[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Not By Blood releases July 18, 2023

Tina is no stranger to the many phone calls she gets from her drug addicted brother, Bill, looking for someone to lend a hand at odd hours and at sketchy places. So when she gets a phone call from him at 1 am with a location leading to a drug den, she shows up, because that’s what family does right? Except, Bill is no where to be found. In his place, is a dead detective, a missing gun, and a sketch book that was left behind. Right when Tina’s about to call in for help, she gets an anonymous text message saying “shhhh…”
Not three hours later, when Tina arrives back home, she finds that her husband Tom is now missing and has even left their six year old son unattended.
How are all of these things connected? And where is her brother Bill?!

This was an okay thriller. A bit lackluster and not as gripping as I would have hoped. There were a lot of secrets between characters that were slowly revealed along the way.
I didn’t think the addition of a past event between Tina and Desmond was all that necessary.
Perhaps making this a multi-pov story would have helped to propel this further and be more three-dimensional.
Also, the title of the book was sadly a dead giveaway for the plot considering that this had an adoptive family dynamic.

A thriller with healthy storylines on how to cope with substance abuse, unhealthy family relationships, and maybe slightly unhealthy lies to cops. I really enjoyed this book, I do wish there had been less fluff in the beginning and it had gotten to the main plot quicker. I would've loved to hear more about her dad in jail/prison and what happened there.

A druggy crying wolf until a detective is found dead. Tina tapes things into her own hands. A dark and wild ride. It took me a while to get into the story but once I did I quite enjoyed it.

Tina Evans is used to her brother, Bill, calling for help; but it’s become a case of the boy who cried wolf. This time he’s calling from the Brooklyn drug house he’s squatting in, and Tina dutifully heads over but when she gets there, there’s no sign of Bill. Instead, Tina finds a dead PI with a missing gun in the alley. Instead of calling the police, Tina goes on an investigation of her own when she gets a text from an unknown number that says “Shhh”. She knows the murder and her brother’s disappearance are. connected, she just has to find out how – and hope that her brother is an innocent victim

This is a book of mystery and intrigue. The Language takes away from the story…adds nothing…the characters are dynamic…the story moves quickly…this book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review.