The synopsis is interesting, which is why I requested it, but I couldn't get into this book. It was too slow paced in the writing for my taste and I lost interest.

Notes:
The author did amazon job on bring this case to life as well as the research that went in to this case, going into I had already knew a bit about it but not a hole lot and the author was able to make this case more real then some of the true crime shows that I watched that talked about.
Its very informative and detailed account of exhaustive investigative police work in search of truth. As well as showing how far people go to keep a dark secret like this one and thank that they can get away with it.
As for the written of it, its well written, evenly paced and it had me hooked from the start.
With that said I want to give a big thanks to the publisher Kensington Books , the author M. William Phelps and to Net Galley for letting me read and review

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

Another winner from this author. He never disappoints. Precise information that keeps you engaged. Good read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of tahis book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on my review.

Thank you, Netgalley, for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Disclaimer: I had not heard about this mystery before I received the ARC for this book. It did sound like a story I saw on Investigation Discovery at some point, meaning the story sounded familiar.

What I liked most about this book was the detective...Chief Laura Frizzo! Man, this woman is as persistent as they come! Chris Sr. and his son are lucky to have had someone on their case who really wanted to solve this mystery! I could absolutely see other detectives just throwing in the towel and this case turning into a cold case as a result. I'm glad that Chris and Chris Sr.'s friends got at least some answers to their questions. This book was well-researched and well-written. I have to be hones there and admit that I listened to the audio instead of reading the ebook. I listened to it during one of my morning runs. This was a great audio for that. I'm usually more interested in more gruesome crimes and how they were solved. While this was more on the mysterious than on the gruesome side, it was still a great true story to read about.

Well written and researched. The crime is explained as best it can be considering those responsible are pathological liars.
My only gripe is that some of the interviews are exhaustive and so repetitious they add nothing but distraction from the flow of the crime details.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and chose to provide an honest review.

This is a true crime story that occurred October 2014. Chris Regan, known to be a devoted father to his two children, a war hero, a dependable, reliable employee, just up and disappeared.

When investigators learn that he had been involved romantically with a married co-worker, the woman's husband became the prime suspect into what law officers were calling murder. Shortly after Kelly Cochran's husband, Jason, was named, they abruptly up and moved to another state.

Some months after, Jason Cochran was found dead from a drug overdose. But the medical examiner called it homicide, leaving Kelly acting strangely.

It gets really curious when investigators find that Kelly's life is nothing but lies held together with secrets.

This is a must read for all true crime aficionados. Well written, evenly paced, the author leaves nothing out. I remember this case from newspapers and never realized how much wasn't told at the time. The details are exceptional.

Many thanks to the author / Kensington Books / Netgalley or the digital copy of this compelling true crime story. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Father and son had decided to make a brand new beginning in Asheville, NC. But it was not to be because of a female psychopath. And what a psychopath! Holy cow! So manipulative, so narcissistic. If only she had put her brain to good use. Phelps is one of my favorite go-to true crime authors ever. I have many of his books and they always have a twist. This one didn't disappoint!

A well written and researched true crime novel that reads as fiction...meaning it never became boring or tedious. M William Phelps obviously spent time making sure the reader could see each person and make their own judgement on the way the cases were handled. I enjoyed this book. I'm definitely looking for more titles from this author.

This was a pretty good read. Definitely in my wheelhouse of what books interest me. I don’t want to give too much away in my review but I definitely enjoyed this book.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

I love true crime...most I am reading now are more of wrongful convictions and their exonerations...but this book drew my attention because she is a Purdue grad...and hadn't heard this story...

I give total credit to the officers who defied the majority of opinion and pushed forward knowing that they felt these were the correct people who committed the crime(s) ...normally I don't like to read this...it seems too often that centering on suspects only leads to more wrongful convictions....but this time ...the feelings brought the right conclusion...these two were just horrible animals...sick and disgusting...ravenous...

the book is excellently written ...with great details...in a orderly way that allowed following the case..the only part I didn't like was that the son...who was supposed to meet his father never was brought back into the story...I assume he didn't want to be...but it is the follow up ...those interviews ...the after the trial ...that really brings it all together...I will follow up on the internet ...but would have gladly read longer to have the follow up...

but the book was so good...I do want to look for more books by this author...totally good read!

This was a decent read, but the Author assumed the reader knew a lot beforehand about this case. I had honestly never heard of it before. The writing was choppy as well, but I would still recommend it.

Interesting true crime story. The story starts out from the point of view of the father and the son. I would have liked to known more about how the son felt during the investigation and afterwards.

This true crime story just missed the mark for me. It's hard to say exactly how, but it primarily had to do with the fact that the author seems to assume from the get-go that the reader knows who the killer is. Maybe that's unfair of me to assume, but this isn't the kind of true crime narrative I like to read. I like it when the story unfolds, as in a novel, and doesn't hit me over the head (no pun intended) with what the author thinks is obvious. I wasn't familiar with this case, and didn't know who the characters were before I started reading it. But I had to assume I knew who the murderer was, only because the author treated me, the reader, as if I did.

This wasn't a terrible book. The writing style was choppy at times and disjointed, and I found myself getting bored with trudging through it. But there were details that I was curious about, so I worked my way through it. In all, it was a fair attempt at telling what was probably a really interesting story. I just didn't quite enjoy reading it all that much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. 3 stars.

