A great mystery/thriller told in alternating points of view and moments in time. This story grabbed me from the tragic start and kept me reading to find out what happened to this family to destroy them. The heart of this story is a family trying to solve a mystery and that has impacted all of them. When the older brother is convicted of a terrible crime, the rest of his family has to deal with the repercussions and try and move forward with their lives. As a Netflix special sheds light on his story, the family faces new challenges, ultimately leading to the death of almost the entire family. With one surviving son in jail and one who finds himself in a twisted up, tragic mess, the story was action packed and a great read! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

How would you react if you found out your entire family was dead?

This is exactly how Matt finds himself - well, except his brother who has been incarcerated for the last 7 years or so for murdering his high school girlfriend. But did he? And why was his family in Mexico on a spontaneous trip?

Matt has been a bit estranged from his family since he left for college - frustrated by his father's constant need to find the truth in his brother's case and prove his innocence. But he feels something is off - as does the financial services FBI agent informing him of his family's "accident" in Mexico.

The book bounces between viewpoints and timelines, but everything flows together and the story comes together piece by piece, beautifully. The writing style is easy to breeze through and kept me turning pages.

I honestly enjoyed this story and was blindsided by the ending. I love stories like that! This is the first book I've read by Alex Finlay, but it won't be my last.

This book gripped me from the prologue and never let go. It is unbelievable that this a debut novel. To be honest, having seen such positive reviews, I didn't expect to love it, figuring it was over-hyped and would leave me disappointed. That couldn't be farther from reality. This is going on my all time favorites list.

4 stars

Wow! This was such a good book! I did figure the killer out a little before the end but it didn’t change the fact. There were still some little surprises. This book was sad, intense, rage inducing, and even a little happy sometimes. Loved the back and forth between the now and “before” and also the different points of view. Definitely lived up to the hype.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

To end 2020 with a bang is what I got from this thrilling read!!! Held my breath by the end, and oh the sorrow the Pine family faced while the secrets that tore them apart and many others as well in the end also in a way brought them back together! I underestimated this book, from the title you have no idea the twists and turns it takes and the wow factor is off the chart!!! I loved how the characters all came to life with each turn of their POV of how the albatross circling their family was released and whodunit wasn't revealed until the end!! I had an idea but didn't know how the pieces fit until revealed at the end. This book I can't say enough about and if you love thrills like I do I highly recommend this read!! The pain, lies, reality of hitting close to home, and then warmth and perseverance all rolled into one enthralling read!! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this great book and give my honest review!!

Special thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC for this awesome book!

Twist after twist after twist. Bravo to Alex Finley for this incredible story It's about love, loss, loyalty and murderous suspense of a family who is murdered, leaving two sons, one in college, the other in jail for a murder he may have not commited. A book about family and loyalty, grieving, anger, suspense. Get your hands on this book!

I’m having an emotional hangover from all the feelings this book invokes. First of all, I feel for Matt. For everything he had to endure. The Pines are an amazing family. They look out for each other and don’t ever give up. Second, just wow. I really loved this book. The writing, the characters. The setting. I can’t wait for more from the author!

4.5 stars - Unputdownable!

Alex Finlay wows with this debut! Mark your calendars for March 2nd, 2021 - as you will need to pick this one up.

Matt Pine is a typical college male, but his story is different. He is moving his way through life after trying to avoid the recognition from his infamous brother - convicted 7 years ago and imprisoned for the brutal murder of his high school girlfriend.

One Tuesday morning Matt is crushed to learn that his entire family has died while on a Spring Break trip to Mexico. His mother, 17-year-old sister, and 7-year-old brother appear to have passed peacefully from carbon monoxide poisoning. However, his father was found outside the rental property...and his passing was not peaceful. Is this an unfortunate accident or something more sinister? Is Matt or his brother somehow connected?

Alex Finlay unfolds the story in spectacular fashion. The twists and turns - and utter surprises - kept me guessing until the very end. As a reader I was thrilled to find a new plot that didn't fall into the typical thriller genre. Bouncing between different POVs was confusing initially, especially trying to keep track of a long list of characters. Weaving in the flashbacks and timelines added to the complexity, but it all works out in the end. It certainly kept me on my toes. I, for one, cannot wait to see what else Alex writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books, and Alex Finlay for the generous gift of an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a riveting psychological thriller! It was action-packed and kept me turning pages to see what would happen next.

