorry. I found it a fast paced, easy read but some chapters were a bit too long for my liking. But it is a bloody brilliant story with an action packed, explosive ending that will make your jaw drop. I awarded a well deserved four stars.

A cleverly written story and plot! I did not expect the outcome at all, a true shocker. This story has made me realise how cr*p I would actually be at solving cases! I would highly recommend Next To Die to you all!

*This is the review I will be using on the blog blitz.. date 17th Feb.*