I was excited to receive a galley of this book, as I have enjoyed both of Finlay's past books.

What Have We Done is a thriller from multiple POVs, a group of children who met living in a group home together, now adults are at the center. Each of these characters experiences a death threat/attempt and know that they will have to work together to determine who is trying to eliminate them and why.

This was my favorite Finlay book to date. I was quickly pulled into the story when the book opened with all of the characters standing around a whole in the ground stating "what have we done". I was immediately hooked. I loved that the chapters were short and the book read quickly.

Finlay is one of my favorite authors but this one wasn't my favorite of their books. It was a good read and good mystery, but for me it wasn't as captivating as the other three. Overall, a good read and I'll keep reading anything Finlay writes!

🕵️‍♀️WHAT HAVE WE DONE by Alex Finlay🕵️‍♀️

📆Pub date: March 7, 2023
➡️Swipe for synopsis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read if you like:
💨Fast paced books
📖Short chapters
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Multi-POV

Thank you so much to @minotaur_books and @stmartinspress for the digital ARC of What Have We Done!

Whenever I need a super fast paced book I know I can read in a day, I reach for an Alex Finlay book. What Have We Done was exactly that. I read it in the span of about 12 hours because I couldn’t tear my eyes away. It was super action packed with not a single boring moment.

Although it kept me turning the pages, there were a few things that this book didn’t give me. I wanted more backstory to the group that took Jenna from the foster home and trained her to become an assassin. Everything in this book was unrealistic, and while that provided for a fun reading experience, I couldn’t get past it. The twist ending also seemed to come from nowhere.

I recommend this book if you need something fun and fast-paced that you could surely read in one sitting!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. Twenty-five years ago, five teens from a shady foster home bury a secret. Fast forward 25 years later, one of them gets murdered and it appears the others are also a target. Who wants them dead and why? Could it be related to the long-buried secret? Can they figure out who is targeting them and why? The story is told from the perspectives of Nico, Donnie, and Jenna. Occasionally, the story will revert to past narrative. Whenever the story would revert from present to past and back again, there was some confusion because there was no header or warning in the story. Otherwise, I really enjoyed reading this novel. There was plenty of action going on with twists and turns. All the different characters in the novel were quite a hoot and I especially got a kick out of the assassin’s choice of weapon! Looking forward for more books from this author!

I was a huge fan of the Night Shift by Alex Finlay so I immediately knew I had to request this book but unfortunately this one just didn't work for me like his previous book did. This is definitely an addicting book with a really thrilling cast of characters but once the final twists were revealed I just found I wasn't really that interested anymore. I'm still definitely going to read from this author because this book is entertaining, it just wasn't my fave!

This is a highly readable, action packed conspiracy thriller that is definitely a page turner. I found it very entertaining, but I think the character development was quite lacking (I think if we'd stuck with Jenna, who was the most interesting character, that would have been a stronger choice) and the integration of the flashbacks was jarring to the flow of the book

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this thriller.

Though i've enjoyed several others of Finlay's books, this one didn't do it for me. I didn't like the characters, so they were hard to root for, and overall, it just didn't do. much for m.e

3.5 stars rounded down.

I raced through this thrillingly twisty romp though it was a little more sadistic than is my preference and I felt the author didn’t quite stick the landing.

Twenty five years ago, five children who were in the bleakly unpleasant Savior House group home committed an act that comes back to haunt them in the present day. Told through the eyes of Jenna, a sort of female Jason Bourne (don’t roll your eyes!) who worked for the shadowy Corporation, Nico, a reality TV producer, and Donnie, an alcoholic and washed-up rockstar and the book starts with a roar as each of these three are targeted by a surprisingly incompetent but persistent and very unpleasant hit woman.

Though they all survive, it’s clear that whoever is after them isn’t going to stop, so they must revisit the past to find out who is targeting them.

Short chapters with cliffhanging endings keep the fast pace up and if my credibility was strained a few times it was easy to get over that as I galloped past. My main beef is that the resolution of the mystery gets a bit lost in all the shooting and whatnot. I also did not appreciate that Jenna was not given much agency in the final denouement.

