The opening line of this book completely sucked me in: "They found the bodies on a Tuesday." And from there, the story took off. I enjoyed "Every Last Fear," especially the intertwining story lines and time jumps.

Certain scenes and dialogue went on a bit longer than I thought was needed to build the story and it slowed it down for me. Specifically Matt's college friend group - there was a lot of time spent explaining their backgrounds and in the end, there is one woman who he ends up with romantically but that seemed to come out of nowhere for me.

While the conclusion of the book is dark and could be upsetting to some, you are still left with a satisfying end to the twists and turns of this engaging thriller.

All the stars!! One of the best thrillers I have read in awhile! With that opening line of “The found the bodies on a Tuesday” I was intrigued but it did start off a tiny bit slow but then it took off and I could not put it down! It is fantastic, even though it tore me to pieces with Matt losing his family. Finlay gives the characters so much depth and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I’m already ready for the next Alex Finlay book please! Highly recommend this book!!

This is a crime thriller. Danny has an argument with his girlfriend at a party and then his girlfriend is found dead. Danny is immediately arrested and he confesses to the murder. But there is something wrong and his family notices. They don't believe that Danny has committed the murder. They start investigating but they all end up dead except for Danny and his brother Matt.
I found this book pretty interesting. The plot twists were good and the pace was quite consistent.

This was definitely one of the most compelling thrillers I've read in awhile. It was a bit cheesy and at times felt like a silly action movie, but I loved the documentary element of the story.

The first sentence captivated me from the start. This book was face paced and a quick read that had me second guessing everything. Matt Pine has some real bad luck. Years ago, his brother Danny was sentenced to prison for murdering his girlfriend and his family broke. His dad and sister never stopped fighting for Danny's innocence and ultimately that is what lead them to Mexico.
Evan Pine, Danny's dad, will never give up on his son. He is determined to prove that he did not murder his girlfriend all those years ago. Evan has become a shell of himself, trying to find justice for his son. When he takes the family to Mexico for answers, he never expects to find such sinister dealings.
Matt is told that his father, mother and two younger siblings are murdered in Mexico and in searching for what happened to them, this opens up the investigation for Matt to find out what truly happned all those years ago.
This book is told from multiple POV, including the FBI agent assigned to the case. She is not only trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the Pine family in Mexico, but what really happened with Danny and Charlotte.
There are so many twists and turns in this one, and a lot of little nuggets left for you to make sense of later. The real star of this show was Maggie, the seventeen year old sister that never gave up on her brother. I did enjoy the read, but I also felt like it was a little scattered. I saw the ending coming, but there were definitely some twists I didn't see. I would be very interested to read more by this author.
Thank you to Netgalley, Minotaur and the author for an early copy.

Thanks Netgalley for an early copy of EVERY LAST FEAR, by Alex Finlay. I must admit I hate novels where children die, so I was angry through out the entire time I was reading this story. That being said I liked the writing style and it kept my attention and I was satisfied with the ending.

Woah...did not expect this at all!

The bodies were found on Tuesday.

Matt Pine was living his best life until one terrible night when he was 14 years old. It all happened so fast, one minute his brother is a free man, the next, he is being arrested for the murder of his girlfriend...how could things get any worse. His family doesn’t believe Danny did it. He would never hurt anyone, yet everyone hated the pines after a documentary about Danny’s arrest is released’A Violent Nature’ and they are left to fend for themselves. So they dig for clues on their own, but it destroys them as years go by.

7 years later...The Pines are dead. Evan, Liz, Maggie, and 6 year old Tommy are found dead in a rental home in Mexico. A gas leak or so they say. Matt can’t believe it, first his brother is arrested for murder then his whole family is dead. What is going on? When an FBI agent is assigned to the case due to a financial crime she was investigating involving Evan Pine’s former employer, she starts to see things don’t add up. With the help of the producers of ‘A Violent Nature’ she starts to uncover things that the Mexican police force looked past.

Could there be foul play? Was Matt Pine’s family murdered? Does this have to do with Danny? Is Danny innocent?

This book has me on the edge of my seat. I HIGHLY recommend if you love thrillers that will have you guessing through the whole thing.

BOOK REVIEW: EVERY LAST FEAR by Alex Finlay
Pub Date: March 2, 2021

Every Last Fear is a thrilling debut mystery from Alex Finlay that was engaging from it’s explosive opening scene to it’s finality.

Matt Pine is a college student who receives a devastating call that his family has been found deceased while on vacation. Prior to their deaths, Matt’s family worked tirelessly trying to exonerate Dan, Matt’s oldest brother, who is jail for the brutal death of a high school girl. As Matt grapples with the loss of his family he uncovers clues that lead him to believe his family have not been victims of tragic accidental gas leak. And, that there is so much more to his brother’s alleged crime than he ever thought was possible.

