Oh I do love a new series and you know it’s a good one when you open a collection for it on your Kindle.
The first in the Detective Eve Bennett series and Eve and her team, Clyde, Collin, Ray and Bina are called to a house where there are four murder victims. Four murders against the back drop of the very unusual and educational setting of a polygamist sect. A great tale, characters with interesting backstories and a brilliant if disturbing look at this ‘unusual’ community. I read this in one day and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next instalment has to offer

Detective Eve Bennett and her specialist team - Clyde, Collin, Ray and Bina - entered the Tanner home in Hilldale, Utah, in the centre of a large polygamist community, and found themselves stunned by the ferocity of the murders. The husband, his two wives and son all lay dead, but the daughter was missing. Where was Hannah, and was she safe? The more Eve tried to interview Hannah, the more she was blocked from meeting her, talking to her.

The investigation was hindered by the local attorney, her step-brother Aaron, a man Eve had feared for most of her life. He was a bully, brutal and cruel - and very involved in the polygamist community. But Eve had escaped that life, and now her intent was justice for the brutalised women and children. Would she be able to solve this case, discover who murdered the family?

Only Girl Alive is the 1st in the Detective Eve Bennett series by Holly S. Roberts and it was breathtaking! I was completely involved in the plot, the intrigue which wove its way through the pages and the mind blowing horrors that was the polygamist community. Eve's complete team are well-crafted characters, including Eve herself, and I'm very much looking forward to book #2. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book in the series. Detective Eve Bennet and her team go to investigate the murder of a family. The problem is that this is in the fundamentalist community of Mormons. Eve was once a member and knows the ways of the sect.
Very interesting and I could not put this mystery down. Look forward to the next book in the series.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and to the publisher Bookouture.

A highly engaging thriller. I literally couldn't stop reading. I haven't read a novel with polygamous families yet. Mormons are a branch of Christianity. However, I don't think they believe in the same God as Catholics. The book introduces the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members form a closed group. They're betting on marriage. They marry their relatives. Sick children are born. What do they do with them? You will know after reading. The husband is the most important. He has at least 2 wives. The boys can play. Women and girls have to work hard. In this hermetic environment, a tremendous tragedy took place. A family was killed, which consisted of a man, his two young wives and a son. Outside agents investigated the matter. They discovered that a 10-year-old girl had survived. Only no one knows where she is. The officers were worried about her. Her life is in danger. Whoever killed her family is probably hunting her now. I was horrified. I literally had shivers down my spine.
She met some interesting and less interesting characters. Including: local prosecutor, Aaron. Pretty nasty dude. It does not facilitate the work of an external team. Why? Does he have something to hide?
Another character and at the same time the main character is Detective Sergeant Eve Bennet. She used to belong to this community. Fortunately, she was saved from it. She had a hard time coming to her senses. This sect is brainwashing its followers. Will her reappearance in this environment suit her? Our heroine decided to help the woman and children of this sect. She is currently photographing crime scenes. Will this thing be easy for her? Will the members of this sect let go of her escape so easily? Will they work with her on a quadruple murder case? I liked this heroine. Eve is tough. She doesn't give up that easily. I've been wondering for a long time why she hasn't cut her hair yet? Was she going to return to that terrible sect? I fear for her future.
The case of the quadruple murder will not be easy. Who wants the truth not to come out?
The whole story takes place in the Utah. You will be truly horrified by this whole book. I would never want to belong to this sect. They are not followers of God. The men belonging to her are paedophiles. They take underage girls as wives. They are elderly themselves. They believe in some strange prophet and blindly follow his instructions.
Thanks to author Holly S. Roberts for mentioning this community. We can learn a lot from it.
Only Girl Alive is a sensational thriller that you must read. I hope that at some time there will be a second part of Detective Sergeant Eve Bennet. I'm very curious about her.
I keep thinking about this book after reading it. She made a very positive impression on me. I didn't expect this.
On top of all, this is a wonderful cover.
If you're looking for a thriller that will shake you up, then be sure to read "Only Girl Alive".
Learning what happened there, you will pick your jaws from the ground. The ending shocked me. I didn't expect that.
An additional advantage is the plot twists. I never had a dull moment reading this novel.
I wholeheartedly recommend Only Girl Alive, mommy_and_books.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to @netgalley @bookouture @hollysrobertsauthor for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow what a great story!!
This story shows what mental and physical abuse can do to a person. How it can break them. What a shocking turn of events when Eve and her team figured out the mystery of who committed the murder.

