Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While the story wasn't anything I haven't read before and follows pretty much the same MO as most mystery, suspense etc books, there was still something tickling good about this book. The best part of the book is the characters that Keith Houghton has created. His lead character, Maggie is intense but he balances here out with two other characters.
The premise of the book is familiar to me, a hard homicide detective (Maggie) is called to investigate remains of a young woman. They identify it as a counsler but Maggie is positive its someone from her past who she thought was dead nearly 20 years ago.
Her hunt for the truth reminds her of a HS trick and she's off an running on a case that she is took close too and is personal for her.

Again, it follows the same format as most mysteries, with the obvious person being the twist, but the characters are interesting to read. Even though you can guess the ending, its still a very entertaining read!

This book was brilliant from beginning to end! Lots of twists and turns. I am sure there will be another book to follow this one, certainly hope so.

Homicide detective Maggie Novak has caught a murder case, a woman whose body has been badly burned and whom has been identified as Dana Cullen, school counselor. But Maggie notices something on the body, something that makes her believe that the body may actually belong to her old friend from school, Rita, who supposedly burned to death twenty years before. Could Rita have actually been alive all that time? And if so, why is she dead now, in a manner identical to the one that was supposed to have killed her two decades earlier? Houghton captures all the weird and wonderful things we love to hate and hate to love about the Sunshine State, along with a gruesome murder and decades old murder mystery

I really enjoyed this, Maggie is a great character, determined to find the killer of her childhood friend despite it making her face her past. Finding her friend who she thought had died 20 years previously makes her question everything she has been through. I really didn't expect the twist at the end!!

Very good suspense book with a few good twists. Ending was a definite surprise. At times some of the book had to be skimmed because of all the typical police who did what but it didn’t take away from the story Good characters and plot. Would definitely recommend. Thank you netgalley for letting me give an honest review of this book.

When it comes to murder-mystery crime novels, Don't Even Breathe by Keith Houghton is up there as one of the good ones.

This is a genre I'm always very wary of reading; when written well, murder mysteries can be haunting and grip at your mind. But, unfortunately, this genre is also stock piled with books that just aren't good. Every murder mystery I've ever read at some point in time falls into into the same-old same-old cliches... and this book is no exception to that.

Yes, I have admitted this novel does have its cliches,

Like the classic "I don't have time for a personal life, I'm all tunnel vision work-only" detective, the "The best friend was the killer the whole time???!" trope, the epilogue/first chapter is the killer's thoughts, and the SUPER classic investigation-forces-detective-to-confront-her-past plot line.

And yes, these cliches definitely weigh down this novel

But, I will give the author credit still. For one, I was thoroughly entertained reading it, and as soon as Maggie found the "Leave me alone" note I definitely couldn't put the book down.

Maggie, the lead detective in the story, is definitely very....intense. But, her character is well balanced out with Nic and Loomis's light personalities that give the comedic relief.

One thing I loved about this book was the diversity. The cast wasn't cookie-cutter; it featured characters with vitiligo, characters born in South Africa, characters raised in New York streets, and all different sets of personalities: goth, preppy, intense, light, funny. The diverse set of characters brought so much life into this story, so many different backgrounds and specialties, I loved it.

Overall, I would recommend this story. As far as cliches, I have never read a murder mystery that didn't fall into them; and Keith definitely makes it up with fantastic characters and chair gripping fight scenes.