This book by M. William Phelps starts out very rocky. In fact the first page or two are difficult to follow in terms of locations mentioned etc. The book is still trying to find its sea legs 15 pages on but it gets much, much better as it progresses. When Phelps gets on a writing roll he's very good. This is a scary and horrifying story. Phelps brings all of it out in the open at precisely the correct pace. The female perpetrator in this case is one of the scariest characters I have ever read about. She was enough to make Anton LaVey take a hike.
Astonishing that a normal middle class American family could produce a psychopath like her is a dumbfounding mystery. She needs to be studied by competent people. Terrifying.

I found the write-up extremely sedentary and counter-productive to getting to the bottom of things and getting to the truth. I'm not even sure the entire body of Mr. Chris Regan Snr. was ever found or any of the supposed 'victims' of the alleged 'serial killing duo' were ever corroborated as having been identified as real people or confirmed as missing or dead. This made the book a bit of a stretch and unreliable. To top it all of, even the murder itself, the reason for it and the act of it is unbelievable, because the police do not really know what happened to Mr. Regan and they have zero evidence of the crime itself (the only thing they have is the skull and bits and pieces of bones and that too courtesy the most unreliable witness / killer / co-conspirator / abettor ever). So I don't know what the point of this book is other than to praise the retired female police chief and the former lead detective - who fell in love with each other during the course of this investigation which turned out to be their last!

Why write a book when you don't have the complete facts and don't know anything? I just googled 'Kelly Cochran' and 'Chris Regan' and a bunch of unsubstantiated rumors, innuendo-filled documentaries came up. This is all a very wrong approach to true crime and factual reporting.

Most of all, what peeved me was that when finally the investigators do find Mr. Regan's skull, no mention is made of what injuries, if any, the skull showed (apart from any environmental deterioration). Was he even shot in the head? Because the author certainly doesn't give you the forensics on that. Or do I have to google that too?

First of all I love Mr Phelps books. I love his writing style . Very well researched . If you like your true crime books I highly recommend that you get this one . You wont be disappointed. Very detailed and had you wanting to know whats happening next.

You may be shocked to know that at times real life stories about murders can actually be more gory and brutal than those written about in fiction. To cap it off, they don’t necessarily happen in the big cities. They can happen in nondescript small towns all over America. M. William Phelp’s “Where Monsters Hide” is one such book. If violence and a lot of blood shed put you off, you can skip this book! This is a true crime story pieced together by the well-known investigative journalist and New York times best-selling author, M. William Phelps. The book is based on his in-depth research into true crime with a special interest in solving mysteries of those reported missing. Data shows that many of those listed missing are never found again. A fair proportion of these people, young and old, male and female, are later discovered to have been killed.

One such case is covered in great detail in this book. An US Air Force veteran aged 53 called Chris Regan goes missing one day in October 2014 in Iron River, a small town in Michigan. Laura Frizzo, the Chief of Police is intrigued about the man’s sudden disappearance more so because early investigations showed that he and his son, who lived in another town, had planned to shift to a new location in North Carolina only a few days later. As the investigations picks up steam, suspicion falls on Jason Cochran, a known drug addict who is prone to depression and alleged to have a violent past. Later, Chief Frizzo wonders if Jason’s wife Kelly has more to do with the case that she makes out to be. Kelly it is learnt, was the girl friend of Chris Regan, the man who went missing. Indeed, they had been together shortly before he vanished.

In her investigation, Chief Frizzo is helped by Detective Jeremy Ogden of the Hobart Police Department . They are persistent despite coming across many obstacles in their investigation not the least of all being Kelly Cochran herself. She is well-educated yet street smart and is a smooth talker. The case takes a twist when Jason Cochran is found dead, allegedly due to an overdose of drugs. The investigators want to know whether his was a natural death or was he killed? If he was killed, did his wife Kelley have anything to do with the murder? And of course, was he killed because he knew too much about his wife’s affair with Chris Regan, the man still untraced?

Overall, the book is interesting. It explains in considerable detail the difficulties involved in solving such extremely complex cases. It delves into the minds of psychopaths, giving you an understanding of why it is more difficult to deal with them and bring them to justice. I shall not spoil the book by telling you what actually happened to Chris Regan and later to Jason Cochran. For this, you would need to read this book for yourself!

I thought the author had a story that would leave everyone shocked, surprised, and wanting to read all through the night. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

If you love true crime then this is a tale for you. I honestly had never heard of this case or Kelly Cochran or Chris Regan but now I know a lot about them. A female serial killer automatically puts this book into a category of its own but what she did and how she did it lets her story stand alone. As I read the book and the details of her killing came up I was horrified thinking about the way she slaughtered her prey. Parts of this book were like reading a police report while other parts were written to make you feel like you were actually in the room.
I couldn't give this book 5 stars and I debated the 4 stars....its more like a 3 1/2. The reason is that there were times I would end up skimming info to get to the point and other times I wasn't sure why the info was even included...…
Overall the unicorn that is the female serial killer will bring you in and keep you reading.....Kelly is definitely not your everyday woman.