The author did a great job giving details and getting you into the mind of the detectives. I kept wanting more and couldn't put this book down!

I fell in love with Eve's character! Her strength and persistence throughout the story made her come out a winner. Growing up in a polygamist household for a few years made her understand what the women and children go through, but she's not that little girl anymore. She is a grown woman and now a detective and she's not letting the one man who abused her get in the way of her solving this murder. The men in this community are hiding something, will Eve figure it out?

This is a first book in what seems to possibly be a series coming. I really can't wait to read more! Great job to Holly S Roberts for brining us Eve and her team.

Also posted to my Goodreads.

goodreads.com/ca07

This is a great start to a new series.
A family have been murdered in their home and Detective Eve Bennet is sent to investigate.
The family are part of a very tight knit community and are fundamentalists.
Eve knows the community well as she was raised here as a child until her mother rescued her.
It’s a different world where men have several wives and girls are married off at a very young age.
Girls are not treated well and as Eve managed to escape, the community do not take well to her questioning them.
The daughter of the murdered family is missing annd Eve thinks she knows where she is, but she’s not allowed anywhere near the property.
This is a great crime thriller with an interesting background to the lead Detective.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

First read of 2023 and what a corker!

This book sees the beginning of Detective Eve Banner and I'm so pleased to see that another two books are promised in the series.

Having experienced and escaped the fundamentalist morman community Eve and her team are brought in to investigate a closer community who believes it's above the law and only answerable to a higher power.

Eve is faced with the trauma and exile of her past whilst seeking the truth of her case the story gives glimpses into Eve's past which adds depth to the story.

Eve is a complex strong character with grit, humidity and determination and I look forward to seeing her develop.

A decent start to a new series though I found it a bit repetitive and drawn out in spots. I liked the main character and her team and look forward to reading more of this series as long as they are not all about this perverse religion.
Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

Wow! Such a refreshing and intriguing albeit sadly believable story. I enjoy reading about cults, and I cannot even begin to understand what it would be like living a life in an old time, fundamental cult. It would be beyond horrible. This is why I find this story to be refreshing, because Detective Eve Bennet grew up in this fundamental Mormon grouping to become a wife for an old man, and obey his every command. Her mother managed to save her daughter from this, and Eve became a Detective later on in life.

Now she has to find out who killed a family of four, leaving the 10-year-old girl behind. She knows the people, she knows they are lying, and she knows they do not want to have the police involved...

Thrilling, fast-paced, moving, and marvelous! This is the first I've heard of Holly S. Roberts, but I am sure I will dig in to the next book in the series when I get my hands on it. Excellent beginning to what I am sure is going to be a magnificent series!

A serviceable thriller-mystery, definitely NOT a cozy. It seems to be striking towards Lena Jones or Kate Burkholder territory, but falls short in terms of the quality of the writing, I’m afraid. All the pieces (the characters, the backstory, and certainly the mystery) were there, but they were choppily put together.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Only Girl Alive’ by Holly S Roberts in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Detective Eve Bennet gets a phone call from her step-brother, County Attorney Aaron Owen, that there’s a family of four dead inside their house but no mention is made of the youngest child, a girl named Hannah, who’s missing and has supposedly been taken to the home of her uncle and aunt. Eve was rescued from this fundamentalist sect by her mother and therefore has a greater knowledge of the Mormon practices than most. The story is based on the Church banning polygamist marriages which was accepted as authoritative and binding, and tells what happened when the Fundamentalist Mormon leaders did not agree.

