Really good mystery. Lots of interesting characters, both good and bad. Jessie and Jenny, teenage sweethearts, are missing. We know what happened to them because that's how the book opens. Packard, the acting sheriff is doing his best to find them with very few leads. Emmett and Carl are real lowlifes. Cora and Gary are at each other's throats constantly. And Olivia is hilarious. Good entertaining read!

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling is a thriller about two teenagers who break into an old man's house in search of his prescription drugs. But something terrible happens to them while they're in the house. Ben Packard is leading the investigation into the missing teens, and he's running out of time to try to find them. Will he find them in time? And will he be okay with revealing his own secrets? I really enjoyed this book and would love it if the author made a series with sheriff's deputy Packard because he was a very compelling character. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc for the e-arch. This book was solid I like it when I know what is going on but still enjoy the read it kept me entertained until the very end.

Wow, what a great debut book. The descriptive writing was extremely believable. I felt that Emmett was absolutely horrifying, and had a visceral reaction to him. I never quite knew what would happen with the kidnapped girl, and enjoyed how the ending unfolded. Karma was at work. I will continue to read this author if future books are released.

I couldn’t put this book down! All of the characters were both likable and un likable.. I was never sure who I was rooting for. This book is dark! Not for the novice thriller reader, or someone who is easily scared.

This is a wild ride! I really enjoyed everything about this one, it had great characters, an impelling storyline, and lots of suspense!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy of this novel.

And There He Kept Her begins when two high school students try to burgle a house and are caught by the owner. Unfortunately, the homeowner Emmet Burr had secrets that would prevent him from ever calling for the police so he shoots the boy and locks the young girl up in his cellar. The secrets become obvious because he has a locked room and chains all ready and waiting for her.

The Sheriff is dying of cancer so Assistant Deputy Ben Packard is running the show. He’s a recent resident of Sandy Lake, the small resort town in northern Minnesota. He has history with the town. His grandparents had a lake house and his brother disappeared one night, presumably drowned in the lake. The missing girl is his cousin’s daughter and he promises to find her.

As someone from northern Minnesota, I always look for mysteries that take place there. And There He Kept Her is a fair mystery though it’s not a whodunnit but an open mystery or “howcatchum” though much of how Emmett was caught relied more on Emmett’s bad luck and unreliable partner than Packard’s deduction, though he was on the right track when he connected a local murder to the students’ disappearance.

As to a sense of place, I grew up on a resort lake in northern Minnesota. Sadly, this town really could be anyplace. There was no real sense of being in a specific place. There was the gossip of a small town but there was none of the shared history and the long memories that you will find in a small town. The resort aspect of the population quintupling on weekends is absent as well. There is this strange intimacy during the week that completely disappears on the weekend filled with strangers. There is no real socializing between the weekenders and the residents and Sandy Lake felt more like Anytown than Resort Town.

Still, I like Ben and think there is potential for the series to grow. I like that the teen who was captured was smart and never gave up hope. I think Ben’s “secret” was a bit overplayed as this is Minnesota, not Texas, but it looks like in Book Two, he will be more open about his life.

I received an e-galley of And There He Kept Her from the publisher through NetGalley

And There He Kept Her at Poisoned Press | Sourcebooks

Joshua Moehling

Thanks NetGalley for this fast paced and riveting thriller, And There He Kept her. Wow..this one was intense and hard to put down. It was well written and very fast paced. For a debut, the author did well.

Thank you Net Galley for a copy of And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling. This mystery/ thriller was entertaining. Murder in a small town.

This is an amazing thriller that I couldn't put down. It had so many twists and turns.
I had to keep reading because just when I thought I was at a stopping point, I wasn't.
I hope this is just the beginning of a series, because I can't wait until the next one

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling.
And There He Kept Her was a page-turner that built suspense from the beginning and kept the momentum going until the end. A small town, a prescription drug issue, and a psychopath create a story that keeps the reader involved. Joshua Moehling's debut novel does not disappoint.

