Something Bad Wrong by Eryk Pruitt

I want to start by thanking the author, publishing company, and NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy of this book.

I love true crime and enjoy listening to podcasts and reading/researching various stories in my free time. This book was so captivating and beautifully written. I loved how this story switched back and forth from different character perspectives.

This story’s main character is Jess Kessler, who returns to her hometown of Deeton County, NC. She is a newly divorced mother looking to find herself after being a homemaker for several years. Jess decided to investigate an infamous unsolved murder in the ’70s. Her grandfather Deputy Big Jim Ballard was the main detective in the case. Jess enlists the help of a blemished reporter Dan Decker to help her investigate and start her podcast.

There were so many unexpected twists and turns in this book. I was on edge the entire time I was reading this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot say enough good things about it. It was such an easy read. I generally only try to listen to audiobooks because it’s easier for me; however, I had a hard time putting the book down once I started. This was the first book I’ve read by this author, and I can’t wait to read more.

I really loved this fast paced thriller. I had a hard time putting this book down. I love a good podcast and I got those vibes from this book. I always love when I book goes back and forth so you get past and present information. This was just all around a great read. This was my first read by ERik and I can't wait to read more! I would highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read this ARC in advanced.

Something Bad Wrong will hit you with multiple “oh shit” moments, elicit strong reactions to the behaviors of each character, and will twist your brain as you try to figure out who perpetrated the heinous crime and who is complicit by their actions. Eryk Pruitt has crafted a compelling thriller highlighting how small-town life isn’t always pink houses and apple pie, as it can sometimes be the perfect home for corruption, depravity and dark secrets.

Jess Keeler has visions of producing a true-crime podcast around the unsolved murders of a young couple in her hometown from 50 years ago. Her grandfather was one of the sheriff’s deputies on the case, but no one will talk to her about him or the investigation. After finding her grandfather’s notepad, she’s more determined than ever to get answers. Teaming up with a formerly respected, now disgraced newscaster, Jess conducts a thorough and relentless investigation to produce killer content for the podcast. However, the more they dig, the more dirt comes to light and paints a picture of misconduct, corruption, hubris, derangement, and deterioration that will shock a community that’s been awaiting answers for a very long time.

The beauty of Something Bad Wrong is that it’s fictitious but reads like true crime. You’re riding along during the investigation, sharing the excitement when a new lead is unearthed as well as in the frustration when a dead end is reached. You’re participating in the research and are in the room for interviews, trying to solve this double murder as if you’re personally involved. You get so invested that you forget this didn’t really happen, that it’s all out of the imaginative mind of Eryk Pruitt. And that’s what makes this such a good book. Getting so into it that you lose yourself in the action.

Great characters, great plot twists and great writing make Something Bad Wrong an intriguing and entertaining novel that thriller fans and true crime junkies will all love. It’s expertly crafted, deep and dark. Quite an enjoyable reading experience.

Being a Read now title, I found myself intrigued by the cover and description of this story. Unfortunately I had to give up reading after the first few chapters. Not even sure what made me do that honestly, probably both the pace and the story itself, just felt like I’m pushing to hard for something that I am not enjoying anymore. It’s on me and I’m sure other readers will definitely enjoy it.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

Something Bad Wrong
By Eryk Pruitt
Review and Rating 4 ⭐️

Something Bad Wrong by Eryk Pruitt was a a really good book! Starting out I wasn’t sure what to expect but it ended up a thriller all the way through.
The book has two timelines, the present following podcaster Jess Keeler as she joins forces with disgraced former TV journalist Dan Decker to investigate a cold case. The case is the unsolved disappearance of a young South Carolina couple on Christmas Eve 1972. Jess became interested in the case upon finding a notebook of her Grandfather’s, former sheriff’s deputy Big Jim Ballard. The former timeline follows the events of the 1972 investigation and the unraveling of Big Jim.
I am not going to get into more of the plot because I don’t want to give it away but I think Mr. Pruitt did really well with the timelines, I thought it flowed together beautifully. This book also has one of the most accurate, honest, and heartbreaking looks at Alzheimer’s disease I have ever read.
I did think that the ending was somewhat rushed but considering all the other great points I’m going to round this one up from a 3.5 to a 4⭐️.
I want to thank #Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Eryk Pruitt for providing me with an eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.



