I had a hard time getting into this story or following the people and timelines. I struggled to connect with the characters who seemed rather generic. A fine mystery but it fell a little flat for me.

3.5⭐
Genre ~ mystery
Setting ~ Montana & Oregon
Publication date ~ October 11, 2022
Est page Count ~ 336 (48 dated chapters)
Audio length ~ 11 hours 23 minutes
Narrator ~ Nicol Zanzarella
POV ~ multiple 3rd
Featuring ~ multiple timelines, murder, cold case, dead teenager, secrets, lies and cover ups, references to child r@pe

Carrie first met Lindsay when she moved to town in the 80's. They barley became acquaintances when tragedy struck the small town when Mary Ellen was killed in a drunk driving accident. Carrie, sister, Ginger, and their grandma, Irene, left town soon after.

Now it's 2016 and Lindsay has found Father Leary's wallet and brings it to Detective Donovan who is eager to solve the Father's cold case from the 90's

There's also something that happened in the 70's that brings the story around full circle

You can't multitask when reading this one because the multiple timelines are all over the place. It does take a bit to figure out who's the who and what's the what and where the heck am I, so you have to pay attention, but once it gets going it's easier to follow along with.

Overall, I liked how all the plot lines came together and the old secrets that are dug up. The conclusion was satisfying for me.

Side note ~ I don't believe the side plot of Lindsay's daughter's job has any relevance to the story.

I was able to listen to an audio copy as well.
Narration notes:
I thought she did an outstanding job. There were quite a few characters and she gave them all a voice.

There is a lot going on in this story and can be very confusing in the beginning. Not sure if I’d have been able to follow along on audio alone.

The book is told in multiple points of view and timelines.

Lots of who what and why for a missing priest found dead. Years later the case has become a cold case and detective Donovan is itching to close the case once and for all when the dead priests wallet gets dropped off.

Then you have a man in prison for killing another man but he also was friends with the priest.

Girls from the private church school have their history and now Looking for answers from back then as well.

Very in depth who-dun-it but just wished they would’ve also wrapped up the detective’s other case.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC.

As readers of my book reviews and blog will know, I am a mood reader and can be a fussy reader. I was in one of those mindless scrolls and came across Blind Faith. This one sounded intriguing as it contained an unsolved murder, a family, friends, and a dark secret. The book starts with a murder and running a guy off the road. Then the book jumps twenty years as we are in the present time of 2016 and Lindsay is back in her hometown and working as a lawyer when she is given a box of items found in a crate at one of the places she is working with. Inside was a wallet and the wallet belonged to Father Michael O'Leary, a priest who vanished without a trace back in 1992 when she was 15 years old. Inside is also a photo of a young girl aka Ginger who is Carrie's little sister. Lindsay met Carrie a few times, just before the family moved shortly after the father’s disappearance. Is it connected? The book then moves over to Carrie's story as she is busy researching her genealogy as her grandson has cystic fibrosis. What happens when she not only realizes some hard family truths but there is a connection between her real father and the Priest's disappearance and that he is connected more to her family than she ever realized? Blind Faith was a good mystery read, but did jump all over the place in timelines which in parts was a little confusing to keep the story straight If you are in the mood for a religious mystery/thriller then check out Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman.

Multiple mysteries to solve and multiple timelines, masterfully written in one awesome book.
at the beginning you genuinely have no idea what is happening but instead of being confused and overwhelmed you're intrigued to find more and more. the story follows three main mysteries, a man being chased off a cliff in 70s, a priest disappearing in 90s and mysterious lives of girls who had a weird incident with a nun,
It basically is like a "find the killer" game. clues are everywhere, like easter eggs. it's so much fun to read and truly amazing.
I really enjoyed this one.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing my copy.

When the wallet of a preacher who was a well loved teacher at the local Cathoic high school appears years after his murder, hidden secrets start to come to light. As characters are introduced seemingly with little connection to the priest's murder the reader quickly finds themselves caught up in a puzzle of biases, family loyalty, corrupt faith, and the consqequences played out on the whole town for the choices of the few. While keeping storylines straight was a bit of a challenge, overall I found this book to be a good read full of mysteries that kept me wanting to see the final solution. A good solid read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an adanced copy for an honest review.

Atmospheric with some well developed characters. Great mystery.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Overall, Blind Faith is a good story, but I felt like it jumped around way too much. I typically don't have an issue with multiple timelines, but I found I constantly had to look back to see what year I was currently reading and whose storyline was being told.

