When You're Dying by MQ Webb is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Verity Casmere, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer, is determined to find out what happened to her missing sister, Ashlee, and the story follows her journey to uncover the truth. The novel explores complex themes such as love, loss, family, and the consequences of seeking the truth.

The characters are well-developed, flawed, and have a profound impact on those around them, making the story even more engaging. While the behavior of the therapist in the story may seem unrealistic to some, the complex plot and surprising conclusion make up for it.

The book is fast-paced, with then-and-now switches every chapter that only add to the suspense. Even though it's the second book in the series, it can be read as a standalone, with no confusion or plot holes.

In conclusion, When You're Dying is an excellent read for anyone who loves psychological thrillers, suspense, and mystery. It's a twisty, engaging, and well-written book that will leave readers wanting more.

Such an imaginative concept for a book. This is going to be an author that I will follow and buy from. Great concept and execution of a story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I would have been better prepared if I had read the first book in the series. Nonetheless, an enjoyable read which could be read as a stand-alone.

A recommended read.

Very intriguing concept as the main character, Verity, is dying of cancer and is willing to do anything to find out what happened to her missing sister, including risk her own life. Verity’s perspective is told in first person, which provides a more intimate look at her relationship with her sister and the events happening around her. She comes off as a possible unreliable narrator at times, having suffered a concussion in a fall from a roof with one of the suspects in her sister's disappearance. The reader is often left wondering if you can believe her memory of events or if she is experiencing paranoia, since her suspicions seem to fluctuate.

The second primary character, psychiatrist Oscar de la Nuit, is brought in to help Verity remember how and why the fall happened, and to see if he can help find her missing sister and a suspect in her disappearance. He is a likable and compassionate character who has some skeletons of his own that end up front and center.

I did find some of the plot twists unbelievable and a little “forced” in order to make the story work. The chapter by chapter head hopping, on top of shifts in time (THEN vs NOW), on top of switching between first person narrative (Verity) and third person narrative (Oscar) made the story hard to follow at times. Getting a look at her sister Ashlee’s perspective would have been interesting since it ends up that she had some secrets she was keeping from Verity.

I did not realize this is the second book in a series and have not read the first book. It works well as a standalone and is a quick and entertaining read overall.

Great book It was a new author for me so I didn't know what expect but I really enjoyed the book and will be looking for from this author I recommend reading this book

A tense thriller about one woman's mission to find out what happened to her missing sister, Ashlee, after she's diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Dr. Oscar de la Nuit appears once again when he's called in after two people fall from a rooftop during a struggle in a possible failed murder attempt. Verity claims Dale kept her captive, and pushed her from the roof when she tried to escape, and Dale claims Verity was trying to set him up for her sister's murder.
This was a fast paced thriller that kept me on my toes, trying to figure out not only who was responsible for Ashlee's disappearance, but whether Dale or Verity were telling the truth.

3.75/5 Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a really interesting book - I didn’t realize this was a series but it’s the second book, and I LOVE Oscar as a character. Verity was super interesting as well! I think the ending got a bit convoluted for me personally, especially with the family tie-in, but I didn’t read the first book so maybe that’s why it felt that way. Even though the ending felt a little lackluster to me, I thought the book was overall a fun time, and I’m glad I read it.

Mr. De la nuit we meet again. Another great tale from Webb. In the second book in the Oscar De la nuit series we learn more about his tumultuous childhood and horrible situations he was left in when his family was seemingly ripped apart.

The FMC is a woman named Verity whose sister has been missing for several months and with no leads the case is going dead. Verity doesn't have time on her side though as she has stage 4 cancer. She won't give up, she needs to know what happened to her sister.

I found the second book was a bit slower to build into the fast paced action than the first but overall it has everything you want from a thriller with several unexpected turns. It will keep you guessing until the end.

Can't wait for book #3

Book 2 in this series. Oscar helps out an old colleague, a psychiatrist, by looking into the claims of injured woman Verity who claims she was held captive after going home with a man she believed knows something about her sister’ disappearance. The woman Verity is suffering from cancer, and her supposed captor, the man, is also hurt and claims Verity is harassing him and is insane. Oscar is supposed to suss out who’s lying while his own father is also admitted to the hospital. A lot of twists and turns follow. I really enjoyed this thriller! It kept me guessing and I love it when books do that.