Book Rating Key
⭐️ Not Recommended
⭐️⭐️ Readable Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Good Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Excellent Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Near Perfect Book

***Note*** I seldom give ⭐️or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings. If I feel a book is a ⭐️sometimes I just prefer to not finish reading it and not rate it. As for 5 ⭐️books, I think of those as books I would want to take with me to a deserted island 🏝️, and this means I read a whole lot of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️star books. Happy Reading!

Podcaster Jess Keeler teams up with womanizing ex-anchor Dan Decker to solve the murder of a couple that happened 50 years ago. They uncover a corrupt police force and expose many secrets and lies. The book goes back and forth between past and present and was a very gripping read. Thanks NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC!

This was my first book to read by this author but won't be my last! The story and its characters will stick with you long after you finish the story. Highly recommend!

Eryk Pruitt’s novel Something Bad Wrong chronicles the investigation of an unsolved double murder of a young couple found bound to a tree in the woods in early 1972. 

The young couple disappeared on Christmas Eve of 1971 from South Carolina and were later found by a surveyor across the state line in Deeton County, North Carolina.

The novel opens with a preface of a modern-day true-crime podcast created by Jess Keeler and then further tells the story with dual timelines of the present day and 1972 investigation. The story is then propelled forward by the points of view of the different characters within the novel in alternating chapters. 

Leading the investigation of 1972 is Deeton County, NC sheriff’s deputy Big Jim Ballard, who also happens to be the long-dead grandfather of podcaster Jess. Big Jim is supervised by Sheriff Red Carter. Both are larger-than-life local legends, with each willing to resort to any method necessary to find the answers that they want.

For fifty years the killings have gone unsolved with no new information coming to light until after Jess discovers an old spiral notebook belonging to her grandfather. The notebook not only contains previously unknown information but also the name of a man her grandfather highlighted as “guilty.”

Jess then approaches Dan Decker, a disgraced womanizing, but once a very well-known journalist, to help in her investigation and after considerable encouragement is able to persuade him to help.

With the charm of Decker, the pair find more people willing to reveal more information, while others seem to wish the past stayed in the past. One of those resistant to the overtures of Jess and Dan is the sister of the murdered woman.

Not only does Eryk Pruitt put forward an interesting present-day telling, but also a complex recounting of the original investigation with interesting revelations best left to the discovery of the reader.

Of the novels I have read this year, Something Bad Wrong has been one of the best crime fiction novels read so far. The writing is crisp, and wonderfully descriptive, with the story reading like a crime fiction epic. Something Bad Wrong is also a blending of the genre styles of Country/Rural Noir and a police procedural. It is also written in such a way that Southern films from the 1970s like I Walk The Line and In the Heat of the Night are brought to mind.

I really enjoyed the craftsmanship of this novel and cannot recommend it highly enough. 

Something Bad Wrong is set to be released in early 2023. Netgalley provided an ARC upon the promise of a fair review.

This review was originally published at MysteryandSuspense.com

This was a decent story. Lost me a bit towards the end. Will read more by this author though. Just kind of slow to go

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

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I'm giving this a four, but it could have been a five if not for the writing. The repetitive nature of weird words like "virility" (gross) or unctuous or the fact that so many characters say "do what" continually took me out of the flow of reading. I found Jess to be so incredibly naive that I would forget she was pushing 40 with a kid in college - she behaves more like a headstrong 20-year-old than an actual adult. She was pushy against people who were actual victims or likely suffered trauma from involvement, and also so stupidly willing to cut off her first and only lead just because her mommy said so, which was so frustrating. I enjoyed the switching between time periods to get the grandpa's point of view, as he struggled with his cognitive issues. I think the author was pushing for his cause of death to be a twist, but it was pretty predictable. Overall, a good read for true crime or crime mystery fans.

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Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I actually really enjoyed the premise of this book. I do like the multiple timelines and viewpoints, but I felt like there were a lot of moving parts and the perspective changed so many times, I struggled to keep details straight sometimes. (I know some of this was intentional with Big Jim, but it was more than that). The whole idea of a true crime podcast within the story was excellent and well executed, I just wish the resolution of the story was more satisfying, you get answers, but the ending is anticlimactic in my opinion.