The story centers on the Pine family. Dad and Mom, Erin and Olivia, and four children. The oldest son, Danny, is in prison for murdering a girl - but his family believes he is innocent and is fighting through all legal avenues to get him out; Matt, the second oldest son, is in college at NYU; Maggie is in high school; and Tommy is in elementary school. A documentary had been made about Danny and the murder of his girlfriend. It portrayed the Dad, Erin, as kind of deranged. The family was basically ostracized by their small town in Nebraska after the murder, and had since moved to another state.

The story opens on the murder of a family on vacation in Mexico - Erin, Olivia, Maggie and Tommy - all dead. At first they think it was a gas leak. But an FBI agent's, Sarah Keller, instincts tell her something is not right. Matt has to go Mexico to get the bodies released and gets into a dangerous situation. The story goes back and forth between present and past. It is filled with building tension and fast-paced action. The characters are well-developed and inspire empathy. My favorite characters were Matt and Maggie.

Excellent debut Alex Finlay! I wonder if this one will be a series involving the FBI Agent, Sarah Keller? If so, I would really like to see the next adventure she undertakes.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy!

Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay was a great, twisty thriller! I never guessed the culprit but it all made perfect sense. Our main character, Matt, is very sympathetic and gets the reader to care about everything going on. There are a few different aspects of the story to keep track of as you read but it never gets confusing and it all gets explained in the end.

I'd highly recommend to anyone that enjoys thrillers at all!

4.5 stars for this one. This was an excellent modern day murder mystery type thriller. It had a bit of young adult genre vibes to it but I love a good YA thriller so I’m all for it. This was pretty well paced and kept my attention throughout the whole book. The timeline was going from past to present but it did so very nicely and there was no confusion at all. I found myself constantly guessing what was going to happen or where this was going or who did it... I love when a book can still keep me on my toes like that. This was seriously such an enjoyable read. I’m glad I got to read this one early and I hope this author, Alex Finlay, writes more stuff just like this in the future. I will gladly pick up any future books with his name on. This will definitely be a must read in 2021. If you like these types of whodunnit books then do not miss out on this one. I promise, you won’t regret it.

Great book! Engaging from the beginning to the end. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommended!

4.5 stars

The Pine family was made infamous by a true crime documentary, which followed the family after their eldest son Danny was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend. Both the documentary and the family believe he was wrongfully convicted. Then the Pines are found dead in their vacation home in Mexico, leaving behind their surviving son, NYU college student Matt, to uncover the truth. Soon, the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case...

As a true crime lover, the premise of this book immediately had me hooked. What really drives it are the characters, who were likable and well-developed. The story is told through multiple POVs in both the past and present, giving the reader the opportunity to connect with many characters. The story itself was fast-paced and engaging throughout, with a few great twists thrown in there for good measure. Although I was able to figure out the murderer, the motive was still a surprise!

This fast paced thriller keeps you on your toes. I was originally captured by the opening statement "They found the bodies on Tuesday." but this book just kept delivering more! More twists, turns and mystery along the way.

The fact that the protagonist is a college student opens this story for both YA and adult readers.

Highly recommended to fans of Thrillers that think they've read it all.

A fast paced thriller that will have you guessing quite a bit.

I absolutely loved the plot and the initial hook of the family tragedy and the story behind. I also loved Alex's way of writing, building up from the past threads from each character's perspective and building towards the present and the climax. Though normally it would confuse me when an author keeps going around such multiple strands, in this case I think given the few characters and Alex's style of writing I did not feel lost out. A wonderful work!

The characters are beautifully brought to life as the narrative goes through each one's past. I felt the pangs for the loss of the family and the wrong that they might been put through.

At some point I felt the antagonist was guessable, but probably given the number of characters it would be a game of high probability... But it was still nice to read through the logic of why that person was the criminal!

Highly recommended for those who love whodunits!!

This is one of those stories that sucks you in from the beginning and keeps you guessing until the end. I cared about the characters and needed to know how it would all end. Highly recommend for thriller lovers.

Alex Finlay has mastered the thriller genre in Every Last Fear. This novel was indeed everything that you would want -- and hope to expect -- from a nail biting, edge of your seat, page turner novel. Not only was the the novel exciting and well paced, but the characters were developed, and the timelines and distinct narrative strands were seamlessly interwoven. Every Last Fear was one of my favorite reads of this year. I highly recommend it!

