DNF'd at around 45%. I just could not get into this book. I was really looking forward to it and it was one of my most anticipated books on 2021. I can usually fly through a mystery thriller but I barely wanted to pick this one up.

I really didn't appreciate the language used when talking about Mexico and the Mexican officials/police that were working on the case. There is also a moment really early in the book where the main character is playing chess with a homeless man and it's okay that he does this because this homeless person is clean and smart...so it was worth his time?...it just seemed so odd to me.

As far as I got the book seemed really disjointed but maybe it comes together in the end but I just don't care to finish it.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eArc of Every Last Fear in exchange for an honest review.

An action-packed thriller told from multiple points of view.
It is about the Pine family and I thought the start of the book was excellent, so engaging, tense, and dramatic i made me want to read more. This page-turner had quite a dark plot with twists and turns throughout to keep the reader turning the pages.
For me, this was about family and love and I would recommend if you like thrillers.
4 stars for me - action-packed, well-paced and tense - exactly how I like my thriller to be.

If you are searching for a page-turning, gripping thriller, look no further. Every Last Fear has it all wrapped into one book. Matt is a film student at NYU and loving it. He is contacted unexpectedly by the FBI after his parents and younger siblings are found dead while on a spring break trip to Mexico. It appears to be a freak accident but Matt has had his share of fame already. His older brother is in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend and his appeal to the Supreme Court has been denied. Danny is looking at life in prison and the family is still trying to understand why. They don't see Danny as a killer but the events leading to his prosecution don't point in other directions so he is found guilty. Their father and younger sister are obsessed with tracking every lead. Does this obsession pay off or lead them down a dangerous path? Why were they in Mexico? What lead them there for vacation?
There are so many facets of this story and yet the author did a terrific job of tying them together.
Highly recommend to all the thriller lovers.
#EveryLastFear #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #Minotaur

2.5 out of 5 stars.

I liked this book a lot up until the 70% mark and then I thought it was just fine. It kept me really engaged at first until the reveals starting happening. I thought the reveals made sense for the storyline, but nothing really shocked me or left me wanting for more. There were also a lot of cheesy moments in the novel that felt inappropriate for the tone of the story, and I thought that there were too many characters to keep up with for a thriller. None of the characters really stood out to me and I got confused a few times with who was who.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc to review.

“They found their bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins Every Last Fear. What an opening! You just know this is going to be good.

This fast-paced, riveting book is told in the past and present. You will care about the well-developed characters - feeling loss for those who we know from the start have died. Every Last Fear is a highly satisfying mystery/thriller that will hold your interest to the very end. Any buzz you are sure to hear about this book is well-deserved!

Many thanks for a chance to read this excellent page-turner in advance of its publication date.

What really happened to the Pine family??

Most of the Pine family is found dead while on a vacation in Mexico, only Danny and Matt survive. It seems to have been an accident...or was it foul play? This is not the only tragedy experienced by the Pine family. Of the two remaining sons, Danny is currently in jail for murder!

Matt is in college when he is suddenly informed about his family's tragic accident and left to deal with it on his own. From there the twists and turns start! So many unanswered questions for Matt to tackle.

I really enjoyed this thriller! It was well paced and exciting from beginning to end. I will be recommending this book to my friends and family.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Every Last Fear by @alexfinlayauthor.

A family of four is found dead of an apparent gas leak in Tulum, Mexico.

Back in NYC, Matt Pine receives the news that his parents, teenage sister and six-year-old brother have been found dead. His only living relative is his older brother, Danny, who is incarcerated after being convicted for killing his girlfriend seven years prior.

Over the years Danny's case has garnered interest after a high-profile documentary was produced, and public opinion is split on his guilt.

FBI Agent Sarah Keller is put on the case and discovers that the Pine family's death may not have been an accident, and there may be a connection between their deaths and the murder of a teenage girl seven years earlier.

What a ride! Every Last Fear gripped me from the first chapter and each subsequent chapter added a crucial layer, leading up to its' thrilling finale. While I did guess the ending midway, my interest did not wane at all, and I finished reading it in two days.