The part that was very well done was portraying the actual heartbreak that surrounds families that endure struggles with memory disorders. The challenges that Big Jim faced and how it effected those around him.

I'd definitely read other books by Erik Pruitt; I really did like his writing style; it was very conversational/easy to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this digital advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. Very original with compelling characters. I LOVED the relationship between Jess and Dan - thought that was beautifully done. The dual timeline works brilliantly and I was kept guessing the whole way through. A clever, satisfying thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep you turning the pages.

Heart breaking

Those are the only two words that can beautifully sum up this novel. I didn’t think I would like it because of the cop aspect but I couldn’t stop reading, I needed to know what happened and how things untangled.

I will say one flaw in the book was that is was resolved way too quick but other than that it was beautifully heart breaking

Something Bad Wrong by Eryk Pruitt
Rating: Starred Review

Summary: A women with little going on decides to deep dive and create a crime podcast about a unsolved double murder around Christmas time in 1972 on the border of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. She enlists the help of a famous Washed up TV news anchor and some notes from her Grandfather’s attic she discovered. Told from a parent and past narrative.

Comments: A brilliant developed crime novel expertly written. Pruitt nails the narrative of the time.

“Something Bad Wrong” kept me up late into the night because I didn’t want to put the story down. The story moved seamlessly between the past and present, with each time period culminating in their own surprising ways. Having first-hand experience as a caregiver to a family member with Alzheimer’s, I found parts of the story quite relatable, however was quite horrified and shocked by others. This is the first novel I’ve read that included Covid into the storyline, which I wasn’t particularly fond of, but thankfully it didn’t overtake the storyline in any way. Overall, I would definitely recommend “Something Bad Wrong.”

This was a good book, it's told from multiple points of view, some in the present and some in the past. Jess has found a notebook that belonged to her grandfather who was a detective with a small North Carolina police department, In the 70's James Ballard is a well respected policeman, though he has not told anyone that he is suffering from Alzheimer's, and his memory is spotty at best. He is assigned to investigate the death of two young people who were found shot/strangled and tied to a tree. In present day, Jess has read through James's notebook and is convinced she can solve the case and put away the bad guy, all she needs is a little help. She asks a disgraced former news anchor, who had been the most popular anchor until a MeToo type moment did in his career. He reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile, James becomes fixated on one person as the guy who did it and when they get him into a police interrogation room, the fellow is battered but alive, James gives him a ride home and he is never seen again. The story goes back and forth and tension builds nicely, there was a twist near the end that I must admit I did not see, but it was all good. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

This was absolutely just excellent. It is not true crime but read exactly like true crime should be. I don't know how I missed out on this author but so glad I stumbled across it.

The story takes place in two time frames, one current and one in the 70's. Two young adults were kidnapped off of lovers lane and murdered in the 70"s. Crime was never solved and it follows the investigators in the 70's and then the granddaughter of the original investigator in present time who found his notebook detailing the investigation who is putting together a podcast to solve it.

What was absolutely compelling about this was how the author wrote out the lead investigator, Jim Ballard. It was heartbreaking and SO realistic. I could not put this down. The writing and character descriptions were so realistic.. I would totally read a ton more from this author! Again....just an excellent writer

Thank you to Netgalley, publisher and the author for the chance to read it.

I found this really slow and it dis take me to get through it. I'm more a fan of action driven type thrillers where there is constantly events progressing the plot so it could be that this just wasn't my genre. It was a decent enough story though and I didn't have Amy other issues with the book, just not for me

If you’re down for a mystery that will keep you reading and guessing, this book was perfect. Slow burning right until the end when it wraps up with a few extra twists you wouldn’t expect. This book did not disappoint.

Jess finds an old notebook of her grandfather's and decides to do a podcast on an old unsolved murder he had investigated before his death. She ropes in Dan, a disgraced journalist, to help. The story flips between Jess and Dan in the present day and several of the investigating officers in the past. This was really good for a lot of the book, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. 3.5 stars rounded to 4, I think.