So excited that I got to read an eARC of Every Last Fear. This twisty thriller is already popping up on must read books for 2021.

Here’s the description from St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books:

“‘They found the bodies on a Tuesday.’ So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family―his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister―have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain―and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny―currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte―was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison―putting his own life in peril―and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

Told through multiple points-of-view and alternating between past and present, Alex Finlay's Every Last Fear is not only a page-turning thriller, it’s also a poignant story about a family managing heartbreak and tragedy, and living through a fame they never wanted.”


My thoughts: The story was great with twists and turns aplenty. I did figure out part of it early on, but there was way more to the story that I wasn’t counting on. Definitely some great final twists.

I have two complaints. A rushed ending, which many thrillers have so it’s not a unique problem, and two, that side characters were given way too many backstory details that didn’t matter. Let me say that none of this detracted from the main story and even though I grumbled to my family about the side characters, when they asked me why I was still reading it, I answered “Because I have to know.”

Rating: Despite the overuse of details for unimportant characters, this book will thrill, and I guarantee it will be a big hit. I give it 4 Stars, and I would definitely recommend this for anyone that wants to sink their teeth into a twisted mystery.

**Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC. My opinions are my own.**

Trigger warning: Death of children.

"Every Last Fear" was a good thriller. The book starts off with a maid cleaning a villa in Tulum, Mexico discovering the bodies of the Pine Family -- parents Evan and Olivia and children Maggie and Tommy. Olivia and the children look peaceful, as if they had died in their sleep (prompting conclusions of a gas leak), but Evan's body was mangled and missing pieces (courtesy of wild dogs). The only survivors were the oldest boys, Danny and Matt, but only because Danny Pine is in prison for killing his girlfriend and Matt is a student at NYU and his spring break did not correspond with his father's spur of the moment Mexican vacation. Matt learns about his family's deaths when an FBI agent (Sarah Keller) shows up on campus. The Mexican authorities are being less than fully cooperative and it is necessary for Matt to go to Mexico to claim the bodies. Tragic accident or foul play, the death of an American family in Mexico would not generally generate much excitement. However, the Pine family was infamous due to a highly successful Netflix documentary, "A Violent Nature" about Danny Pine, the murder of his girlfriend, Charlotte, his conviction, and the campaign to prove he was innocent. The small town Nebraska police officers utilized the interrogation techniques that they had been trained to employ, but they had no experience with a homicide investigation and did not know that the techniques had been found to result in a high percentage of forced/false confessions. The video of the interrogation makes it clear that Danny confessed because he was tired, overwhelmed, and just wanted to go home (which does not necessarily mean he was innocent, just that he did not confess of his own free will).

Seven years have passed since the murder, but it has devastated the Pine Family, as well as their former hometown of Adair, Nebraska, which was the subject of a lot of unwanted and negative attention following the release of the documentary. The book alternates between the present, the recent past (the actions of Evan, Olivia, and Maggie in the days leading up to the trip to Tulum and events in Tulum) and the events of seven years ago (the murder, the trial, the documentary, etc.). Information arises that suggests that the death of the Pine Family was not an accident and that there might be a larger conspiracy at work, possibly related to the events of seven years ago. With the exception of Tommy, who was born after his brother's arrest and has never actually met his oldest brother, Danny, every member of the Pine Family has secrets, as do a number of the residents of Adair, Nebraska. The author does a good job of building and sustaining the suspense, revealing information about past and present events in a manner that provides some possible answers but also leads to more questions and leaves the characters (and readers) trying to figure out what really happened seven years ago, what is happened now, who is behind the current events, and what is the connection with past events. The author has created an interesting cast of characters, especially Matt's college friends and some of Maggie's high school friends. I would certainly recommend this book.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Thank you for the book!

The author did a good job of keeping up suspense and the story was relatively fast-paced. It’s been a little tough for me to focus on reading lately, and this book was one I was ready to pick up and keep on with the story. There is quite a bit happening in this book, and though the timeline of the story isn’t linear, its easy to keep up on what is happening. The story had an overall satisfying ending, though with the deaths of Matt Pine’s family, there is always an overtone of sadness. I liked the tie-ins with the true crime documentary (and that should work well in an audiobook), and I wish I could have learned more about what happened to Danny. I thought the side story of the financial crime was unnecessary in this book, and there were a few times I had to suspend my disbelief, but overall an enjoyable book.