Oo y’all!!! This book was crazy good! Honestly the suspense and storyline was fantastic. Definitely read it!

I would like to thank NetGalley, Kensington Books and author Charlie Donlea for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

This is my first book by Charlie Donlea, and I must now go back and read all of the others! I loved the cover of this novel, that’s what initially drew me in. I was then enthralled from page one all the way through until the end. This was super suspenseful and spooky, two of my favorite things. Also, anything including boarding/prep schools and murder is bound to be good, right? I was unaware this was a sequel, but it didn’t affect my reading at all.

Thank you to those named above for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I have a confession to make....This is my first Charlie Donlea novel. *Gasps*

When two teenage boys are found on the grounds of a prestigious boarding school murdered in horrific fashion it is believed their chemistry teacher that they were tormenting finally enacted his revenge. When the remaining survivors of that night are drawn back to the same spot to commit suicide it attracts the attention of a podcast host, a reporter, and also Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionist, along with her partner Lane Phillips, a psychological profiler, from Donlea's last novel and first book of this series, Some Choose Darkness.

"This wasn't a couple of kids screwing around. This was a goddamn slaughter."

That line is all Donlea needed to say to get my attention and my attention he had until the very end. My only one complaint is that I struggled to keep all of the characters straight. I had to flip back and forth on more than one occasion. Of course with such a large cast of characters I had made so many assumptions as to whodunnit and I was wrong every time. Well played, indeed! 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So, this book had sooooo many things that should have bugged me.

• Flashbacks. So. Many. Flashbacks.
• Quirky characters. Seriously quirky.
• The old – exclusive private school with secrets plot.

And…I loved it.

The book is extremely suspenseful, with good spooky undertones. The mystery was well-crafted. No cheating, but the author managed to surprise me more than once. And when certain mini-reveals came, the author sent my suspicions spinning in so many directions!

I also loved our characters, quirky bits and all. I adore Rory. She’s so…not like me at all. I just loved her. I also love her partner, Lane. I would read them again and again and again.

Yeah, I really loved this book and I’m so on board for the next book featuring these characters!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

Exactly the kind of thriller I needed to distract me from this pandemic.

I have loved every one of Charlie Donlea’s books and this is now my new favorite.

Now it’s time to go back to the beginning and read them all over again.

Five very enthusiastic stars!

Westmont Prep is an elite boarding school in Indiana. There is a secret society that only a few students are asked to join. They mostly play harmless pranks but one year it went to far and culminated in the death of two students. The chemistry teacher was to blame and the case closed. That is until a year later students are returning to the scene of the crime and committing suicide in the very same spot.
This story had me hooked from the first chapter. I loved seeing characters from the author's previous books make an appearance in this book. I highly recommend this thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book for review.

There are certain things in life I can count on: the NY Jets not winning the super bowl, a thunderstorm right after I wash my car, and a 5 star book from author Charlie Donlea! The Suicide House is another crazy story that will hook you and keep you guessing right through the final pages. Westmont Prep school is the setting for this thriller, where a long-time urban legend gathers several students in an abandoned house on campus for an initiation into a secret society. The scene turns grizzly, and soon involves Rory, a cold-case expert who was introduced in the last book. The chapters bounce between the time of the event one year ago and present day, and seemingly unrelated pieces of the puzzle all come together. Masterfully told, with some characters that fans will recognize returning and playing important roles. This is a fast-paced read with lots of turns and suspense, and the pages will fly by. You will not be disappointed.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Students attending Westmont Prep school are expected to live up to high academic and behavioral standards. It’s only natural that they’s look for a way to blow off steam, and they find that in an abandoned house in the woods surrounding the school. It’s a place to hang out, goof off and do any number of forbidden things. There’s only one rule – never let your candle go out or the Man in the Mirror will get you. It’s been a year since two students were killed there and a teacher convicted of the killings, but there are still questions. Predominately, why students are now using the old house as a spot to commit suicide. Enter a couple working on a podcast about the phenomenon, who soon learn a deadly h=game is being played at Westmont……

As excited as I was for this one, it just felt like it tried to do too much. The concept was intriguing, and drew me in, but the execution wasn't on point with Donlea's other work. The ending didn't work for me; it wrapped up too nicely and didn't seem to fit the rest of the story. The constant switching between character POV and story timeline also got confusing; this seemed to include too many characters and POVs to keep my attention.