If this sort of thing is your cup of hocum, it’s a fine way to while away a few hours on a wet weekend.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Much thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press/Minotaur for the ARC on Alex Finlay's latest and one of the author's most entertaining thrillers yet.
Initially, I worried about the premise here. Oh no....not another group of friends haunted by a terrible crime of their adolescence, a shared guilt that's now come roaring back to put them in harm's way. I dreaded plowing through an onslaught of angst-ridden internal monologues.
But what a terrific surprise in store for any reader who picks this up.......a non-stop, breathless thrill ride guaranteed to make you lose track of whatever you're doing, not moving an inch until you've finished it.
Alex Finlay throws multiple, familiar genres into the mix.......starting with a bunch of emotionally broken, abused, orphaned teens trying to survive in a horrific group home. 'Savior House, its very name a sick joke, is a nightmarish hellhole right out of a Stephen King novel riddled with corrupt neglect and violent bullying. And the victims of this abysmal place, suspect its caretakers of kidnapping and sex trafficking.
But this small group of the tormented Savior House kids strike back and manage to escape the hellish house, leaving a buried body behind them.......a secret that comes back to throw their later lives into lethal jeopardy.
Now, as grown adults with a host of dysfunctions and troubles, four of them just barely survived attempts on their lives - Nico, a gambling addicted reality TV show producer, Donnie, a washed up, drug and booze addled rock star, Artemis, a powerful tech billionaire and Jenna, a former graduate and operative of one of those 'La Femme Nikita'-'Orphan X' assassin academies. But another of their original group wasn't so lucky.
The hit-girl tasked with killing them all is a scary young sociopath, who can uncannily appear in two places at once, and wields that pneumatic captive bolt-firing tube favored by "No Country For Old Men"s infamous killer Anton Chigurh.
What follows from this point on..... the book lays out an unrelenting chase as Jenna and her surviving Savior House friends become both hunters and hunted, unburying all the terrible dark secrets of their past and staying out of the crosshairs of ......well, that's another of the book's many twists you won't hear from me.
All I can say is that I raced through "What Have We Done" at record speed, one of those books where you constantly find yourself saying..."just one more chapter and then I'll pack it in for the night"....and then end up awake to read way more chapters into 3 'O clock in the morning.....
And that makes this one a pure and simple 5 star thriller..... a must red for armchair adrenalin junkies.

This one was a little meh for me. Jenna, Donnie, Nico and Benny were all in a children’s group home growing up where some awful things happened. Jenna wasn’t there for long as she was taken and trained to be an assassin. Donnie grew up to be a rock star trying to hold on to fame. Nico became a tv producer and Benny, a federal judge.
When the past comes back for the group, they have to figure out who is targeting them and get it to end once and for all.
It all seemed a little too far fetched for me and I never really got into the story.

Five parentless teenagers were residents of a group home where several female residents went missing. Before the home was closed, they did something that will haunt them into adult life. Now, twenty five years later, after rebuilding their lives, someone is trying to kill them; one has already been murdered. Three of them, Jenny, Donnie, and Nico will have to unravel the reason why while avoiding the would be killer(s).


Occasionally, I will start a book and want to put it down as a DNF. However, wanting to give it a chance, I persist. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and end up really liking the book. Not so with this one.

I’ve read other of Finlay’s books and enjoyed them, but this one was just too over the top and unrealistic for me. I don’t like it when I have to suspend belief. With multiple timelines and POVS, the story is fast paced, action packed and suspenseful. There are many readers who will enjoy this book; it just wasn’t one of my top reads.

What Have We Done follows Jenna, Nico, and Donnie as they try to figure out who is trying to kill them and why. They are all linked by meeting at a group home at teens and one big mistake that was made 25 years ago. Will their secret come to light or will they be able to keep the past in the past.

This was my first book by Alex Finlay and I enjoyed it. The beginning was a bit confusing to me but once you got through the 3 POVs a few times things began to line up and make sense. This is a great who dun it mystery thriller.

What Have We Done starts with a bang and keeps going.