The novel is told in alternating chapters featuring the present day and flashbacks of the Pines before their deaths.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to @netgalley and @minotaur_books for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 Chilling Stars

Release Date- March 2, 2021

"They found the bodies on a Tuesday.

Two days after the family had missed their flight home.

Six days after all texts and social media had gone dark."


This was a roller coaster of a read for me. The first 30% or so was good. The next bulk of the book, all the way up to about the 90% mark was absolute EXCELLENCE!

For a debut, this author is undoubtedly a strong writer. And the plot was gripping and well thought out. I was invested in the heartbreaking story of a true crime family whose prodigal son was in prison serving a life sentence for a crime (most of) his family believes he didn't commit. I was hooked from the first word.

I cannot say enough good things about the way this book was laid out, the plot, the pacing (up to the 90% mark), most of the characters... My favorites were Agent Keller, her husband Bob who brings the much-needed comic relief of the book, and most of all, Maggie Pine, one of the Pine family children and the only girl.

When I say that I HAD to know what the heck happened here, I mean, I momentarily sat and contemplated if I could send an Uber to pick my kids up from school so that I could keep reading! (Alas, I did not... but I seriously considered it!)

One thing I really loved that exemplified some extremely smart writing was how in the beginning we have one story that seems pretty cut and dry on the surface.

- A high school party gone wrong.
- A son serving a sentence for a crime he didn't commit.
- A broken family taking a much needed spring break trip to try to restore some happiness and normalcy.

But once you start reading, the story begins unpacking itself, layer after complex layer. And very soon you realize that nothing was what it initially seemed at all. Huge kudos to the author there.

Throughout the book, the only negative thing for me was that I never really felt like I was able to connect with Matt Pine, who is arguably the main character and narrator of the story. I felt like I was able to connect with Agent Keller and Maggie so much more, even though we got far less chapters from their POVs. But that was something I was easily able to overlook, given that this is a hugely plot-driven story as one would expect from a thriller/mystery.

Where the wheels kind of started to come off for me was the ending. It breaks my heart to say this, but the last 10% of this book was a mess. A very sloppy execution and a predictable ending that I was easily able to predict at around the 60% mark. This is another book out of a bunch that I've read recently where a sub-par ending basically ruined or seriously dampened the entire book for me. But it breaks my heart with this book the most, because it was the strongest one of the bunch up until the ending.

Finally, the whole final conflict scene, to me, read like something out of a daytime soap opera. It did not flow with the rest of the book at all which had this air of intrigue and edge. I also am not a fan of endings where suddenly the characters start remembering alllll these events and details that had totally slipped their minds for years up until this point. Not believable.

I am hoping and praying that a lot of my issues were review copy issues and that somehow these things are polished up for the official release of this book. It had SOOOO much potential. Before the 90% mark, this was a 5-star read for me that was on its way to my favorites shelf for 2021.

I received a review copy from NetGalley and Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a wild ride. There were so many things happening : solving not one but two murders, a brother who is “falsely” imprisioned, a Netflix documentary, family secrets and political scandal. At first I thought there might be too many story lines going on but Alex Finaly did a fantastic job of bringing it all together.

I was able to figure out “who did it” about 60 % of the way through but I loved watching this story unfold. Alex Finlay is a fantastic story teller. He equally thrilled me and broke my heart. The family’s struggles are obvious, but when you see how each member died from their point of view… made me tear up and gave me chills. At that point I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up late just to finish it and missed my morning yoga class… but it was worth it. A solid 4 stars for me!

Alex Finlay is an author to remember and to put on your automatic read list! This was a very well paced thriller! It grabs you from the beginning and keeps you riveted to the very end. The story is told from multiple perspectives which helps in understanding the characters as well as tracking events that led up to the death of Matt Pine’s family and what’s happening in the current investigation. The line from the book that sticks with me is; ‘You have two choices when you’re confronted with your every last fear: Give up or fight like hell.’ The Pine family chose to fight!

