My first book by this author and it was a really great mystery/thriller. It reads a bit like a true crime story, so if you like that this will appeal to you. Susan Lentino has never gotten over the murder of her daughter 20 years ago. It seems like everyone has moved on except Susan. The story begins at a fundraiser put on by Susan's friends and neighbors to raise money for her to go to North Dakota to attend the execution of the convicted killer. The killer has always maintained he was innocent and while on her trip to North Dakota she comes across some new evidence. My favorite part of the book is the time Susan spends trying to get to North Dakota. It really had me on the edge of my seat and I felt like I was watching a movie in my head. I think it's great this has been optioned for a film. It will translate very well. Susan is an amazing character and you will find yourself rooting for her as she faces many obstacles, including the FBI refusing to reopen the case, but she is relentless in seeking the answers before it's too late

Thanks netgalley I loved this book.
I wanted to keep reading it as it was full of suspense, the sort of book that you have to finish because you want to know the ending.
It was a mystery, a court case and a who did it book.
Amy was murdered which was the most terrible thing to ever have happened to her parents, and Amy was wearing a necklace that she had made with her mother Susan.
The necklace was not found, but the murderer was and he was sentenced to death.
Susan was going to the execution but things she had not remembered before were coming to,the surface and she began to think if they had caught the correct person for the murder of Amy.
Loved this boom it was great.

What a satisfying read! As a reader of crime novels, it is always SO very gratifying when justice is served!

This story is told in a dual timeline format, with the present day and flashbacks to the time immediately after Amy's murder.

Susan Lentigo is an underdog - a woman with no money, no power, yet she is courageous and strong. Despite her wavering thoughts about who killed her daughter, she does want to see justice done. I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying Susan on her harrowing trek from Upstate New York to North Dakota. She was a very empathetic character.

This was one of those novels that you just don't want to put down. The pace was fast, the characters and setting vividly portrayed, and the writing skillful.

The title was a perfect fit for the novel as Amy's little plastic bead necklace played a pivotal role in the plot.

Although the subject matter of this novel is dark, the book itself didn't feel dark. If anything, I found it upbeat for most of the time probably due to Susan's focused sense of purpose. The suspense ramped up and up until the denouement. I can heartily recommend this novel to all lovers of crime fiction and psychological thrillers.

I love psychological thrillers and who done it type of books and this book was no exception. This is another book that jumps back and forth between then and now. Now, Susan is a grieving divorced mother. Her daughter was abducted, never returning home from school 20 years ago. Her husband and high school sweetheart has divorced her and moved away because he needed to essentially move on from the death of their daughter. A man is arrested for the abduction, assault and murder of her daughter Amy. Now, Susan is running into a lot of set backs trying to get to the execution of her daughter’s convicted murdered across the country. On the way, she finds some evidence that makes her doubt his guilt days before the execution. I really enjoyed this book, it was one that I didn’t want to put down. Yes, it was a little predictable but still engaging and highly recommended.

This book is haunting in that has child abduction and murder. I was rooting for Susan to discover what really happened. I appreciated the fast pace and surprises.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Susan's daughter, Amy was seven-years-old when she was kidnapped and murdered. Twenty years later, Susan is on a bus to North Dakota to watch the execution of the accused. On the way, she stops by her ex-husband's office and notices a picture of his daughter, Emily wearing the necklace Amy had on the day she disappeared. Susan gets suspicious and starts wondering if they are executing the right person.

This book is based on a true story. It is an intriguing, fast read. I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The story jumps from the present to the past, but it works well with the story. It's a little dark, but I would recommend this book to readers that enjoy a great Thriller!

Thank you to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

THE NECKLACE – by Matt Witten

Having to work a double shift as a waitress at the local Diner, Susan Lentigo asks her mother, Lenora, to pick up her seven-year-old granddaughter Amy after school and watch her until Amy’s Dad, Danny, comes to get her after he gets off work.

After dropping Amy off at school that morning, running errands, and then heading straight to the Diner to work the lunch shift, Susan never gets the message on the answering machine at home from her mother, telling her she can't watch Amy after all—and they soon learn Amy has been missing for hours…

Twenty years later, Susan, with limited funds, is determined to drive fifteen hundred miles to attend the execution of the man who killed her daughter—only to discover new evidence that may prove he’s innocent. The FBI refuses to reopen the case.

In a word—WOW! As a mother, my soul hurt as I bore witness to Susan's grief; my heart ached for her and Amy with every turn of the page. Susan’s resilience and determination to reach her destination and discover the truth is palpable throughout the narrative.

THE NECKLACE—Highly Recommend!

Thank you, NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing, for providing me with an eBook of THE NECKLACE at the request of an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded very intriguing however I found myself trying hard to get through the book and wasn't able to finish. It just seemed like the story line dragged a bit for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

You know the way you sometimes watch a movie through the spaces between your fingers, wanting to go see what happens but just knowing that something appalling is likely to happen any second? That’s the first 2/3 of this novel. Despite the fast pace and compelling story, at times I seriously questioned whether I was going to finish this one. The jacket copy told me what kind of crime to expect, but I thought we would be briefly told in chapter 1 that a terrible crime had happened long ago, after which the book would move forward with one woman’s race-against-time effort to determine the truth before a man is executed. Instead, every other chapter is a flashback dwelling on the 20-year-old crime. The focus alternates between the past, when unspeakable things happened to a child, and the present, when the determined protagonist is always about to have something terrible happen to her. It’s not until Susan Lentigo finally catches a break and starts finding some allies in her desperate quest that the novel feels less unrelentingly difficult. The story is suspenseful, and the ending is satisfying if you get that far.