I struggled with what I found to a few unnecessary plot complications, as well as character development that perpetuated stereotypical and offensive typecasting that detracted from the writing.

The book offers 2 epilogues that ties up lose ends perfectly. As someone who tends to enjoy less than tidy conclusions, I feel that readers can choose to read them or pass and that both choices result in a satisfying read.

Every Last Fear is full of twists and turns and I especially liked when the book’s title was presented resulting in goosebumps! I love when I find titles hidden within the pages and Finlay executed this perfectly!

My thanks to St Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thoughts: I loved the premise of this story. I am obsessed with true crime documentaries and I could imagine this happening in real life. I enjoyed the documentary aspect a lot and found the story to be interesting and richly layered. The contrast between the families’ stories before they died and Matt’s perspective after they died made the story hard to put down. I liked all the connections and really did not see some parts of the story coming. I enjoyed the build up and the ending was satisfying, if not too simple.

The only downside I had to this story was that there were some things that were just not believable. For example, someone tries to murder Matt and he doesn’t tell the police or do anything about it. Things were just tied up a little too nicely in the end, and I prefer there to be some things left to the imagination. That being said, I really enjoyed this thriller and gave it 4-stars.

This is an action packed, unputdownable twisty thrill ride that I read in one day! Would make an amazing series that everyone would totally binge because it is off and running from the first chapter and keeps you hanging on with several red herrings and crazy twists to grab you and not let go.

Matt Pine is a film student at NYU and his brother is in jail accused of killing his girlfriend. Matt doesn’t believe that his brother did it, but the case is closed so there’s no much else he can do but to move on. Except that his father and 17 year old whiz kid sister are determined to prove his innocence no matter the cost, financially or otherwise.

FBI agent Sarah Keller gets assigned to tell Matt the devastating news that while his family was on vacation in Mexico, they’d been found dead, supposedly by a gas leak in their rental. Matt is required to fly to Mexico and ID the bodies, but before he does that, he has to break the news to his incarcerated brother.

Meanwhile, a Netflix documentary has been released about the murder case and the documentary makers insist they’ve uncovered new evidence in working on the sequel. Matt has to learn who he can trust and whether the good guys are in fact, good in order to find out what really happened to his family and prove his brothers innocence.

Fast paced and well written and you definitely get invested in figuring out what happened to all the characters.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my review.

This had so much going for this murder mystery thriller and it absolutely nailed it! So many twisty secrets and an ending that I did not expect. This chapters of this book varied between before the accident/murder of the Pine family in Tulum Mexico while they were on Spring Break and after when the bodies are discovered and everyone is looking for answers about why this tragedy happened.

I really rooted for Maggie and her father as they looked for clues and evidence to exonerate Danny for the murder of Charlotte that he may or may not have committed. They stuck to it even when everyone else gave up. I liked Matt's part too and was really sad for him being the only family left that was not in prison.

It was a great book that slowly unfurled itself until all the actions were explained in a very satisfying way. There were nice little action bits that kept me on my toes hoping that no one else had to die. I really liked it and definitely recommend it!

Unfortunately, there are some terms used in the book by the author that are higly inappropriate and unacceptable in today's day and age. I can't support an author's work that feels that his race is the superior race and that it's okay to refer to people by the country they are from rather than by their names. I am not interested in this type of writing. There are plenty of thrillers out there that use more respectful terms and fair words to describe situations without having to resort to racism or stereotypes to make a point. Thanks but no thanks.

Matt Pine is a student at NYU whose family became well known when a Netflix documentary about his brother's (Danny) wrongful conviction for murdering his girlfriend was released. Now FBI agent Sarah Keller is at his dorm room door to inform him that his family has died in a tragic accident in Mexico. Soon, however oddities start to arise and the case may not be as open and shut as it seems.

This book is what a thriller should be. It has lots of twists and action. The book has multiple pov and is not confusing as it tells you who's point of view you are reading at the onset of each chapter. I liked this approach as you got to see how the murder Danny is serving time for affected everyone in the family. You get to see the events leading up to the deaths of the family and also how Matt is dealing with it, as well as how the FBI is investigating it. This, to me added so much more to the story and helped really develop the characters. I would definitely recommend this book!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, author Alex Finlay, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Matthew stays out all night after a party when his RA finds him and tells him the FBI is looking for him. His entire family except for his brother Danny, have all died in a freak accident in Mexico. Matt and Danny escaped death by being in school and...jail. Danny has been in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend, a crime his family claims he did not commit.