‘Only Girl Alive’ is the first in a new Detective Eve Bennet series and I found it insightful as it’s told me about a religious sect that I knew a bit about but not a lot. The characters of Eve and her team of Clyde, Collin, Ray and Bina work closely together pooling their strengths and theories and are the family Eve has never had. When I first started I was dubious as to whether I was going to enjoy the story but the further I got the more it grew on me until I couldn’t stop reading, wanting to know how they were going to identify the killer, and finished it in just over a day. It’s cleverly and extremely well-written, disturbing at times but compelling, and I’m looking forward to when the second in the series is published.

A page turner! Once I started this book I found it hard to put down until I had reached the end. I didn't guess ' who did it' until it was basically spelt out. A new author for me and the first of a series, but I look forward to reading the next one to see if it's just as good

When I requested this book from NetGalley, I didn’t know then that I would be reading it right after I read another book about a polygamist, fundamentalist, religious group. First and foremost, I didn’t realize the other book was about a polygamist, fundamentalist, religious group when I first started to read it. Secondly, I REALLY dislike cult stories, which is what I consider polygamist, fundamentalist, religious groups that force minor girls to “marry” (there is nothing legal in the US about this practice and form of child abuse and enslavement) and become “sister wives” of old and married elders, regardless of how incestuous the relationships are of the individuals involved. As far as I’m concerned, the “sister wives” are just as deranged as the elders after having been permanently damaged by the lifetime of indoctrination. I have no problem with consenting adults who want to live a polyamorous lifestyle. However, forcing minor girls into this particular lifestyle against their will and holding them hostage and brainwashing them is despicable.

The best part about this story is the MC, Eve Bennett, the lead detective for a Utah state crime unit that specifically investigates crimes within the polygamist, fundamentalist religious communities in Utah and who grew up in this community until she was rescued and escaped that enslavement with her bio mom. Eve, of all people, knows how these communities operate and knows their secrets and rituals and the people who call the shots. As the book summary lays out, the primary storyline is the investigation of the murders of a polygamist family and the protection of the surviving member.

There is also a secondary storyline that revolves around the contemptuous relationship and interactions between Eve and her stepbrother, who is the county DA as well as a polygamist elder in the religious community. Most of the story revolves around the investigations of the murders and the obstruction that Eve and her team face. Along with the obstruction, the five-member team also must deal with a lot of racism and misogyny because the team is comprised of two women, one a native American, as well as a black man, a Hispanic man, and a non-fundamentalist Mormon.

As mentioned in the book summary, there is a discovery in the attic, a really disgusting and disturbing revelation. It’s stuff like this why I REALLY dislike cult stories. I find the disgusting perversion of the elders, so often found in polygamist, fundamentalist, religious cults, as well as the sexual abuse and molestation of women and, especially children, absolutely repulsive and hard to read. For me, the end couldn’t come soon enough. It got really frightening and intense for the Eve and the team when they were confronted by the killer. The end wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been, but then there wouldn’t be anything else to write about in the next installment.

I liked this book, I guess if I could give it 3.5stars, I would. This was another two sitting read. Don't you just love holiday vacations, where you can spend a cold and rainy afternoon curled up with a good murder mystery? Anyway, I have mixed feelings about continuing the series and haven’t decided yet whether or not it will be a one and done for me. It’s not just the religious subject matter either (I’m an evolutionist).

I am a HUGE fan of Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series. Like Eve, Kate Burkholder is a survivor of a deeply religious upbringing. Both female MCs are deeply flawed and damaged women who have worked hard to become the bad-@$$, female, officers of the law that they are and are determined to not let their tragic upbringings prevent them from becoming the best they can be. Unfortunately though, the polygamist, fundamentalist, religious group in this series is very different than the Amish community in Painters Mill, in so many ways. I don’t know if I could stomach committing to a whole series based around the depraved wackos in the Eve Bennett series.

