The story got right into everything and I really appreciate the speed in which the events transpired. I love that this is an LGBTQ+ inclusive book (the MC, Ben Packard, being gay). I loved Gary and Cora, their back and forth was funny.

I loved Joshua Moehling's writing as well and look forward to reading more by them!

Even though the crime is revealed in the beginning of the story, this book is an enjoyable journey of small town life in Minnesota with well fleshed out characters and a tragic mystery to solve. I loved Ben Packard, the deputy in charge of solving the case of 2 missing teens, I hope the author brings him back in future stories. Thank you Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press Sourcebooks and Dreamscape Media for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the debut novel by Joshua Moehling, wonderfully narrated by Linda Jones - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Acting Sheriff Ben Packard is back home in small town Sandy Lake, Minnesota, after a devastating personal loss. When his cousin's daughter and her boyfriend go missing, Deputy Packard is determined to find them. The two teens broke into an elderly man's house looking for drugs and met the homeowner, Emmett Burr, who was armed. Now Burr's fighting to keep the secrets found in his basement.

I loved this book - it's one of those stories where the crime happens right away and you go along with the police as they try to solve the case, while learning all the characters' backgrounds along the way. This was a gripping story, expertly written to make you feel contrasting emotions towards the perpetrator while despising the crime. In addition, despite the terrible nature of the crime, the author never made the violence gruesome and over the top, like so many books do. Readers are smart enough to fill in the blanks without it being so blatant. So bravo for a fabulous debut with fingers crossed that this was just the first in a series featuring Ben Packard (and Franklin!).

Ben Packard returns to the small town of Sandy Lake, MN after a personal loss. He is the acting sheriff and most of the calls range from petty squabbles to a bear in a garage until today when two teens are missing.
Emmett Burr lives alone so when two teens break into his house hoping for an easy score, he reaches for his shotgun and kills one of them. Unfortunately for the girl left behind, Emmitt has secrets that means he cannot risk the police coming to his house.
I loved this debut although it took a couple of tries to get engaged with the story but I think it was more me being distracted than the writing. Once I started reading I couldn’t put it down and I look forward to reading more of Ben Packard and I’m not a fan of series. This will be released Tuesday, June 14, 2022 and is a good start to your summer reading list. Thanks to # netgalley and the publisher for the advanced e copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

And There He Kept Her introduces us to the new sheriff in the town of Sandy Lake: Ben Packard , a home town boy.

Ben's family has a tragic history in town with that of his missing brother Nick, presumed drown years ago.

Ben's niece is missing along with her boyfriend and she needs insulin to stay alive.

Ben is tough yet kind, fair yet understanding and he works non stop to find the missing teens.

The book is tense, there are characters that are despicable and those you can help but like.

Great start to a new series and I can not wait to see what adventure Ben will face next: will he resolve his brother's case?

I will be first in line to read Book 2.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Press for a gripping read.

I do love a good police procedural. This one didn't disappoint - from the troubled cop to the history of the past coming up in the case, it was very well done. At the same time, it was just another police procedural, but if you like these, then I'd recommend it!

"They thought he was a helpless old man. They were wrong."

WHEW what an opening chapter. We start And There He Kept Her knowing who the bad guys are and knowing what's happening to our two missing teenagers... but the Sheriff's Department and newly-returned-to-town Sheriff Ben Packard are still trying to figure it out. But we're still left with a handful of questions that make the book increasingly more suspenseful as it goes on. I found myself unable to put this down because I wanted to see how everything would play out. And There He Kept Her is a dark, disturbing, and spectacular debut. 

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I was excited to get an early copy of this as I saw it listed in my Costco Connection magazine as a book to read this summer! I could not put it down! I thought I knew what was coming next and I was never right! So many twists and connections. Appreciated the different perspectives of Emmett and Packard. Was interesting to see the thought processes of each person and how they ended up connecting people when they really weren't planning on it. You never know what is happening behind closed doors....

