Thanks to Macmillan Press and Netgalley for an advanced ecopy of Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a great thriller. It hooked me from the very first page and held my attention all the way to the end. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, it was almost a wasted Netgalley since I plan to buy it anyway.

Two parents and their two youngest children die mysteriously while on a vacation in Mexico. The family's only surviving direct members are the two oldest sons, one at college in New York City and one in prison for life for the murder of a teenaged girlfriend that happened in high school.

As the book unfolds, the reader learns that the father always believed in his son's innocence of the murder and was on a years long quest to prove it. He had become so obsessed that his marriage had begun to suffer. The only other member of the family who fully supported him and helped as she could was the teenaged daughter.

Now, as the only member of the family not dead or in prison, Matt is living with a lot of guilt and confusion as to why he survived, and for the way his own relationship with his father had suffered as a result of his anger over his father's fanatical quest to prove Matt's brother's innocence. When he learns that the FBI considers his family's death suspicious despite Mexico ruling it an accident, he starts doing some digging into what his family could have been doing that might have made themselves vulnerable to a powerful enemy. We learn the mom was keeping secrets of her own. The daughter had just been sexually assaulted. The father was so despondent over the seeming hopelessness of seeing his son freed that he had become suicidal....but he had also lost his job and was so broke he wasn't sure how he was going to make ends meet very soon.

There were layers of mystery to peel back throughout most of the novel. I loved how real the characters were, but still I wanted to root for them. It was a refreshing change from so many novels that have unlikeable leads that are difficult to root for. I don't know how exactly to explain it, but this almost had the feel of an old-school thriller from back in my early days of becoming addicted to the genre. I think it is because as dark as the crime was, many of the lead characters were shown in a mostly positive way instead of only highlighting everyone's dark sides.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers and is in the mood for a fast-past-keep-you-readiing-way-past-bedtime novel!

Matt Pine is a college student who has just learned that nearly his entire family has died while on a get-away vacation in Mexico. The police rule it an accident but some of the pieces just don’t add up. With the help of an FBI agent, Matt begins the arduous task of claiming his family for burial and coming to grips with past events that have enveloped them since his older brother was convicted of murdering his girlfriend.

Every Last Fear is a twisty, fast-paced story that uses several points of view, as well as past and present timelines. The story is well-written and the characters are well-drawn. The addition of Matt’s university friends is brilliant and such a good addition to the overall story. This debut novel is a polished thriller that also deals with family tragedies, emotions, friendships, and hope. It is a compelling book that will stay with the reader long after the last page.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Thank you so much @Minotaur_Books & @NetGalley for giving me this physical ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 02 March 2021)

SYNOPSIS | The Pine family was made infamous by the true crime documentary "A Violet Nature" which chronicled the conviction of the oldest son (Danny) for the murder of his girlfriend (Charlotte). Danny's father never believed this is what actually happened and continued to investigate the death leading him & his family to Tulum, Mexico where they all died in a suspected gas leak.

WHAT I LIKED:
- short snappy chapters were perfectly bingeable
- multiple POV worked perfectly as we as readers try to piece together what happened
- twisty story including lots of red herrings and misdirection

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the villainous monologue explaining why & how they did what they did
- the timeline jumped back and forth a bit too much for my liking

What a thrilling ride! This book is an action-packed, twisty thriller that hooks you from the word go.
I read this book when I was going through a major reading slump and this one got me out of it and how.
I could not put it down.

The story is told in the past and present.
The Pine family's eldest son, Danny, is convicted of killing his girlfriend although a documentary has made a compelling argument that the crime could have been the work of a serial killer and how Danny was coerced into confessing for the crime.

Danny's brother, Matt tries to stay under the radar but everything changes when he is notified that his parents and sister and younger brother are dead whilst vacationing in Mexico.

Matt heads there when he is notified that the FBI has doubts about their deaths not being an accident and that's when things spiral.

With the alternate turns in the story; the past and present one gets to know Danny and the family and one is completely entrenched.