Thanks to Netgalley and Oceanview Publishing for a digital advance review copy.

I ended up stopping this bok at 15% of the way through. I just could not bring myself to care about the story line.

Twenty years ago, Susan and her daughter made a multicolored beaded necklace. A week later Amy was found lying dead on her back, half-covered by leaves, with bloody gash on her forehead. Her neck was bruised by strangulation. There was a sexual assault.

But, twenty years later, just several days before the execution, Susan saw the very same multicolored beaded necklace and it looked exactly the same as Amy's old necklace that gone missing then.

This is a story about saving an innocent man from execution at the eleventh hour. Woah! What a thrill!

My personal rating 4.5 ⭐

Thanks to @netgalley and @oceanviewpub for an arc inexchange for an honest review.

The Necklace by Matt Witten is about something unimaginable. What happens when a family loses their 7 year old daughter to murder? One woman plans to journey from New York to North Dakota to watch the execution of her daughter's killer She has so many obstacles along the way she wonders if she will even get there in time. And during her trip things come to light that make her question if the right person was arrested in the first place. This one definitely keeps you guessing right up until the end!

DNF at 36%. I have given a middle rating for this to keep things fair. I do not wish for my opinion on an unfinished book to reflect poorly on the author

This offering from Matt Witten about a mother's crusade for justice for her murdered daughter has been optioned for film, and upon reading it was easy to see why. Susan Lentigo twenty-year wait to see her daughter's killer executed is turned upside down when she discovers new evidence suggesting the man may be innocent, and that the real killer may be in a shocking position with another victim in his sights. More than just a mystery, Witten uses Susan Lentigo to explore the deep and conflicting emotions experienced by a grieving parent wanting closure when crashed headlong into an equally strong desire for justice, even if the path to get there will take that grieving parent through hell again first.

Thanks for letting me review this one. I got kinda bored through out this one and i just wasnt feeling it as much. The pacing of the story wasnt too bad it went pretty quickly for me but like I said just couldnt get into this story. Maybe because im a mood reader and my mind wasnt in for it at the moment.

Twenty years have passed since the death of little Amy and finally the monster who raped her will serve his death sentence. The mother, whose life has meanwhile fallen apart, partly because her husband has left her and rebuilt his life and family, is looking forward to it and her fellow citizens are taking up a collection to allow her to go and "enjoy the show". Susan leaves by bus, and on the first stop all her money is stolen. What seems to be a curse turns into a blessing, because of the many generous people she meets and the truths she discovers, one of which is the most shocking of all, so much so that her life turns 180 degrees. A beautiful, well-written book which, as well as talking about paedophilia and manipulation in the family, is a manifesto against that form of brutal revenge which is the death penalty, so brutal that it turns the blindness of justice into a horror.

this one was a pretty solid read but I feel like the twists and turns could be well worked upon, I had fun reading it nonetheless!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunty to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

This was a good read. Sure, there could have been more suspense and thrills, and sometimes tyhe main character was a fail for me, but I liked the storyline and the side characters.

It has been 20 years since Susan's beautful little daughter, Amy was raped and murdered; the man who confessed (but later recanted) is due to be executed and Susan wants to be there. her small town helps raise the money to get there by car bit as Susan sets off, she has one problem after another and it seems like she will never get there. She decides to go see her ex along the way and it doesn't go well, but as she leaves his office, she sees something that sets her whole world upside down and makes her doubt everything she knows about the case and her life at that time. With the help of help of a local teenager, she gets the proof she needs to get the case active again but will anyone even take her seriously at this point. All she wants is justice for her little girl and if the man in prison, set to be executed, isn't guilty, she hopes she will be intime to right the wrong.

Sometimes this book seemed more like a tv movie but it had an overall enjoyable story and it was a quick read.

What is it about the necklace? That question keeps popping up throughout the story. Don’t worry, it gets answered.

This story bounces from one time to another but very easy to keep track of.

We are taken on a harrowing trip to watch an execution. While on this trip we are let in on some inner thinkings and memories.

It’s quite the ride across several states and trust me, you’ll be tired by the time we get there.

3 (ish) stars

This one wasn’t terrible, and it was pretty interesting on the surface, but ultimately, it just didn’t work for me. I didn’t like the way the protagonist was written…I’m not sure if this was an issue with a writer trying to tell something from the perspective of someone they don’t fully understand, but whatever it was felt a bit irritating after a while. I know it’s the nature of the story, but some of the details of the crime from the novel’s past made me cringe/shudder and were hard to read as well…definitely more than I needed to think about to enjoy the narrative. Anyway. Not bad, just not one of my favourites.