A KNOCKOUT! "June Pride Month Book Pick"

"Andy Griffith meets Schitt's Creek in this small rural Minnesota town of Sandy Lake— with wit, grit, long-buried secrets, and a well-developed cast of diverse, colorful characters that will have you drooling for a series. I LOVED IT! Prime for the big or small screen."

A STAR IS BORN! Joshua Moehling, the newest voice in crime fiction, is at the TOP of my favorite author list, and I predict he will be on the bestselling charts for years to come. An author to watch and an impressive debut.

SECRETS DO NOT STAY BURIED FOREVER!

From the dazzling character development, the artful blending of dark humor, suspense —and insights into the dark side of the human psyche, AND THERE HE KEPT HER is a well-crafted knockout psychological crime thriller debut! I cannot wait to see what comes next.

For fans of — A cross between Karin Slaughter/Lisa Gardner, Paul Cleave/Linwood Barclay/Michael Robotham, LGBTQ PJ Vernon/Catherine Ryan Hyde, Janet Evanovich/Sally Hepworth/Kaira Rouda/Kimberly Belle, and Allen Eskens/Heather Gudenkauf/John Hart (all favorites) with a winning Joshua signature style.

Hilariously funny, and hopefully, a new series featuring hunky new Sherriff Ben Packard (LGBTQ) Sandy Lake, MN, and the loveable gay Gary reminds me of Leslie Jordan (a favorite). Also, Gary's neighbor, the Bible preaching Cora with the evil husband, Carl. What a fun banter between Gary and Cora.

Gay, white Ben Packard is a new deputy (acting Sheriff) in the small rural town of Sandy Lake, Minnesota. He also has to contend with a not-so-bright and naive Barney Fife type. He is using the job as a mask to keep a low profile, but being the current Sheriff who has cancer, his role is getting more attention. He wants to keep his personal life his own business.

His former black lover-partner (cop) was killed in the line of duty, and he has been grieving and decided to take this job back in Sandy Lake and put his personal life on hold. He keeps to himself in his personal time, living on the lake and swimming daily. However, he might be ready to start dating again and his new pal, sidekick dog, Franklin named after his grandfather.

However, he is haunted by his brother's death years earlier, and I have a feeling much more to come in future books about this. What happened to Nick?

There is always drama in this small, complex town, and Ben is trying to make peace with an array of drama. Then you have the high school drug dealers stealing the meds of the crazy older folks.

Susan, (cousin of Ben) and mother of Jesse, and upscale restaurant owner— is a bit of an enigma and I think there is more to her backstory. Very intriguing. Then you have the monsters (one may be worse than the other) Emmett and Carl, who have been begrudging allies for years.

Jesse is a teen being blackmailed by Sam, a small-town teen drug dealer in town(wealthy parents and grandson of the sheriff, and threatens his sister if he does not pull off a drug deal. As the book opens, Jesse and his girlfriend, Jessica break into a remote lake house owned by an older man with known prescription drugs.

However, things do not go as planned. Emmett, the crazy owner, is a monster with guns, prescriptions, a prison cell/bondage set up in the basement, and dead bodies in the backyard going back for decades, and he will do anything to keep his dirty secrets. They have no clue.

Jessica has diabetes. If she does not get insulin, she could die. The niece of acting Ben Packard and daughter of Susan—wise, but can she outsmart Emmett and remain alive? A creative, quick thinker, brave, fearless, and tenacious.

THE TWIST: The author brilliantly showcases his talent when he turns the tables: a robbery victim into a retired serial killer, flipping the script from victim to predator. The lines blur between the victim, abuser, and protector.

Sandy Lake is one crazy and complex town. I cannot wait for the next in the series. Get this one on your TBR list! I cannot recommend this book highly enough and the author. This one will be in my Top 10 thrillers of the year and contender for best crime thriller of 2022. Yes, it is that good and then some! The summary description does not do it justice.