This is a fast-paced story with believable and well-etched characters. The plotting and pacing of the story is extremely gripping.

This was a satisfying read which had me racing and turning the pages because I could not get enough.
I finished the book in a couple of hours because I needed to know what happens.

Definitely recommend this to all thriller fans.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Every last fear is probably the best book I have read this year! A thriller that will keep you turning pages just as quickly as you can. Highly recommend picking up Alex Finlay's latest!

I'll admit that I wasn't as enthusiastic about this one in the first few chapters. There are a lot of cliched characters in this book and it felt like it took a long time to get to the central premise of the mystery. The story begins as Matt Pine discovers that his family has been found dead on a vacation in Mexico, which the Mexican authorities initially rule an accident, but that is only where the story begins. The Pines have been in the news before, primarily because Matt's brother, Danny, is in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend. Danny has always claimed he was innocent of the crime and most of the Pine family has spent the last several years fighting to get him a new trial or have him released from prison. Ultimately, the plot line with Danny is what puts the rest of the events in motion, but he plays very little active role in the story itself. The story is told in varying perspectives from Matt in the present, and his father, his mother, and his sister's points of view in the past. Each are experiencing the hardships of Danny's incarceration in different ways. I predicted the killer at about the 60% mark and accurately assessed the killer's motives at that time as well. The FBI presence didn't feel necessary and some of their actions are nonsensical (such as flying Matt out to the prison in a helicopter to make him inform his brother of the deaths). I gave it three stars and would recommend it to thriller readers, but it wouldn't be my first recommendation for them.

I really didn't appreciate the way"The Mexicans" were talked aboutt. So much derugatory language that I didn't like.
I got quite far into the book and just couldn't make any more. It was boring and the mystery wasn't that great.

One of 2021’s most anticipated debut thrillers that deserves all the attention.

4.25/5

Matt Pine, a student at NYU is at a party, while his whole family - dad, mom, younger brother & sister are vacationing off in Mexico. He receives a harrowing news after the party - his family is dead in a freak accident. Matt, one minute ago had a family! Now he has no one; not no one, his elder brother Danny Pine is in prison for murdering his girlfriend. Responsibility fall into Matt’s hands to inform Danny and collect his family from Mexico while dealing with the shocking news!

The story alters between past and present, presenting with the povs of all the family members about the crime that Danny supposedly did. Its all documented because there is a true crime show that investigated the said crime, thereby drawing unwanted publicity to the family and the neighbourhood. I felt sad for Matt having lost everyone, but I was also rooting for him to find out the truth of what really happened to his family in Mexico and truth about Danny. The twists were good, but not totally unexpected.

Overall a thriller that would grip you from the start and never let you go until you finish it! Amazing debut!

This is my own honest opinion. Thank you Minotaur books & Netgalley for the arc.

I was really impressed with Every Last Fear. Finlay has created a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat through the entire story. I will be very excited to see what he writes next.

Every Last Fear is the story of a family with different perspectives. Matt, the middle child is attending NYU when most of his family is murdered while on vacation. His older brother is in prison for murdering his girlfriend. Although Matt resents his older brother and thinks he is guilty, the rest of the family has been working to exonerate him, especially his dad and sister. Then when one crazy clue leads the family to Tulum - disaster strikes. Matt is left on his own to sort out the pieces, discovery why his family was really in Mexico, and he becomes involved in a high stakes race to solve the mystery and stay alive.

The book is well-paced and full of just the right amount of action. The dual mysteries - that of the murdered girlfriend - and the new mystery of the murdered family are really interesting and the plot lines are well-woven in the end. Characters were interesting and well developed - I loved the female FBI agent - but my favorite character is the younger sister - a detective in the making. It was extremely sad that her life was cut short.

If you want a good thriller to roll into the weekend, I recommend this one!

Thanks to Minotaur Books, NetGalley, and the author for my early copy so that I could provide my honest review.