2.5★s
When You’re Dying is the second book in the Oscar De La Nuit series by M.Q.Webb. Two months after Oscar quits working at Whitner Psychiatric Hospital, his good friend and mentor, Dr Caroline Taylor asks him to see Verity Casmere. A week after falling off the roof of a house with business mogul and philanthropist Dale Carmot, the man she claims was holding her captive, Verity has regained consciousness.

As a psychiatrist, Caroline has been requested by the police to do a psych evaluation on them both, and she believes Oscar will be able to sort lies from truth. Verity is convinced that Carmot abducted her younger sister, Ashlee, some months earlier, after they attended a gala. Carmot claims that Verity stalked him, came to his home under false pretences, then went crazy. Ashlee is still missing.

Distracting Oscar from this, and from spending time with his charming former colleague, now lover, Hayley Manning, is his alcoholic, abusive father’s admission to hospital with a cardiac arrest. There’s a bit of intrigue as Bill de la Nuit seems to urgently want to tell Oscar something. Handily, Verity, Dale and Bill are all in the same hospital, giving Oscar an impromptu reunion with his estranged mother and his older brother.

The story is told in a dual time line, with Verity’s first-person narrative recalling the events before the fall from the roof, while Oscar’s details events following his involvement. Webb’s misdirection are a poor attempt at casting doubt on the reliability of Verity’s narration The astute reader will have the perpetrator picked as soon as they come on stage, if not the motive.

When it comes, the resolution turns out to be rather convoluted. This is another plot where the female protagonist decides she needs to solve the case on her own, putting herself in danger to do so (yawn).

The reader needs to don their disbelief suspenders on quite a few occasions: a makeshift syringe cobbled together in a locked bathroom, an unimaginative escape attempt from a locked house (pick up a chair and put it through the window?), said female having a philosophical discussion with herself about killing the perpetrator in the middle of a (melo)dramatic climax, and her inaction during a physical altercation between assailant and rescuer. A fairly promising start that doesn’t follow through.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and TBR.

Nerve wracking thriller!! Oh so many twists! Think you know? Think again! This book will have you turning the pages! So you’ve been told you have cancer and you’re going to die. And then your sister goes missing! It’s heartbreaking that the case has very little to go on and no new leads. Verity just hopes she has enough time left to find out what happened to her sister. If the police won’t help then she will have to do it herself! What’s she got to loose right?? This was a great read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers and authors for allowing me access to this book.

When you're dying - MQ Webb

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this absolutely riveting eARC.

The story begins as a young woman (Verity Cashmere), dying of cancer, is determined to find out what happened to her sister (Ashley) who vanished.

At one point, Verity decides to go out on a date via a dating app in an attempt to bring some levity to her situation. The date seems to be going well, however when she leaves the table to go to the restroom the young man sneaks off, leaving her alone in a bar.

Verity isn't alone for long as before her date's seat has a chance to get cold, it is occupied by the last person who was known to have seen her sister, the man that Verity believes is responsible for her disappearance ( that seems incredibly coincidental - small town, or only one good bar).

Regardless, he approaches her, buys her a few drinks, and chats her up. Verity goes home with him, in a misguided (in my opinion) attempt to discover clues to her sister's disappearance, however, instead of answers, Verity ends up in a fight for her life.

As this is part of the Oscar de la Nuit (a forensic psychiatrist) series, I should mention that when Verity is in the hospital due to injuries after her "encounter" in the bar (read the story to discover the juicy details), Oscar befriends Verity and ultimately joins her in her effort to uncover the secrets that might lead to Verity's sister's whereabouts.

That is just the beginning of this delightfully twisted tale!

I just finished this novel (my first encounter with this author) and I am immediately purchasing the 1st book in this series (How to Spot a Psychopath).

Fans of psychological thrillers will fall in love with this author's plot and character development.

If you are wrapped up in the ennui of daily life, this book is the solution to your doledrums!

Until next time, dear fellow readers, I am SO excited to discover a new 5-star author to stalk (em, er, I mean to "follow" 😘)!

Thankyou to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this ARC.
This is my first title by this author and i will be reading more from them in the future.
I was drew in with the cover and was excited to read this book.
I literally couldn’t put it down from the moment I started to read it! My interest and attention was gripped from page one and lasted until the very last one!
I love the unique storyline and was not able to stop reading this.
This had twists and turns that i did not see coming!
I will recommend this book to EVERYONE, it was this good!
5/5 stars. Wish i could rate it more.

Read a lot books but this one I had mixed feelings since I wasn't all that crazy about the characters in the book. Was glad it was a quick read book and I never knew what was coming next.