This book started out well, with a premise that drags you in and makes you want to know if it was actually an accident in Mexico....or was it murder? Unfortunately, it quickly goes downhill. The FBI is interested enough in his barely relevant to a case father to use a helicopter to tell his incarcerated brother of the family's deaths, but not enough to accompany him to Mexico to claim the bodies? The FBI agent herself is probably the least believable character--she agrees to give the documentary people FBI results so they'll give her their drop of blood on a leaf? Does this ever happen in real life, because I really don't think so. So many of the clues that many of today's thriller writers weave in seamlessly are just dropped in clunkily here. We're also asked to believe that two wildly different substances could be confused with each other just because they share a color...and that someone who manages to clean up multiple crime scenes impeccably to the point of zero evidence was dumb enough to forget to take his gloves off?

I did not care for this book or find it believable, but I think that there is enough here that a lot of people will like it, and good for them. From all of the hype, I thought this was going to be an action packed, fast moving book that grabs you and won't let you go. Instead, I got a damp handed weak tap on the wrist. Disappointing, for sure.

OMG! OMG! OMG!

"... the truth of the matter was that it was rarely a stranger who killed you; it was usually someone you held dear. As Keller knew too well, the sheep spends its life worried about the wolf, only to be eaten by the farmer."

I started reading this book over breakfast and couldn't stop reading until I finished it. It's the definition of unputdownable. This! This is a thriller done right! There are cliffhangers galore that hold your attention and keep you reading. There are twists and turns and red herrings. There are many characters to connect with and they're all different and real. I didn't feel trapped following an unlikeable character for chapters on end. Perspectives changed and all of them contributed to the mystery in one way or another. They were all needed to solve the puzzle.

This is a straight-up fun book to read. It would be a perfect book to read on a plane or at the beach or curled up in a blanket during a storm. You will get lost in it for hours, needing to see it through to the end. Seriously, just go out, buy this book (or pre-order it if before March 2nd), and read it.

One disclaimer: You'll most likely solve the mystery before everyone else does, but it doesn't matter. The ride is still thrilling.

I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Story: 7 stars out of 5
Character Development: 3 stars
Writing: 4 stars

It starts off promising, the idea of the multiple mysteries all wrapped together is well done at first. I ended up skimming through and then just jumping to the last few chapters to see how everything wrapped up. The descriptions of the Mexican police are based on racial stereotypes and are flat-out offensive. There are multiple side characters that also might as well just be one-dimensional caricatures that don't further the plot in any manner (at least in the parts that I read through-maybe at some point they have key scenes, but I don't find that likely with the way they were portrayed in the parts I got through) With the multiple POV jumps it was difficult to follow along in parts, and keep what information each character knew straight.

Every Last Fear is a riveting story of family found dead in Mexico but the details going into this day are rich. There's a young man convicted of a murder he didn't commit and a television documentary about the case that ruins the lives of a family and reputation of a small town. This is a great study of deep characters with plenty of secrets. A quick-paced thriller.

A college student whose brother is in prison for the murder of his girlfriend and whose case was the topic of a true crime documentary learns that the rest of his family died in what seemed like a tragic accident. But was it?

I prefer more character-driven books - this had a lot of POVs and a lot of jumping back and forth between past and present. The narrative shifts between Matt's family in the past and their movements before their deaths (much of which had to do with their investigations into Danny's case) and Matt and an FBI agent in the present looking into Matt's family's deaths.

It you love a very plot-driven book, definitely give this a try. It was an intricate plot but I thought it was well crafted and everything made sense.

The tension and the story of this was crazy! I couldn't put it down, such a quick and easy read. I really enjoyed how it was written, how it was paced, and how all the characters added a lot of depth. Truly a page turner and truly something for those suspense/thriller junkies out there who need a distraction from the outside world.
I haven't read anything by Alex Finlay before, but would be interested in checking out some of the other work out there!

I raced through this page turner! It opens with the death of a family who has gone to Tulum, Mexico in search of the truth and then cascades into a thriller where -no spoilers from me. Matt's brother Danny has been in prison for 7 years, convicted in the death of his ex-girlfriend after a high school party. His family was forced to move from their small town and just when things were calming a bit, a pair of documentary film makers started to probe the case. Matt's at NYU now; he's got a terrific support group of friends who are especially helpful when his world falls apart. FBI SA Sarah Keller thinks something's fishy about the deaths but she's surprised when they become an FBI priority because the President's daughter believes Danny is innocent. So who killed Matt's family? And Why? Well, this is told from multiple view points and moves between just before the trip to Tulum and its aftermath. The characters are terrific, the pacing on point, and the big reveal was a surprise to even this veteran thriller reader. I liked this for the small details as well - Keller's 300 mile tdy for a 6 minute meeting, Ganesh's generosity, and so on. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Clear your schedule and plan to read straight through. Two thumbs up!