Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in audiobook format.

A gripping crime novel that explores the dark side of human nature and the consequences of one night's mistake.

The book follows two women, Delia Mariola and Git O'Rourke, both connected to a violent and dangerous world in different ways.

Delia Mariola is a police officer who works in Baxter, a small town in Pennsylvania plagued by poverty, crime, and corruption. She is assigned to investigate the murder of a man named Connor Schmidt, found dead in a hotel room with a bullet wound in his head. Delia recognizes Connor as the same man who had attacked her partner's wife earlier that night, she is confused by his death.

Git O'Rourke is a single mother who works as a waitress at a diner. She lives in a rundown apartment with her daughter Charlie, who suffers from asthma and diabetes. Git has a hard time making ends meet and often resorts to drinking martinis at a local bar to escape her troubles. One night, she meets Connor at the bar and agrees to go back to his hotel room for some fun. She doesn't know that he is involved with the local mob or that he has left behind a bag of money and guns on the bed.

The Yards is told from alternating viewpoints of Delia and Git, as well as other characters such as Charlie, Connor's wife, and his boss. The book switches between past and present tense, creating suspense and mystery as the reader tries to piece together the events that led to Connor's death and Git's involvement. The book also explores themes such as class struggle, domestic violence, drug abuse, loyalty, betrayal, and redemption.

The Yards is a fast-paced and thrilling read. The author creates realistic and complex characters that you will root for or hate depending on their actions. The book also offers an insight into the harsh realities of life in small towns where everyone knows everyone else's business but no one cares about anyone else's problems.

One of the best books of the year, watch for more from this author!

Baxter is a dead end town, it's factories closed and jobs difficult to come by. Two women face off when a crime is committed even though under different circumstances, they could be friends. Git O'Rourke grew up in Baxter and would like nothing better than to get out of it. She lives for her daughter, Charlie and works two jobs as a LPN to support them and her mother who lives with the two as child care. Delia Mariola is a police officer, full of vim and vigor and headed on the way up. She has a son and wants to improve Baxter for him and the other kids.
The confrontation occurs when Git has an evening out. She doesn't have time for a relationship but that doesn't mean she doesn't occasionally want male companionship and yes, sex. She goes to a local bar and picks up the best looking man there. But when they get to his motel, the sex is over quickly and the man passes out after shooting up heroin. Git looks around and finds a bag with money and drugs and decides this is her chance to get out of town and back to school to improve her life. She grabs the bag and takes off.

But something goes wrong. The next morning Delia is called out to the motel and finds the man still on the bed but not passed out. Now he has a bullet hole in his head. Delia knows the man is a low level criminal and suspects he is connected to the criminal family she has been chasing and particularly Connor, the son who will be taking over the organization when his father ages out. She knows if she can arrest Connor she will take down the biggest source of drugs and crime in Baxter. But the scene and the witnesses all point to the women who was there in the room. Delia knows that even if the women didn't do the crime she is now a target of Connor's organization. She has to find her quickly but can she do it in time?

A.F. Carter has delivered a compelling novel that explores crime and drugs in a small rust belt town through the stories of two women, both trying to create better lives for their children. The women see the side of town most folks don't want to admit exists and both find different ways to deal with the crime and general lack of opportunity in Baxter. The story of how they do so will keep the reader interested to the end. I listened to this novel and the narrator is perfect for this gritty tale. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

There were many enjoyable aspects to this story, strong female leads, fast paced action, a number of twists but overall I found I struggled to fully engage with it. Whilst the characters were well developed I never really related to them. I don’t think this was helped by the male narrator for parts of the book. The female narrator on the other hand was very good.

Overall I would say this was an okay book, but wouldn’t necessarily be in a rush to listen to others by this author. I feel it would be a better story if it was read rather than listened to. Possibly others would enjoy this book more than me so I would certainly say don’t let my view put you off.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and net galley for providing a review copy of the book for an open and honest review.

Really enjoyed this book! It was a good mystery! I didn’t expect what happened or who did it. Enjoyed the alternating points of view and the strong female characters. It was a quick read and the audio was excellent. I loved the different voices and they kept me entertained

If you like tough grimy mysteries this is for you! Very strong character development, and I just loved Git from the start. She is only a young woman and she hooked up with this druggie in a hotel. He went to the bathroom and overdosed on heroine, which only she knows. The town is infested with drugs and completely run down. Git has been wishing to get out of town and now she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place, hopeful the police doesn’t connect her.

It was a super fast read and the ending was a shocker for me!

The Yards is a super suspenseful multiple-narrator read set in a post-COVID Midwestern town with not much going for it. Alternating back and forth between Detective Delia Mariola and single mom Git O’Rourke, who is just tying to make a better life for herself and her daughter, iThe Yards is twisty and unpredictable. The audio version is fantastically narrrated and perfect for a long car ride! I highly recommend!