I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

@NetGalley @Bookouture @OnlyGirlAlive

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of Only Girl Alive, the first novel to feature Detective Sergeant Eve Bennett of the Utah State Police.

Eve and her team are asked to investigate the murder of the Tanner family and soon discover that one of the children, Hannah, has survived because she was spending the night at her uncle’s. He won’t let Eve see or interview Hannah because she’s traumatised, but Eve sees this as Hannah in danger, especially after a monstrous discovery in the Tanner’s attic.

I enjoyed Only Girl Alive, which offers an unusual story and held my attention throughout. It is not mentioned in the synopsis and I don’t normally issue spoilers in my review, but in this case there is no other option as everything in the novel is tied to the fact that it is set in a funadamentalist LDS community that practises polygamy that Eve was rescued from as a young teenager.

This is not the first series set in that world that I have read, but it is the most menacing. Their beliefs are disturbing and the author is prepared to give them a good airing, so it is not for the faint hearted. I thought it was very well done, especially the vicious disdain the church members have for outsiders or apostates as they like to call them. Of course, Eve is regarded as the chief apostate for escaping, something she didn’t choose and has struggled with her entire life. I found the whole subject fascinating.

The investigation itself is hampered by the sect’s secretiveness and refusal to cooperate, but the team are prepared to play the long game and get there themselves. I liked that it is told almost entirely from Eve’s point of view as it allows the reader to investigate alongside her and experience her mixed feelings as she interacts with the community. There are random flashbacks to her earlier life in the sect and while they flesh out the abusive nature of it they do not add much to the investigation and slow the momentum. The solution to the murders is a surprise but not, I think, highly probable. What’s less surprising is the community’s collusion in trying to suppress it.

I think that I will come to like Eve Bennett as the series progresses, but she’s not particularly likeable in this novel - too much baggage weighing her down and too many rash decisions. I think that with the baggage now explored she may shine more as an investigator in future cases.

Only Girl Alive is a good read that I can recommend.

I was drawn to this book as I love a good mystery/detective type story and this is the first of Detective Eve Bennet.
I’m impressed by the author’s description of Eve’s background and, for one who didn’t know, an insight into a community with rules that are somewhat disturbing!
The storyline was mostly written well but I didn’t find this book easy to read. I thought that the investigative scenarios and community history were too drawn out and didn’t hold my interest.
The characters of Eve and her team have a gruesome case to investigate, a murderer needs to be found. The obstacles and silence of community members were frustrating and annoying.
Maybe a dual timeline between Eve’s background and the investigation at hand may have helped with the flow of reading.

Thanks to Bookouture, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.

I enjoyed the premise of this book- detective and her team have a case of a family that was murdered in their own home but one family member is missing. Meanwhile, the head detective also has a link to this family from her past which comes back to taunt her. I thought it got pretty creepy at one point which intrigued me and made me want to keep reading. I liked that the author did research or has knowledge of some police work as they went into great detail of the process of an investigation and really let that show in the details. I didn’t figure out who the perpetrator was until right before they were revealed, which I can always appreciate from a book. It was an entertaining and easy read that I think most people would enjoy.

Overall, I thought the book was well written, but unfortunately I found several typos. I also felt like the book fell flat in several areas and that some points related to the fundamentalist lifestyle were redundant. Like what happened to the brother and his church after the mystery was solved? They were such a big part leading up to the big reveal but then there was no follow through.