I so wish that these engaging thrillers had a way of causing strife/telling a story that did not have to involve drugs or alcohol or infidelity. It's really starting to put a pall over the whole genre.

Moving past that, I did enjoy And There He Kept Her. It grabs you right from the beginning, and tries to maintain that level throughout. Unfortunately, it just makes the book as a whole fall a little flat. You need some peaks and valleys in a story, and some of that was missing.

This was a great book! I loved the authors writing style.

It put you in the mind of the killer, the victim and the people looking for the person. It was a quick read and I could not put it down.

The books starts off with someone getting shot and you don't know what is going on. Each chapter would leave you wanting for more and you had to continue on to see what happened.

I highly recommend this book!

Moderately interesting w/ teens breaking into a creep’s house to pay back drug money and a bear on the loose. I just never find detective POV’s anything but trite. Too much boring politics and over-description of, say, what the old lady is wearing, vs moving the story along. I just don’t feel for an average jo in u inform with his mother nagging him he works too much and needs to find a girl. That’s beyond burying the lead.

This turned some things on its head. What if the criminal tried to commit a crime against a scarier criminal who was partners with a worse criminal? Who is really the victim? Who do you sympathize with? Throw all the thriller themes in a hat and see what falls out, and you get this book. I loved that I didn’t know who to root for, I didn’t know who to hate, I didn’t know who what to even hope. Was all so convoluted and messy, and I loved it. There were some slow parts, but they weren’t too frequent. I think this was set up with potential to be a series, and I would absolutely read another book if it is.

*I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.*

This book was good -- not terrible, but not great. The story moved slowly at times, but still well-written. I could see some people enjoying this, but it was not for me.

Personal tragedy sent Ben Packard back to the small town of Sandy Lake. When girls go missing, he is assigned the case. As he looks for the girls, things go sideways. Secrets are always in the way and they may stop the disappearances from being solved. Can Ben stop any more from happening?

This was a true page turner. I could not put this one down. Dark and disturbing, just the way I like it. I will for sure read more from Joshua.
Perfect summer read
Thank you Joshua and netgalley for my copy.

As much as I enjoy mysteries and putting together plot points, I just could not get behind this story. The book begins with Jenny and Jesse breaking into Emmett’s to steal prescription drugs; Emmett kidnaps Jenny and locks her away in his basement. This is a mystery in reverse where we known who did it and how, and we watch the police put the pieces together. The small town of Sandy Lake and the sheriff Ben Packard are very nice parts of the story, and I really enjoyed the way the author wrote the Packard character.
The book reads like the first of a series, with future books maybe delving into Packard’s past and/or the secrets of other members of the Sandy Lake community. As I said, this isn’t my type of mystery, but it was well-written. Fans of Colombo and Criminal Minds should give this a try!

Emmett Burr has secrets he's been keeping in his basement for more than two decades, and he'll do anything to keep his past from being revealed. When two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of prescription drugs, what starts as a simple burglary turns into a nightmare for all involved.

Personal tragedy has sent former police officer Ben Packard back to the small Minnesota town of Sandy Lake in search of a fresh start. Now a sheriff's deputy, Packard is leading the investigation into the missing teens, motivated by a family connection. As clues dry up and time runs out to save them, Packard is forced to reveal his own secrets and dig deep to uncover the dark past of the place he now calls home.

I thought this was a completely entertaining book that didn't eave room for guessing but it did deliver grit and disturbing content. I found the pace to make perfect sense and thought the parallel of the Sheriff and the criminals to be a good even balance. I liked that Moehling was willing to give the gritty gritty details of the criminals and wasn't afraid of the story being disturbing.

While reading sometimes it felt like the story wasn't going anywhere even though you could see both sides working on their own independent storyline. Since you know who did it at the beginning of the book I felt like it took away from the "why" of reading the book.

I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in dark thrillers.