That being said, and this was an issue I had in Donlea's previous book (I've read all his work and usually love them), was the constant unnecessary repetition of random details, namely the beer brand Rory drinks and her boots. At one point, the beer was mentioned three different times on the same page. It's almost as if I'm being asked to remember these details about her character more than the intriguing work she does; I know she is meant to be quirky, but I *really* don't need her beer preference every other page.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Despite having mixed feelings about this book, I look forward to Donlea's next work.

When I find out Some Choose Darkness’ sequel finally arrived and I will have another chance to read about the coolest and smartest forensics reconstructionist (let’s say: she is the expert of heating cold cases) Rory Moore and his psychologist partner Lane Philips, I screamed “Hurray” as soon as I saw the book at my virtual NG bookshelf!

And the plot was really intriguing. I always love to read about claustrophobic whodunit prep school stories about secret societies, looking in the mirror throughout their ritual, instead of calling Bloody Mary’s name, they expect to see “man in the mirror”. So spooky and dazzling, right?

Westmont Preparatory High School’s great reputation tainted with two brutal murders occurred and scandalized the entire place. After two students’ murders, a teacher is prime suspect, commits suicide but he cannot achieve to kill himself and is hospitalized, in vegetative state.

A famous crime blogger Ryder Hillier starts writing about conspiracy theories and a popular podcast host Mark Carter already stole her story and hits ratings hit the roof. And one of the students who was at the crime scene of his other viciously victimized friends decides to end his silence and he wants to confess something important to Mark, sending him coded meeting place. Of course Ryder solves the coded meeting place message faster than him. Both of them arrive at the place and find the boy committed suicide at the train tracks just like the other students and his teacher did.

When you read the long plot above, you ask the question yourself: Okay, when is going to our duo get involved with the case? This is the main problem with the book. Because in my opinion, there are too many POVS and too many characters instead of Rory and Lane in this book.
We’re going back and forth between timelines and learning more about Westmont’s six students who were together at the eerie murder night. And slowly we find out more about Gwen and Gavin, two students left behind and still alive. Both of them look suspicious and act like they got involved something shady including their friends’ deaths because they’re keeping something secret and they know their teacher wasn’t the killer.
We also read Marc McEvoy’s story who was former student of Westmont and he never recovered from getting rejected by the secret society and he knows the ritual times ( shortest and longest days of the year and June 21th is coming up!) He is obsessed to find out the secrets about Man in the mirror, at the cost of lying to his wife, acting like going to business trip and now he is missing.

And we’re also reintroduced and welcomed Gus Morelli’s cameo from “Don’t Believe It” novel’s hotshot detective ( now he’s retired, enduring the humid of Florida)
And of course we have some flashbacks about Rory’s childhood and the importance of porcelain dolls help her function more normally and adapt in normal life.
I felt like I read three different books at the same time. Maybe if it would be a book about the campus murders and podcast host’s killing case solved by crime blogger Ryder Hillier, it would be easier for me to concentrate.
But there is also Gus’s cold case story connects with the murders and another missing person’s case. There are so many questions to answer, so many POVS to read and too many characters to connect! Rory Moore hasn’t been involved in the case till the second half of the book. So many times I missed her and Lane because the other characters’ POVS and stories made me question if this was sequel of my favorite characters or if they turned into supportive characters of the story, make cameos like Gus.

I think the author’s intention was preparing us to the next books and introducing the new characters. And she wants to connect her main characters from the other books to bring out new cases and new stories.

Overall: At the end we got all the answers. There is no plot hole and even though murderer’s identity was predictable, it was great to read his background story and connections between the cases Gus and our favorite duo investigates. But I wish to read easier story with less characters. I still enjoyed and I’m charmed by my favorite duo’s returning back and I’d like to read their upcoming stories as well. But I’m cutting some points and giving 3.5 stars as always rounded up 4! (If it wasn’t for Rory and Lane, it could be three stars because this was exhausting reading!)

But I’m so hopeful about conclusion and excited about those sealed boxes!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest review.