Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is the fourth book in the series, and I think a nice conclusion to finish the series. Well written and entertaining throughout. Hope the author has another series going already.

Wow, Expire is suspenseful and edge of your seat kind of book! Great writing and well-crafted characters make this one of my favorite books.

Synopsis:
Alone, held captive, and left in the dark, a woman’s worst fears come true in this gripping thriller.

San Francisco medical examiner Annabelle Schwartzman has spent eight years looking over her shoulder. Stalked by her vengeful ex-husband, Spencer, she’s always known they’d meet again. Has her nightmare come true? Abducted, blindfolded, yoked, and tethered, she’s being held prisoner in an isolated cabin in Idaho. But it’s the unknown that terrifies Annabelle now. Because the man’s voice in the dark, though eerily familiar, is not Spencer’s.

The book held my interest. Was easy to follow even though I missed a book in this series. I got the gist of the whole picture and what had happened or was about to happen. The ending was pretty predictable.

5 stars for all the parts with Annabelle/Anna/Bella in it and 2 stars for all the other parts. Really loved how resourceful and brave and spunky she is.

I wasn't able to get into the other parts unfortunately.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for the review copy. This is my late (with apologies) but honest review.

I made the mistake of reading this book out of order but I did really enjoy it and look forward to reading the other ones in this series. Great suspenseful writing.

I made two mistakes that affected my experience of this book: I jumped in blind at the end of a series and I tried to alternate reading and audio. Needless to say, I was utterly lost and it's all my fault. That said, it's a testament to good writing that I still found this story engaging and interesting. I will go back and do it the right way, start on book 1, stick to one format and enjoy the ride.

Finally it's the end of a long story... the end of the nightmare that has haunted Anna for almost 10 years... will she finally get rid of Spencer for once and all or will he get to her 1st....
will Anna finally get her happily ever after with Hal..... in this high paced finale .... Anna has to find ways to stay alive and protect herself while Hal looks for her while trailing after Spencer.

EXPIRE by Danielle Girard is a dark psychological thriller of a woman stalked by her abusive ex husband. Now she’s kidnapped by someone else? This is a nonstop ride of emotions and you really do want to take it.

An absolutely great thriller that had me wondering what I would do if I were kidnapped and held with no hope. As the story plays out, our "bad" guy keeps just out of the light enough that we cannot figure out who he is and why he would set up a confinement like this. The race to find the good doctor and her efforts to identify her captor and free herself meet up with a bang. Danielle Girard has done an excellent job of keeping my attention tuned to Expire for the last couple of days.

Another great story in this series. This is a dark thriller that will keep you up at night. A kidnap victim is her in an unknown location by someone she does not know .. She is convinced her ex-husband is behind it but she is chained to a leash that only allows her to get to the bathroom and kitchen, and all the water and food is drugged,
how will anyone find her as she struggles to free herself before she is killed.

What a book! And what a conclusion to this series. I love that this book throws you right into the middle of the action and doesn't let you go.

Wow this book was nuts. I can't describe how suspenseful it was. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. There where a few things that I didn't actually see coming that caught me by surprise.

I highly recommend Expire if your looking for a fast paced, edge of your seat mystery thriller.

Rating 3

This book has a lot of suspense, kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I also feel the author did an amazing job with how she set up the story, she was able to switch between the characters flawlessly! The ending was action packed and cathartic. Highly recommend!

This was an awesome book!!! It was filled with mystery, thrillers and lots of suspense. There was also lots of medical and police procedure attention involved but without having an overwhelming amount where I had to look up the procedures definitions so I knew what she was talking about so I could know what was going on. It actually added more mystery to story. This is definitely on of those suspense books that you have to keep reading because you just have to know what’s going to happen next and it ended great. I made the mistake and didn’t realize that this was the fourth book in the Dr. Schwartzman Book series, which didn’t hurt in the way of understanding what was going on, but the book was so great that now I definitely need to read the first three books. I would recommend this book to all the genre categories for mystery, thriller,suspense,medical and police procedures and just anyone who wants to read a book they can’t put down. ☺️
🤓❤️📚❣️

If you are new to the series, I suggest reading the series in order. This book continues significant elements that occurred in Book3. There is sufficient background to read it as a standalone, though nuance will be muted.
Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman is a complex character embodying strength, intelligence, resiliency and survivor. Fighting to outwit and escape her abductors she must use all the resources she possesses. Hal along with the FBI search for Anna, as the story seethes with tension.