I did like the storyline and how the murder of a popular priest in 1995 is reopened in 2016 after the discovery of his wallet, and I thought the blending of the characters and their storylines was well done. I was really invested in the first half of the story but found by the second half, I was ready for it to wrap up. Part of that could have been because I had figured out some of the twists.

It was a good story. Not super gripping or mysterious, but a good book.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

Narrated in different timelines, this book does tend to jump around a bit. The main focus is on the disappearance and murder of Father Leary and the detective (Donovan) that reopens the case years later. Family secrets and corruption are discovered along the way, but what really happened to Father Leary and those that were connected to him? Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

After reading the blurb for this book I was so excited to read it. A corrupt priest, dead. A cold case. A former prosecutor and a hot shot prosecutor. A tale of whodunit that involves more than one murder. Sounds great, right? I love a good crime thriller/suspense novel that throws religion into the mix. Sadly, this novel fell completely flat for me.

From the very beginning, the non-linear timeline and mixed POVs was often confusing and didn’t last long enough for me to get a good grasp of what was going on before quickly shifting to another chapter. This grew old very quickly. Then the book just moved slowly, with a lot of unnecessary sections and passages that bogged down the book and slowed the pacing so much I found myself wishing there was such a thing as fast forward. This book simply wasn’t done baking, for lack of a better term. It needed content editing and maybe a few more readers on Beckman’s side to be honest about how and where the suspense was slacking off in her novel.

I simply wish that for such a dynamic blurb the book would’ve matched. I would’ve loved that book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. Personal policy dictates that due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not be posted to any bookseller or social media website.

Filer Under: Amateur Sleuths/Crime Fiction/Crime Thriller/Just Not For Me/Mystery/Suspense Mystery/Suspense Thriller

A murder mystery narrated in multiple timelines, Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman concerns the cold case murder of a priest in 1992. Initially, this book was confusing in the beginning as it jumped back and forth over multiple years and with different characters. The main story is set in Billings, Montana 2016 when the discovery of a wallet leads to the reopening of a murder investigation. Each of the protagonists has a connection to the dead priest. A car accident, shooting and disappearance of the priest all unfold through flashbacks. A well-written tale but its jumpy, nonlinear recount of events is a needless distraction that makes this mystery a disappointing two and a half star read rating. With thanks to Crooked Lane Books and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

Blind Faith is the story of several cold cases. This story alternates between the past and the present as Detective Donovan is presented with a recently found wallet belonging to a missing priest which will bring several of these unsolved crimes to light.

Lindsay Keller, a lawyer in Billings Montana, works with real estate and historic preservation. A client drops off a wallet found while relocating an old house to a new site. Lindsay brings it to Det. Donovan, but she secretly removes a photo of a young girl she remembers but can't come up with the name. from the wallet before she turns it in. The wallet brings back the past to Lindsay but doesn't understand how it ties together.

Lindsay remembers Father Leary fondly from the Catholic High School she attended. He was very helpful when Mary Ellen Simonich died in a car accident early in their senior year. Lindsay and ME had been best friends until ME's father on the verge of bankruptcy came into money and moved to the rich part of town. ME changed as a result and not for the better.

Carrie West came to Billings and started her senior year and became friends with Lindsay. Carrie, her little sister Ginger, and grandmother Irene came to be near Father Leary who was their father's childhood friend. But something happens that causes them all to move to Portland just a few weeks later.

Lindsay and Donovan are looking into Father Leary's murder, and Carrie is doing her own research but for different reasons. Her four-year-old grandson has cystic fibrosis and she needs to complete a genealogy history to be accepted into a drug trial. Carrie doesn't know anything about her family's past, but she realizes she has been lied to as she discovers records that have been hidden. She was told that her father died in Vietnam, and her mother died of cancer. Her grandmother never talked about her father's family and has now passed away. Her investigations into her own past will connect with Lindsay and Donovan's investigations.

This story was very interesting but slow to start. It is told from multiple viewpoints and takes place over several decades. As the years got closer together it really picked up speed to a fascinating conclusion. This is a complex story with multiple plots that tie together. I highly recommend this book it is well worth sticking with it as the reveal is a huge payoff.