I felt as though the book would have benefited from going back and forth from present day to the past when Eve was a child still stuck in that lifestyle as some of the back and forth was random and hard to follow. At times, it was also a little difficult knowing which character the author was referring to when it would just say “she” or “he” but multiple characters had just been mentioned which normally isn’t a big deal, but in a murder mystery all characters are important. Lastly, I think the reference “the killer” in chapter one sounded a little YA, but the rest of the chapter and gory details drew you in right away. I would have enjoyed more from the perspective of the person committing the murders but chapter 1 was the only chapter that really focused on this perspective and then it fell off. I just wanted a little more of the creepy mystery feel that was given to us in spurts.

Overall, an entertaining story with the feel of Handmaids Tale meets Blue Bloods that keeps you wondering how it’s going to end.

Holly S. Roberts writes a very intriguing story with her Detective Eve Bennet series. I have to say this a great start to a series I definitely want to keep on reading.
Detective Eve Bennet is a very complex character. What she has gone through from childhood is still continuing to haunt her. Raised in a polygamist community until she was 12 has really taken a toll on her mentally. But, with the help of her team she is trying to deal with her emotions.
Detective Eve Bennet and her highly trained investigative team are asked to solve a very brutal murder of 4 family members living in a Fundamentalist community. This brings back so many memories to Eve. Can she solve the case? Will her past interfere with finding the killer? How can you get answers when no one is willing to tell the truth?
I had no clue who the killer was in this story. And, when I found out who this killer was….I was shocked. Talk about a dark and chilling outcome.
The authors writing and descriptions of life in a polygamist community is eye opening, terrifying and downright heart wrenching. (Please be aware parts of the story will shock you)
Many thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and author, Holly S. Roberts for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Wow! I have to say, this is one of the best series and unusual detective series I have read in a very long time!

Detective Eve Bennet is called to a crime scene in a fundamentalist Mormon community in Utah, where a family is brutally murdered. Upon investigation, they find that their youngest daughter, Hannah is missing. Eve Bennet, who also used to belong to this fundamentalist group before escaping to live with her mother is haunted by the past memories and the fact that she had to work with her stepbrother Aaron, with whom she doesn't get along. As the police start investigating the case, they realize that the community is refusing to speak up, and that they are protecting someone. What are the secretes this community is hiding and who are they trying to protect?

Few months ago, I watched a docuseries on Netflix called Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey and talked about the Fundamentalist Mormon Group, polygamy and underage brides. Reading this book actually reminded me of those series and the things that Eve Bennett went through as a child while being in the community was too horrific to read, knowing that these things did happen in real life in that community. The author as mentioned at the back, tells how much research she had done about this community who are isolated from the world. Other than that, the story is fast paced, though not much twists and turns, but still the author manage to make the reader hook into the story and make the reader feel like they are part of the story as well. Overall, I cannot wait to read the next book of the series and worth 4.5 stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

3.5 stars rounded up

Detective Eve Bennet #1

Detective Eve Bennet takes a steadying breath as she enters the main bedroom of the Tanners' modest home in the tight-knit town of Hilldale, Utah. Mrs Tanner's high=collared nightgown and her long plaited blonde hair are soaked in blood. Next to her, Mr Tanner's hands are clasped together in final prayer. Filled with dread, Eve forces herself towards the children's rooms. But instead of finding two children, she only finds one. Where is the youngest daughter, Hannah? And why are there long scratches across the walls?

This is the first book i a new detective series. It's fast paced and easy to read thriller. There are parts that are really drawn out, so I took half a star from my rating. Detective Eve Bennet is called in to investigate the murders in a polygamist community. Eve used to be a part of the same community but managed to leave. The research and details of the community was good, but it could be harrowing to read. The characters are well rounded. This is quite a dark book to read. There are plenty of twists to keep you invested. This is a great start to this series.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #Bookouture and the author #HollySRoberts for my ARC of #OnlyGirlAlive in exchange for an honest review.

I thought I would like this one on reading the premise but it fell short for me. It was very slow in parts and too much information on the religious front which was repeated time after time. I would give her next novel a try hoping that it will be more about the characters and storyline. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.