I enjoyed all 4 books in this series. I haven't read a book with a medical examiner point of view before this series and I loved how Dr. Schwartzman would describe the body and take the time to understand why the person had died. In this final installment Anna is trying to survive from her captor while Hal is on a search for her knowing what her ex-husband Spencer is capable of. I enjoyed this 4th book as much as the others and I am sad this sounds like the final book in the series. This is a type of book, mystery, crime thriller that I don't often pick up but I always knew it would be a good read when I read these 4 books. Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer publishing and Danielle Girard for the opportunity to read this book and the others in the series!

I loved the first three books in this series, but this one fell flat.

Anna Schwartzman is a medical examiner in San Francisco, and the crimes she helped solve in the three earlier books were compelling and kept me interested. The additional storyline of her abusive ex-husband pursuing her allowed for great character development for Anna and her friend-turned-lover Hal Harris, a detective with SFPD. I loved all three books, and, when the third one ended on a cliffhanger, I couldn't wait to get my hands on book 4.

But this one doesn't live up to the first three. First of all, there is only one storyline here: Anna has been kidnapped and Hal is trying to find her. I missed the crime-solving aspect of the first three books. I liked watching Anna and Hal work together, and that element is completely missing from this book.

Second, there are a bunch of threads to this story that make no sense whatsoever. Who is Caleb? What insider trading scheme? Why is Anna's mom suddenly a completely different person than the character we've met before? Either leave that stuff out of the story or explain its connection to Anna and Hal better. As it is, it's just a distraction. I even flipped back through the book to try to find what I missed -- that's how little sense it made. As it turned out, I hadn't missed a thing -- the story is just poorly written.

There's also the kidnapper's brother and mom, who are apparently living (at least some of the time) in the house where Anna is being held. Mom knows Anna is there, knows she's tethered by the neck to a track in the ceiling, and seems perfectly okay with this. Say what? I'm supposed to believe that this woman's son brought home a hog-tied woman and trussed her up in the bedroom, and she just shrugged? The brother doesn't make sense either -- unless he's going to add something to the story, why introduce him at all?

Then there's the drugged water. Anna finds that her kidnapper is drugging the tap water -- she can see the little tank outside that holds the drug, and finds where it feeds into the water line. Then she finds that somehow the shower water and bathroom sink water are also drugged. Huh? Are there three tanks holding drugs? And what kidnapper is going to drug the freaking shower? It's so ridiculous it took me right out of the story.

But the worst part is that this book turns Hal into a sniveling crybaby, and I hate that. I love his character, and I loved watching him and Anna fall in love. Hal is NOT a crybaby -- he's a detective, for crying out loud, and he gets stuff done. But he spends this whole book whining about all the help he's not getting and how helpless he feels. I get that, but it's so out of character.

Hal is also forced to spend some time solving another crime for his actual job, rather than looking for Anna. At first I thought this was going to be the author's way of introducing a compelling crime narrative alongside the Anna storyline. But that didn't happen at all -- we scarcely knew there WAS a crime. It was exactly what Hal said it was -- something he had to do that took time away from the search for Anna. So why introduce it (and the substitute medical examiner) at all? Just another weird stub of story that didn't even need to be there.

Overall, I really disliked this book, and that made me sad, since I had loved the first three so much. If you've read the first three, you're going to want to read this one, if for no other reason than the cliffhanger from book 3. Otherwise? Don't waste your time.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a Kindle ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

That ending... It was perfect. And even so, I cried. Reading the story was a roller coaster ride with a lot of fear. Fear for Anna, but also for Hal and even for Georgia. Everything felt really dark for a while and I could only hope for someone figuring it out and help. So, there was a lot of holding my breath, calming my racing heart and taking deep breaths. I read the book in one sitting. It’s impossible to put it down, it grips you from the start and all you can do is hanging on for the ride.

This is book 4 in the series and picks up exactly where Expose finishes. I would definitely recommend reading these in order otherwise you might miss out on how horrendous Spencer is. I liked how this one tied everything up but I preferred the other 3. I think it was because this one lacked the crime-solving element. They added in a secondary crime to distract Hal but we didn’t get much information on it and it was all tied up pretty quick.

It was a bit slow in places as well, especially with how much detail and time was spent on Anna finding non drugged water. It got a bit repetitive and dull.

That being said it was a good finale. I absolutely adore Anna and Hal and they are such an adorable couple. The suspense of wondering if and how Anna was going to escape and if Hal was going to be able to find her in time made it an exciting read. The ending was the explosive and dramatic ending I needed.

I would love to get to see Anna fighting crime without the threat of Spencer. If you love crime books featuring a medical examiner then I highly recommend this series. They are written so well and have some loveable characters.

I received a copy of the ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review