An intriguing book. Matt Pine returns to his dorm one night after partying and receives the devastating news that his family has been found dead from a gas leak while on vacation. Local police have declared it to be an accident. However, other authorities think otherwise and do not plan to express reason to Matt. For sure, Matt has many challenges ahead that he will have to solve. The story was entertaining, but I did dislike the descriptions of Mexico. I felt uncomfortable, as the book included several non-positive stereotypes. However, it did intrigue me, and I felt curious to know what would happen next. Except for those details, I did enjoy the story. I thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

A debut thriller about a family made famous by a Netflix true crime documentary... After Danny Pine is put in prison for bludgeoning his girlfriend to death, the Pine family is put into the spotlight with a documentary made about the case. Danny's father and younger sister are tireless in the pursuit of truth and freeing Danny. A number of years later, Danny's younger brother Matt is attending college in NYC and is informed one night that his father, mother, sister and younger brother have been found dead from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning while on vacation in Mexico. Their deaths bring the Pine family back into the headlines. An FBI agent lets Matt know that she doesn't think their deaths were accidental. Matt starts to think that his family's deaths are related to Danny's case.

The novel shifts between multiple perspectives and moves back and forth in time. There are snippets from the documentary, Matt's perspective, the lead FBI agent and other members of The Pine family. This was a fast paced story offering up a lot of information that all coalesced in the end. There were lots of twists and action along the way. If you like thrillers, Alex Finlay is definitely an author to watch.

What to listen to while reading...
Numb by Linkin Park
Meet Me in the Woods by Lord Huron
Little Dark Age by MGMT
This Mess We're In by PJ Harvey & Thom Yorke
All I Think About Now by Pixies

Breathtakingly fast paced with a very original,plot. Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

Multiple POVs allow the reader to experience the intricacies of each person’s involvement in events.

You know this book is good to be an award winner from the first line: “They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” That line grabs the reader and it doesn’t let go until the final line: “Then she and the men charged out the door.” We can only hope that is not the ending but the beginning of the second book in a series.

This may be a spoiler but the suspense and mystery continue throughout the entire book. As it switches POV, the author drops tidbits and pieces of information are revealed. They may fit the puzzle or they may be a red herring. Either way, they are delicious. The reader can anticipate being surprised by where the story goes.

Definitely recommend reading.


I received an ARC from St. Martin Press through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

This was heading into 5-Star territory until that ending...ugh. I can't really expand on that without giving away spoilers, so I will just say that I think the story needed a few more chapters to flesh the ending out more. I feel like the "why" explanation was rushed and glossed over. However, that aside, this was an amazing debut novel. It was fast-paced. Engaging. An extensive cast of characters and POVs that keep the mystery moving along, and yours truly guessing right up to the end.

So overall, I enjoyed it. I just wish the author had given us a bit more in the ending.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

What a novel by Alex Finlay! Lately, I have read a lot of mystery/thrillers that have been underwhelming, and I have lost faith in the genre, but this has restored it.

There are two mysteries going on in this novel. We follow Matt in present day when he learns that his mother, father, brother, and sister are found dead in Mexico while they are on vacation. Is it a suicide or a murder? We also learn that his other brother is in prison accused of murder. His whole family has been obsessed with trying to find the real killer. Did his brother really kill a girl? How did his other family die?

I really thought that this was a good mystery as we bounce back and forth between past and present. There were a couple of moments that pulled me out of the story, but mostly I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I liked Matt as a character. I felt like he was more real than a lot of characters I have read. A couple of the family members had me seriously frustrated, but overall. I gave this one four stars.

Every Last Fear tells the story of Matt Pine in the aftermath of finding out that his entire family has been killed in Mexico. This tragedy coming on the heels of a documentary coming out looking at his brothers murder conviction case.