Thank you to the author, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This mystery with layers of secrets was an engrossing read. I was not familiar with the author, but loved her style of writing - not a spectacle or showy, but a slowly developing arc that really reeled me in. The story is complex and spans decades, with lots of different threads that may not make sense at first, or are hard to keep track of until you're well into the body of the story. The narrative moves forward steadily, but does jump back and forth between years and POVs - which does require the reader to pay attention, as clues to developments in the present are hidden in chapters set in the past.

This book is well written, interesting, and amazing! I could not put it down! The cold case that comes to light and it's connections to the past and present makes one think about how what happens in the past affects our present. My only criticism of this book was keeping all the characters straight, At times the last names were confusing, but it did not hinder the enjoyment of the reading. It's an interesting study in how the sins of the father can be put upon the son and how far a person would go to protect the ones they love. Loved the story and the intertwining of the characters throughout their lives.

Blind Faith follows the lives of several members of a small town whose lives were, of course, intertwined. Father Leary disappears. Two young women are forgotten in the wake of a teenager’s death. One family has everything they every wanted. Is it all related? Of course. And Detective Donavan needs to find out how. It was a good, but not great, mystery that kept me reading. It offered no huge surprises but had solid characters and story line.

A twisty tale of old secrets. Father Michael disappeared in 1995. HIs remains were found in 2004. But there have never been any answers as to what happened to him. Now, Brian Donavan, new to the Billings PD from Boston has taken on the cold case but it opens up a can of worms. Lindsay Keller and Carrie Matheson both have pieces of the puzzle but they aren't sure how things fit. And neither is the reader for quite some time. This moves back and forth and to be honest is confusing in parts because it's not straightforward. That said,. it's also a clever and well constructed mystery. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman is a highly recommended mystery.

There are several different mysteries that need to be resolved. Lindsay Keller is a lawyer who currently handles real estate deals and historic preservation projects in Billings, Montana. When she is given a wallet found on a property, she realizes immediately it belongs to Father Michael Leary, who disappeared years ago and is presumed dead.

Detective Brian Donovan has moved to Billings from Boston and taking on a notorious cold case intrigues him. The case is propelled to the forefront with the discovery of the wallet and Donovan is carefully examining all the case notes from years ago.

In Portland, Ore., Carrie Matheson, knew Father Mike. When she was young, her Baba and little sister, Ginger, moved to Billings following Father Mike. She was in her senior year of high school when something happened that had them moving yet again. This time to Portland, Oregon.

Lindsay and Donovan are both examining and digging deeper into Father Mike's murder. Carrie, on the other hand, is researching her family tree to try and help her grandson get into a drug trial. He has cystic fibrosis and in order to be accepted into the drug trial, he needs a complete genealogy. Her investigation leads to Father Mike and Lindsay and Donovan. There is also the question of how does this all connect to an event in the 70's when a man forces another car off a cliff.

The characters are fully realized as unique individuals. You will care about what happens, but there are many characters, which requires, again, that you pay close attention to all of them and remember the facts surrounding them.

This is a well-written intelligent and complex mystery that spans decades and moves forward at a steady, even pace. Chapters are headed by the year and this is very important because the narrative jumps back and forth between years as well as the points-of-view of various characters. Clues to what is happening in the present are found in these chapters which requires readers to pay close attention to when and where the chapter is set. The switching back and forth can also be a bit disconcerting. This is an excellent mystery but the jumping timelines made it a much slower trip to the satisfying conclusion.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, Google Books, and Amazon.

A great suspense with a diabolical murder plot with several twists that turn what you think you have figured out on its ear so you have to untwist a bit more! Interesting characters that flesh out the storyline as it is unfolded over the decades. The author has done an outstanding job of weaving a murder mystery that will have you turning pages and ignoring the world around you as you strive to figure the mystery out! I can't wait for this author's next book! I'll definitely be looking for more from her!

Father Michael Leary disappears after being called to give a dying woman last rites in the fall of 1995. When his body is found, it's clear he was murdered. Who would want a priest dead? Especially one loved by all his parishioners? When Father Leary's wallet turns up in a box taken out of the basement of an old house in 2016, Billings Detective Brian Donovan puts fresh eyes on the case, with help from a local lawyer who has a personal interest in the case since she knew Father Leary when she was a senior in high school. The story moves easily between different time points and is told from the perspectives of these two characters as well as others, including Father Leary himself. Good character development and an intriguing plot drive the story forward. As a Montanan, I also enjoyed reading a story set in a familiar place.