Have you ever wanted to figure out something? To do literally everything that you can do? I mean EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. What if also… You were on a timeline. This is the case for Verity. Her sister has been missing. Verity knows Ashlee is dead. Verity is ready for Ashlee’s case to come back to light because she’s not letting it go until she has an answer!

✨Im telling you right now. I didn’t even except the answer.

Switching between dual timelines of Then and Now, Doctor Oscar Nuit is pushed onto this “case” when Verity actually ends up in the ER with the suspected killer. Now you know what I meant by doing anything to catch the killer. Verity’s timeline is unraveled and you get to see her be a mini detective.

Would you do the same?

Thoughts:
___________

Y’all know I’m a thrillerholic. This was much more Psychological than I was hoping for. This was a great whodoneit thriller, but it sadly had some disconnects. Your twists and turns kinda seemed repetitive.
Not only was it repetitive the character were not like able, so it was really hard to connect with this story in its different ways. You either love the story and hate the characters or vise versa.

The “then” timeline really helped out learning the background. But, for some reason I was not digging it. Having to learn so much information and especially with two different characters was just kinda a mess:(

As said in the review, I didn’t expect the whodoneit part. So I’m glad this book kept me (kinda) hooked to be able to see what happened to Ashlee and especially enjoy some enjoy tingling suspense in the end!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for approving me for “When You’re Dying” ❤️

What a gripping novel this was! I literally couldn’t put it down from the moment I started to read it! My interest and attention was gripped from page one and lasted until the very last one!
This is one exciting and thrilling thriller! A proper who has done it novel and I didn’t have a clue who it was at the end!
The best thing about reading this thriller is that I discovered a brand new author whose writing I love and I cannot wait to read many more thrillers by the author in the future!
I’m giving this novel 5 stars as I’m sure other readers will like it as much as I did!.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

An interesting take on the usual thriller with someone fighting for justice and someone fighting for truth. I thought this had a strong group of characters and plot but I don’t think this is the best thriller out there, I did find myself getting bored in parts and it dragged slightly. However there is an audience out there that will love this series a lot so I do recommend.

Ultimately a decent mystery, but unlikable main character made it difficult to enjoy overall.

We are re-introduced to Oscar, the psychiatrist we met in the previous book How to Spot a Psychopath. He is asked by his mentor to evaluate a woman, Verity (REALLY? You couldn't have picked another name?) who is in the hospital because she is injured from a fall from a roof. She has terminal cancer and insists that the other man who fell from the roof, Dale, was keeping her hostage in his house and tried to kill her. All because she believes Dale kidnapped her sister Ashlee, who has been missing for months. Who is to be believed?

We travel back and forth in time as Verity takes it upon herself to investigate her sister's disappearance because she fully believes Dale was responsible and yet she thinks the police aren't doing enough to find her sister or prove that Dale is keeping her hostage or has killed her. I'm not at all a fan of armchair detective work and Verity just takes it way, way too far. I didn't care for her character at all, and I did appreciate that the author took the extra step at one point to make the reader question Verity and whether everything that she was thinking and saying was the truth (no pun intended.)

There is one instance with a homemade syringe Verity makes to inject someone with drugs that made me roll my eyes SO HARD. It was so stupidly outlandish and unbelievable that she was able to cobble this thing together in the bathroom and that it actually worked. No way.

As a whole though, the book had some good surprises, although I was able to figure out the identity of the culprit before it was revealed. I didn't guess the "why" and the background and that made the book more intriguing for me. You don't necessarily need to read the first book before reading this one, although it does help to get some background on the main characters.

Not sure I will continue with this series, but the book was decently entertaining.

Mystery thriller but will a sad twist that the lead character is dying of cancer and has two months to live.

Get the Kleenex ready for this one as, although it’s a murder mystery, it’s also a tragic tale of a woman coming to terms with her death sentence from the big C.

For anyone who has this or has lost someone to it then I want you to know that this may revive some terrible memories for you.

You will enjoy the murder mystery side to this book although I’d already sussed it out halfway through the book.

A fast paced and engaging read. When Verity’s sister, Ashley, goes missing after Verity discovers that she is dying of cancer, Verity is willing to risk what’s left of her own life to find out the truth about her sister’s disappearance and possible murder. Overall, I found the the characters intriguing and the fact that each character has flaws, gave the story more depth and mystique. The author did a great job telling the story from different characters POV and using Then and Now. Transitions were smooth and easily slipped through time and place. A great who-done-it book.