A BLENDING of rural small-town underbelly, dark, gritty, cop procedural, LGBTQ. A rural noir crime psychological thriller with loads of sarcasm, suspense, witty humor (which I adore) with lots of heart, entertaining morally complex, and multi-dimensional characters.

UPCOMING INTERVIEW: Stay tuned for an upcoming exciting June 14th Featured #AuthorElevatorSeries Interview with Joshua, where we go behind the scenes of the book and this exciting new talent. You can sign up for my newsletter to have it delivered to your inbox on pub day.

SPECIAL THANKS: To the amazing Mandy Chahal at Poisoned Pen for this fabulous recommendation (you know what I love) for a print and e-book ARC and also NetGalley to read, listen to, enjoy, and review.

I also listened to the audiobook by narrator Linda Jones, which was excellent. She gave an award-winning performance, and I highly recommend it. Thank you, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an audio ARC—You are the best!

Blog Review Posted @
www.JudithDCollins.com
@JuditheDCollins | ##JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: 14 June 2022
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. When the teenagers went missing, no one expected what really happened. Actually, no one really suspected anything was wrong for a few days. As she ran out of insulin it became life or death to find the teens. After a series of Emmett's mistakes finally the officers to the teens. This was filled with suspense and ups/downs. Definitely recommend.

We know who did it. .. . the question is will they find her?

There is just something about getting inside the head of the killer, seeing their perspective. Emmett didn't let me down, his pov was tense and intriguing. It was disturbing the things he thought and things he had done previously but it was wild to try and understand what created who he became.

Detective Packard is good at his job and he's determined to find the girl. I found him sort of boring at times, there were mysteries surrounding him that would make for great growth and future books though! A gay cop in a small town made the rumors run wild! I love that he didn't feel the need to defend himself against it but rather let them sit with their curiousness (or nosiness).

The audio was good! She did a great job with the tone and when things shifted you could feel it through her voice. I got chills a few times.

Thank you so much to @dreamscape_media, @poisendpenpress, @netgalley and Joshua Moehling for the advanced copies!

A compelling suspenseful story, sometimes so disturbing, distance was required. The characters have depth beyond their roles in this small town, missing persons police procedural. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Well written thriller from a debut author. Set in a small lake town in Minnesota, acting sheriff Ben Packard races to solve a case of two missing teenagers. Jesse and Jenny sneak out in the night to break into a seemingly harmless old man's house to steal his prescription drugs. They pick the wrong house....

Packard is a likeable, complex, well developed character - perhaps this book is introducing him to be a main character in an ongoing series. He needs to investigate a couple of personal cases for sure. Overall it was just too disturbing for me, but I did race through it to see what wold happen. I'd be open to reading future books by this author, assuming that most of the rest of the residents in this small town aren't as creepy as the ones featured in this one!

Thanks NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press fro the opportunity to read a new author.

Read this if you like: Procedural crime books, creepy killers, slow burn thrillers

Jesse and Jenny 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. Emmett Burr has secrets he's been keeping in his basement for more than two decades. He'll do anything to keep his past from being revealed. As he gets the upper hand on his tormentors, the lines blur between victim, abuser, and protector.

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.

Wow. I am baffled that this is a debut. It was well written. The pace is more of a slow burn than fast. I do prefer fast but still liked it a lot. The twists are thrilling. It's graphic, disturbing, and I loved it. Emmett is so creepy and gross. It reminds me of Karin Slaughter's books. Highly recommend! It comes out June 14th.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Poisoned Pen Press for the gifted copy! ❤️

Joshua Moehling's novel "And There He Kept Her" has many positive aspects in its corner. It is not a who-dun-it as we know from almost the beginning who the kidnapper is. What drives this book is Mr. Moehling's ability to involve the reader emotionally and allow us to easily get wrapped up in the characters and the events that are currently shaping their lives.

Ben Packard works for the Sandy Lake Sheriff's Department and first learns of Jenny's disappearance from her mother Susan (his cousin). The complication is that Jenny apparently does not have any of her insulin with her, so if there is any foul play, that reduces the amount of time Ben has to find her. As you can surmise from the book's title, Jenny has been abducted. Although the villain in this tale has done this before, Jenny's kidnapping is outside of his normal routine.