Told from multiple points of view from 5 people who were once in a group home together as teens. One of them is dead and it appears that another one of them may be next. Who could want them dead after twenty five years??

The characters lives are slowly revealed and have been interesting to say the least.

I have read other books by this author and loved them. This one didn't grab me quite as much, but was still a good book. I couldn't wait to find out what was going on and why.

I can't wait to see what Finlay come up with next.

Thanks to netgalley and St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the arc.

special thanks to netgalley and st. martin's press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

after reading the synopsis for “what have we done”, i knew i had to send in a request! i was so excited to dive into a mystery/thriller novel, but unfortunately, this one was not for me. i felt like the multiple povs and timelines were a bit overwhelming and difficult to distinguish at times. by the time i was 42% into the book, the story still felt like it was dragging on and i had little to no interest in the characters or plot. even though this did not work for me personally, i’m sure other readers will find it more enjoyable!

I think that this one is just not for me. It was hard for me to get through, although I enjoyed his previous book, The Night Shift.

I didn’t particularly like any of the characters and I think that’s why it was difficult to get through. I’ll still pick up Alex Findlay’s next book since I loved the other one!

Thank you for the digital ARC.

This book is the definition of a fast-paced thriller. The action starts immediately and does not let up. The concept was intriguing - five orphans from the same group foster home come to terms with their past twenty-five years later. But there were some plot holes and too much suspended belief for me to get behind this book 100%. But it's a decent, spy-like thriller.

I LOVED this book. I was confused at first by all of the characters and the different timelines, but it all came together really well in the end and made for an incredible story. This author has become an auto-read author for me!

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay – Book #16

Twenty-five years ago, 5 kids formed a solid friendship while living in an abusive group home for parentless teenagers. As several of the residents go missing, the house shuts down. Jenna, Donnie and Nico haven’t seen each other since then but are forced to reunite now as someone is trying to kill them to discover a secret they keep.

What Have We Done is a fast paced, action packed thriller. I was captivated from the very first page and found there was never a dull moment. An absolute page turner, between the multiple POV, flashbacks and the short chapters, I enjoyed it all. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going and it was becoming predictable, a twist was thrown in that shook the story up. This was my first Alex Finlay book and it certainly won’t be my last.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for this ARC.
Pub Date: March 7, 2023!

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. This was a great thriller about 4 friends that met through the Savior House and 25 years all 4 of them is being targeted. I love their different stories and how they turned out. The story kept me interested and adding twists and turns along the way.

I enjoyed this thriller which brings together people who spent time in Savior House as parentless teens twenty-five years earlier. After the home was closed in part due to the disappearance of the director, the teens were split up to live their own lives.

Jenna found herself in Savior House after the death of her parents in a car accident. She wasn't their long when she was plucked out by a representative of The Corporation and trained to be an assassin. She's left that life behind, married, and is the stepmother to two girls. But then she gets called in to do one last assassination. Only she finds that her supposed target is another one of the kids from Savior House who has become a tech billionaire. After purposely missing the shot, she finds herself the target of killers who want to kill her to clear up loose ends.

Donnie is a has-been rock star with a drug and alcohol habit who is performing with the remnants of his old band on a cruise ship. He is attacked and thrown off the ship but is picked up by a fishing boat and rescued. His manager makes a deal with a writer for a tell-all book which forces Donnie to look back on those years spent at Savior House even though he doesn't want them to be any part of his story.

Nico is a television producer for a reality show set in the West Virginia coal mines. He has a major gambling habit and is deep in debt to some criminals. When one of the stars in the show asks to meet him on the set, deep in a coal mine, he is ambushed and left for dead after an explosion happens. He is rescued in the nick of time and wants to find out who set him up.

The story switches between these viewpoints and the viewpoints of the twin assassins who were sent to kill them all and who have already killed another of the kids who was now a federal judge - the Honorable Robert Benjamin Wood.

The three survivors all meet at the judge's funeral and begin to compare notes. They need to find out who wants them dead if they are ever to have their own lives again. The plot was twisty. Flashbacks from each viewpoint tell more about their lives a Savior House and expose the secret they are all hiding.

This was an excellent story filled with characters I cared about.