Alex has done an excellent job with character development. This story was so interesting that it kept the pages turning. I needed to know what happened next. Some things were just mind blowing, in a good way. Many twists to keep you reading

This book is compulsively readable, I truly could not put it down. I read a lot of mystery thrillers and this one stood out to me. Well plotted and twisty. While some of the character's points of view were not as compelling as others this book never dragged.

This is a seriously addictive book with so many twists it gave me whiplash. The Pines’ life was destroyed when Danny, one of their sons, was accused of murdering his girlfriend. They claim he didn’t do it and are trying to prove it when they are killed during a trip to Mexico. Only Matt, one of their other sons, survives, so it’s up to him to figure out what happened. It doesn’t help that Matt believes his brother is guilty. The Mexican authorities claim that the Pines’ death was an accident but an FBI agent is not so sure. The story is told by multiple points of view, in the past and the present. Every single character is likable, even if they’re far from perfect. The plot is well crafted, suspenseful, and extremely addictive. Normally flashbacks don’t add as much tension, since you know how at least that part of the story ended, but in this case they add more information, which helps make them suspenseful. I also liked how the characters are smart. There are some glimpses of humor even if the subject matter is so dark. This is an excellent book and I loved it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/St. Martin's Press Minotaur Books!

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.”
Okay, sold! I was hooked from the very first line of this debut thriller by @alexfinlayauthor. Many thanks to @netgalley and @minotaur_books for the early gifted copy of Every Last Fear. Thriller fans will devour this fast-paced, page-turning novel navigating the heartbreak and tragedies bestowed upon the Pine family, amidst a splash of infamy they never wanted. The Pine family has already been living in the limelight—their oldest son, Danny, has been in prison for murder, and his case has been very publicly followed in a true crime documentary. Now, younger son Matt is devastated to find out his parents and younger siblings have all been found dead in Mexico. The deaths are looking increasingly suspicious, and Matt is beginning to doubt the validity of the charges against his brother. Told in multiple POV and in alternating timelines, the FBI and Matt discover clues to unravel what happened in Mexico...and how it all connects to Danny’s imprisonment.
Every Last Fear publishes on March 2, 2021!

This is supposed to be one of the most anticipated books to come out for 2021, and I can see why! Wow! So you know right in the beginning of the book that most of the Pine family dies while on vacation in Mexico. The book alternates from present and before, and you get some documentary snippets at the end of a lot of chapters. I was immediately caught up in the story, and loved reading it from the alternating characters in the book. I really loved how smart Maggie Pine was. And Agent Keller was pretty bad ass! I really enjoyed the side characters that Matt introduces us to, especially his friends Ganesh and Kala. There is a lot going on, and there were several twists to the story. I was surprised at how it all played out, didn’t see it coming.

I think I read that this was a debut from the author. Ummm sign me up for auto request on future books! This would make a fantastic book club read.

Bottom Line: Read it!

**I received a copy of Every Last Fear from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.**

This book is A LOT but it had me totally captivated and I could not put it down. I would have finished it in one sitting but it was so late that I had to make myself go to bed and finish it the next day.

Every Last Fear tells the story of the Pine family who quite frankly, have terrible luck. The family is made up of 4 children and the 2 parents but the book opens with the parents and 2 youngest siblings having died in what appears to have been a tragic accident while on vacation in Mexico. The FBI is investigating and there is reason to believe that the deaths might be suspicious and possibly related to the oldest son in the family, Danny, who is in prison for murdering his high school girlfriend. There are many who think Danny was wrongfully convicted to the point where he was actually the subject of a true crime documentary series and there are a lot of conspiracy theories about his crime and now the deaths of his family.

The book is told through alternating POVs and timelines as well as excerpts from the documentary and while it's an effective way of telling the story (because there is a lot to tell) it can also be a little bit confusing to keep the timelines and all the information you're getting straight at times. There was a lot to keep track of and mentally sort through especially since you can't be entirely sure if all the POVs are trustworthy. This was probably my only complaint about the book because when I read thrillers I'm always trying to figure out what's going on before the author actually tells us and it was actually kind of hard to do that with this one. I still liked the format and think it was the right choice for telling the story but I would have liked to see it executed just a little bit differently. As it was, it felt like a lot of the story was told in the past POVs and since we already know how things ended for those characters it does lower the stakes a little. Not a huge issue, just a quibble of mine.