While many problems have come up with the rhetoric of this book that I agree with, I thought the story itself was good. Fans of Ozark on Netflix will enjoy this one. I was entertained the whole time and did not predict the ending. I wish certain things had been explored more and obviously that some things were done differently but overall, I was intrigued, it kept my interest, and I ended up liking the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for a review. This debut novel started out very promising. It had a gripping opening that drew me in for sure! I love a book that includes other forms of media and in this case it revolved around a true crime documentary and included parts of the documentary within the book. In my opinion there was too much jumping around. From one chapter to the next we were jumping to before the murder and then after the murder and we were also jumping back and forth between several different points of view. It was all just a little too much. I did really enjoy the aspect of the "dark side" of things like true crime documentaries. It really brought home that point that no matter what we are watching, even if it's a documentary, we are still only seeing what the producers want to see; no matter how skewed that truth may be. I also did have this book figured out fairly early on so it was a bit of a disappointment. Overall this was a 3 out of 5 for me because the story itself was a really good story.

This book came with so many glowing reviews, I couldn't help but be excited to read it, I really wanted to like this more than I did, but it just fell short for me.

"They found the bodies on a Tuesday." What a great opening line! And the story itself was interesting, but soon the faults really started overwhelming any good points. I really didn't like the way the book was structured. The chunks of documentary script interrupted the story and didn't add much to the plot for me. There were major sections of story that just didn't seem realistic at all. I didn't really connect with any of the characters, and for the most part, they just fell flat for me. The one exception to that rule was Agent Keller. She and her family were really a small bright spot in this book. But worst of all, in my opinion, was the not so subtle stereotypes and racism. Finlay's portrayal of Mexicans was particularly problematic.

I'm grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy of Every Last Fear in return for my honest opinion.

EVERY LAST FEAR
Alex Finlay
Minotaur Books
ISBN 9781250268822
Hardcover
Mystery/Thriller

It is always enjoyable to discover a new kid on the reading block, so to speak, and to pass the word on to your friends. May I accordingly introduce Alex Finlay, whose debut novel EVERY LAST FEAR has folks discussing it in the best of terms? EVERY LAST FEAR straddles a number of subgenres in the mystery and thriller categories while providing a number of puzzles that will keep you reading all night to untangle.

EVERY LAST FEAR begins with four members of a family being discovered in Mexico at a vacation rental. The stark opening sentence of the book --- I’m not going to give it away --- sinks the reader hook in seven words. We learn quickly enough that the deceased are Olivia --- “Liv” --- the mother, Evan the father, Maggie the high school senior, and Tommy, the young post-toddler surprise. They are survived by Matt, who is attending college in New York, and Danny who is doing hard time in prison for a young woman’s murder which he insists he did not commit. It does not appear that Danny is going to be released anytime soon, given that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected his final appeal, notwithstanding support for his case from everyone from an Innocents-type organization to the daughter of the President of the United States. Matt, who is estranged from Danny, has the task of informing his brother of their family’s death before being traveling down to Mexico to reclaim the bodies of his family members, where he encounters a bit of resistance that he does not understand. There is also a wrinkle in the matter, being that what initially was considered to be a tragic accident that claimed his family members is beginning to look as if it might be a deliberate homicide. The question becomes as much why someone would do this --- setting it up to look like an accident --- as well as who might have done it. An extremely tenacious FBI agent is wondering if someone from the accounting firm which used to employ Evan (before summarily firing him) might have something to do with it, particularly because she is currently investigating the same firm for its possible connections to a Mexican drug cartel. In the meantime the narrative ping-pongs back and forth in time from the period leading up to the deaths of the Pine family to the book’s present. Some information is revealed to the reader before Matt and his bureau agent learn of it, but for the most part everyone is in the dark until the very end, when a series of explosive revelations change everything, for better or worse.

EVERY LAST FEAR, despite its grim subject matter (or maybe because of it), is a fun book to read with a propelling story that surrounds a compelling mystery or two. Some readers may have a bit of trouble with the almost constant churn between the past and present and character point of view, although Finlay clearly marks off the when and who in the narrative. It certainly works as a tool to build suspense in the story while demonstrating that Finlay should have a bright future in the thriller world. I’ll look forward to his next book. Recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2021, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.