The story is told through the eyes of Packard and the kidnapper. While Packard performs the necessary police procedural duties, the kidnapper is constantly worried about all the extra problems he has to address with Jenny. This is a different view you don't usually get to see -- a bumbling bad guy that is trying to work things out in his head so that he can keep his victim around for as long as possible. It made for interesting reading.

The pacing was good the majority of the time, although I felt the constant return to memories of Packard's lover cause the story to drag, and the eventual end to this subplot was jolting and out of character for the man I had gotten to know over 300 plus pages. Even so, the rest of the book moved well and there were some unexpected surprises as the story raced to the ending. This book is a debut novel by the author and suspense readers are urged to give it a read. Four stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Jesse and Jenny head out to Emmet’s disgusting home to find some oxy. Jesse ends up dead and Jenny is abducted. (No spoiler, this is how the book begins.)

We know where Jenny is and who has her, so there is no mystery to solve, and it’s a very, very slow burn as Packard, the sheriff, slowly pieces together the puzzle. Did I mention it was SLOW? I like police procedurals but this is not that.

The “bad guys” are OTT caricatures of evil men, sick and disgusting. Everyone else is a stereotype to the point of being caricatures. Neither Emmet or Jenny did or said anything that was remotely believable. Emmet does some things that no abductor with more than 2 brain cells to rub together would do. It was so obvious, he may as well have carried around a poster declaring he had abducted the girl. He’s a candidate for a Darwin Award except NO ONE NOTICES THESE THINGS ARE ODD. Not the sharpest tools in the shed.

And why make Emmet morbidly obese? It added nothing to the story other than making some of the things he did even more unbelievable.

The story moved slowly with literally nothing happening, and I found myself skimming just to be done with it. If I know from the beginning what happened to the teenagers and who the perp is, then the storytelling and investigation needs to be top notch. That didn’t happen here. Even Frank, the corgi, couldn’t save this one.

I think Packard, the sheriff, has potential as an interesting character if given better material.

This thrilling debut is set in a small Minnesotan town. The story starts off with a bang as two teenagers break into a house and are surprised with secrets and surprises in the home of an elderly man. The teens disappear and leading the investigation is acting sheriff, Ben Packard. He finds himself searching for clues as the clock ticks down and he is forced to come to terms with his own secrets and his past.

This was a solid debut. The uncovering of clues and the suspense throughout the story was intriguing and well written. Ben was such an interesting character. His life was complicated but he was so like-able. The antagonist was disturbed and unsettling. The end was a little lack luster but it was a fun read. I am looking for more from this author.

4 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #AndThereHeKeptHer #JoshuaMoehling.

Packard leaves his policing job to go back as a sheriffs deputy to the small lakeside town he grew up in. The same town where his has lost family in an unsolved mystery.
Two teenagers go missing, most assume it is a runaway situation. But as Packard investigates he discovers a serial kidnapper and a prescription drug ring.
Very well plotted and paced. Great characters and a satisfying ending.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC in return for my unbiased opinion..
I do recommend.

While this story was troubling and horrific in many ways, I enjoyed it. It was a quick read that kept me turning page after page. Packerd, acting Sheriff at Sandy Lake got more than he was expecting when his cousins daughter who he hadn’t spoken to in years turns up missing. While it was a long road to fit all of the pieces together about two teenagers gone missing and where they ended up, I was glad for a semi-happy ending for these characters. I would definitely read another from this author in the future.


I was gifted an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to be approved for an advanced ARC of this book. The premise sounded creepy in all the best ways. However, this book fell flat for me. There was an abundance of descriptive details that would make me forget what had just happened and I would have to reread sections. I didn't connect with any of the characters. I kept waiting for something more to happen and it just never did. This being the author's first book, I will give his next one a try. The author has great potential, this one just fell flat for me.