I liked everything overall but where this book really succeeds is in the plot and pacing. It feels like every chapter in the book has a purpose and even though roughly half the book takes place in the past it feels like something is constantly happening, and new information is being revealed. The characters are perhaps a little shallow but the writing feels tight and concise. The story being told here is executed very well and I'll be honest, I wasn't really sure what was actually going on most of the time. The author had kept me guessing just like the characters.

I'm honestly not sure if I would have ever stumbled across this book on my own but I really enjoyed it and would definitely consider reading other books by this author

I loved this gripping review! I was hooked from the first sentence and my attention didn’t wane until the end.

Matt Pine is no stranger to bad news. His older brother is currently in jail serving life for the murder of his girlfriend, although some claim he’s been wrongfully convicted. His family stands behind him while following any possible lead to exonerate him, including appearing in a true crime documentary.

When Matt receives news that his family has been found dead while on vacation in Mexico, apparently from a gas leak, he’s suddenly faced with a lot of unanswered questions. And why is the FBI so interested in this case.

This one checked all the boxes for me. I was expecting another somewhat ordinary thriller but I got so much more with this book. Told from multiple POV’s in the past and present, this was equal parts mystery/thriller and a tragic family story.

‘You have two choices when you’re confronted with your every last fear: Give up or fight like hell.’

I really enjoyed this and was kept guessing the outcome the entire time. Story was well paced and the format kept it moving. Different POV’s and jumping from past to present can sometimes be confusing but this was written in a way that was very easy to follow. The characters were very likable and easy to root for. Wish it had ended differently for this family.

Trying to figure out how this is Findlay’s debut novel. Overall, one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while and I am excited to see more from this talented author. Highly recommend. 5 stars.

Thoughts

Oh this one is good. It's hard to believe it's a debut, and those are the best kind! The kind that shocks you!
Matt Pine's mom, dad and two siblings are found dead from an apparent gas leak at their rental in Tulum, Mexico. Matt's older brother, Danny, is in jail for allegedly killing his girlfriend. Could this college kids life be any more messed up?! Enter badass FBI Agent Keller who is looking into the company Matt's dad used to work for.
Unfortunately Matt has to go to Tulum to bring his family home. When he gets there it becomes clear that someone doesn't want him there snooping around. Back in the states Keller, with help, discovers that someone staged Matt's family's bodies after they died. Now it's a race to figure out what really happened and the real reason they were in Tulum. It all revolves around Danny, the brother in jail for murder.

Alternating between past and present until they collide and multiple points of view, this one had me guessing until the very end! The ending has more twists thrown in than I've seen in a long time. It was heartbreaking to read the reason behind the killings of the Pine Family and reading about their funeral with the casket sizes of the children. Oh man!

It's humorous that a big part of the book takes place in my home state of Nebraska. Reading about Runza, Lincoln, Omaha, Omaha Steaks had me chuckling....although the author doesn't paint Nebraska in a pretty picture. However he got our slogan down. " Nebraska. Honestly, it's not for everyone."

Anyways this book is amazing! Everything you would want in a fast paced suspense read! Thank you Minotaur Books, Author Alex Finlay and NetGalley for my #copy! Grab your copy March 2nd, 2021!

Book Rating: 4.5/5

I was very excited about this one and it did not disappoint! The story is told from several different points of view and there are so many mysteries to be solved that it is easy to get caught up in the story and you are eager to read on to see what twists are revealed. I really liked the premise as well; the Netflix true crime documentary and “murdered on vacation in Mexico” aspects were both appealing to me. I was a little underwhelmed by the ending and the big reveal, as it was not as exciting as I hoped, and I honestly should have seen it coming. There was also one “clue” that I had an issue with as I felt like it was never answered and shouldn’t have even been added to the story (not including details so there is no spoiler). But overall, a very solid thriller that I would recommend!