The Yards by A F Carter is a police procedural/story of a crime/small-town thriller, which takes place in a dying Midwest town, which used to be supported by meat packing plants, but now is down to just one of them. Employment is hard to come by as is any sort of a decent life. This story is about three people: Bridget O'Rourke (Git), a practical nurse with a small daughter; Connor Schmidt, a small time criminal, well, big-time in a small town; and Delia, a police lieutenant, not native, who is gay and has a young son. Connor is aching to take over the family drug business from his father, but sees o chance of that anytime soon; Git wants a better life, for herself and for her daughter; Delia wants to build a career and lead a decent life, hard to do with her proclivities in such a small town. They all come together in on less-than-spectacular crime.

The Yards started off to be a pretty unspectacular story, but got better as it progressed. At its core it was about a man with a huge ego and women who could take care of themselves. It built slowly, jumped from perspective to perspective, and had plenty of clever turns. Connor and his father simply wanted to take advantage of anyone they could, by selling them drugs, mostly. Git wanted more education and a better life, away from the yards. Delia liked the small town except for the scrutiny on her private life. Watching all three leading their daily lives for this short period of time was eye-opening. The story was full of surprises and wrong turns, mostly for Connor, but for all three, really. It was an enjoyable listen, worth spending one's time pursuing. I recommend it.

Amy McFadden was an excellent female reader, none of the hesitation heard too often with females and was easily able to switch from character to character without a lot of ridiculous attempts at voices. Cody Roberts was good as Connor and other male voices. They were a good duo and perfect fro this book.

I was invited to listen to a free ARC of this audiobook by Highbridge Audio, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #highbridgeaudio #theyards

For me, this book was a quick read. A pretty basic whodunit that was enjoyable. I didn't connect to the characters really but I did enjoy the story and plot.

I found this to be an entertaining and twisty read! I enjoyed the alternating point of views and felt that the characters were really well developed. I also really like when books have strong female leads and Git was an admirable badass.

Carter did a great job using short chapters to continually drive the suspense and this definitely helped contribute to this being a fast paced thriller!

While I was left with a little something to be desired, this was still a good and quick noir crime drama that’s worth checking out

3.5 stars rounded to 4 for goodreads

A good, quick read. A nice small-town noir. I really appreciate the author didn't make Git into a sloppy/junkie/drunk mess just because she lives on the wrong side of town. This genre tends to make a lot of generalizations about the sort of people who live in places like "the Yards," the kind of person who has one-night stands in bars, but Carter sidestepped it very well and made Git an actual human person rather than a caricature. Also, of interest to a lot of people following my reviews, the other main character is a lesbian cop, so if that gets it a place on your to-read list, I think you'll be pleased with the book.

Thank to Netgalley and HighBridge Audio for an ALC. It was a pleasant surprise to get it. It was an interesting crime listening.

A new author for me and I like the story and could not stopping before I knew how it ended. I was not attached to any if three personage but I like the package all together.

Git is the woman Delia and Connor are looking for after a man is found dead. She is a mystery but as well are detective Delia and son of a drug lord Connor. Lots of twists but maybe a little to predictable. But not boring.

The premise of this sounded amazing but unfortunately it kind of didn’t live up to my expectations. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it was just ok.
Git is a single mom from the wrong side of the tracks who works 2 jobs in order to give her daughter a better shot at life, but every now and then she goes to a bar to pick up a random guy for a one night stand. One of these instances, she hooks up with a guy who ends up dead the same night. Along with his death, a large amount of cash belonging to the local mob/crime family goes missing so now not only are the police looking for her, but so is the head of the family.
The story is told from 3 POV-Git, Connor from the crime family and Delia, the investigating officer. They’re all just trying to get through life in this town that seems to be beaten down as well. There are several twists and it is an entertaining story, but it was quite predictable.
I did enjoy the narration however. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was an easy way to pass the time while I worked.
Thanks to Mysterious Press and Netgalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

I found myself drawn in by both the story and the female narrator. The male narrator is overacting and I found I could not continue listening. I listened to about 90 minutes before giving up.

Many thanks to Netgalley and RB Media for providing me the audiobook version of Yards in exchange for an honest review.

Yards follows the story of three characters. Each point of view is written in the first person.
These three seemingly unrelated people get to meet in the strangest and definitely not the best of circumstances.

Git, a single mother, born and raised on the bad side of town has a horrible taste in men. It's so horrible that she ends up (almost) having a one night stand with a guy that was murdered right after he met up with her. This leads to her being the prime suspect in his murder.

The other two characters are a son of a drug lord and a policewoman. They are both after Git, trying to figure out who she is and whether she committed the murder.

The Yard is a fast paced thriller with lots of twists and turns. There was strong character development and the characters were well-rounded. But I couldn't get attached to any of them.

This light read was my first encounter with this author and I do enjoy her writing style.

The narrators were excellent, they made the experience even better.