Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my gifted advance reader copy.

Hannah Morrissey’s latest installment of her Black Harbor series focuses on husband and wife detective and medical examiner, Axel and Rowan. They’re forced to leave their daughter’s high school play when one of her close friends is found murdered on a walking path in town. As if this isn’t alarming enough, when they return home, they find that their daughter Chloe has disappeared.

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me. I read Morrissey’s HELLO TRANSCRIBER last year and liked it slightly more than this latest installment. Firstly, I wasn’t a huge fan of Morrissey’s descriptions. It was tiring to read about the fall foliage (the word ‘scarlet’ is used about twenty times too many), and I know she is trying to convey that Black Harbor is a dangerous, bleak place to live, but her attempts to do so merely make the town seem like a cartoonish Gotham City instead of the moody atmosphere I think she was striving for.

Without giving anything away, I found myself frustrated at the actions of several of the MCs. They just didn’t make much sense from a human standpoint or from an investigative one.

I’m giving this one two stars because I was curious as to how it ended, but it hobbled along for far too many pages to the point that I’d lost most of my interest by the time the ending came.

Gah this was a creepy read! But absolutely loved the writing and the storyline. I loved the drama and characters that were involved in this storyline. Great writing by Hannah Morrissey.

Welcome back to the atmospheric city of Black Harbor where crime is the number 1 business.
This was the perfect thriller just in time for Halloween. It starts a couple of weeks before Halloween and ends on Halloween day.
This book was full of spooky settings from a gully under a stone bridge, to a haunted house and the abandoned tannery building. The murder mystery was wild! I think I pretty much questioned every character in the story at some point. I was on the edge of my seat at the end to see where things would go!

This is the 3rd book in the Black Harbor series but they all can be read as stand alone books.

This was my favorite Black Harbor book so far. Loved it! 🖤

I gave this book 4 stars! I have never read books by this author but it makes me want to read more books in the Black Harbor series.

I am so glad I discovered this author and this series. These stories are the perfect amount of creepy for me. While I guessed a small bit of the plot, I truly could never have gotten to how creepy this one really ended up being. I am a huge fan of this author and her Black Harbor series and I cannot wait for the next crime to be solved here!

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. This review can be found on my instagram @manymerrybooks

This is such a good mystery. Lots of twists. One girl is dead and another disappears.
Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Hannah Morrissey has quickly and easily become one of my favorite authors. I absolutely LOVED Hello, Transcriber and The Widowmaker so I had very high hopes and expectations for When I'm Dead. And it did NOT disappoint!

We're back in Black Harbor, the fictional town that joins all 3 of Hannah's novels, and I think When I'm Dead may be the darkest installment yet. I like my thrillers dark, twisty, atmospheric, and character driven and When I'm Dead ticked ALL of those boxes. It's creepy and weird and grim and I mean all of those things as tremendous compliments!

If you're in the mood for a chilly thriller (set around Halloween - bonus!), When I'm Dead is definitely the one!

Many thanks to my friends at @minotaur and @macmillan.audio for the #gifted copies of this book.

Dark. Intense. Fast paced.

“You’ll love me more when I’m dead.”

As Rowan arrives on the scene of a new murder investigation, she’s haunted by the last words her daughter said. Rowan and her detective husband, Tom, often struggle to balance family life with the demands of career. When Chloe goes missing, everything, even the job, turns personal.

Not for the faint of heart, this is a disturbing narrative focused on the brutal murders of teenage girls. Set during Halloween, the plot is fittingly dark and gruesome.

The standout element in this book (and the series as a whole) is the rendering of the town itself. A crime ridden, dying place everyone longs to escape, yet within the read, it’s a living component that haunts every part of the plot.

With the storyline revolving around a family—daughter missing, mom and dad working a connected investigation— it’s a tangled web of duty and devotion. The personal connections upped the stakes and amplified the anxiety-ridden search. While this did require some suspension of belief, the emotional complexity heightened the intensity, making it a worthwhile tradeoff.

I read this one around Halloween, and it set the perfect tone. I’m already looking forward to my next trip to Black Harbor.

🎧 Narrated by a full cast, the audiobook was hard to put down. It created a distinction between characters and oozed with suspense and emotion. XE Sands’ performances consistently deliver. Yet within this cast, her sections were imbalanced, both faster and quieter. This was a small frustration, but it interfered with overall continuity.

I have been provided with a review copy of When I'm Dead from NetGalley for an impartial review. This book was just so easy to get lost in. I completely got lost in the story and I just loved getting to see these new characters come together. I just absolutely love this story and I just didn’t want to put it down. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

I enjoy Hannah Morrissey's writing very much. Her writing is clean and easy to consume. Her characters have personality and are very easy to connect with. I enjoy this series and the setting and the characters. Its hard to give too much of a review on book 3 of the series but without spoiling anything, I'd say that Hannah has created a great dark work in which these characters reside that shows you the gritty side of life. They are real people in real situations and you do not have to suspend disbelief to enjoy the story.

This was my first novel by Hannah Morrisey and overall I really enjoyed it! This book kept me guessing the whole time! I will definitely want to read the other books in this series.

Of course I didn’t notice this was a book in a series before getting it. A girl’s parents both work at solving crimes/in the morgue so she feels like she would get more attention if she was dead. Kinda annoying at times but enjoyed the twists and the story moved along.
Thank you Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was book 3 in the Black Harbor series, but having not read any of the others, I felt like the story held up well as a standalone. Two dead teens, a mean girl clique, rumors galore, suspense, and intrigue, this kept my attention throughout. Loved the tie-in with Beetlejuice, as it’s such a classic movie! Thanks so much to Hannah Morrissey, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this e-arc!

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for an electronic version of this book.

Rowan and Axel are no strangers to crime, as a medical examiner and detective they’re seen their fare share. But when their daughter goes missing the same night as one of her classmates is brutally murdered, their ability to solve a crime could mean the difference between finding their daughter dead or alive.

I thought Morrissey’s writing was solid enough and would read another by her, but there was a lot I struggled with in this book. Axel and Rowan seemingly go about their lives while their daughter is missing, continuing on with carving pumpkins and going to ju jitsu. The people of the town let their teenagers go to an haunted house despite a murderer on the loose. Some of these plot points were really hard for me to understand. But those who could see past these things and appreciate a dark, atmospheric crime novel may enjoy this one more.

I overall thought this book had a great concept. However, I couldn’t get into it. I had trouble focusing on the story line and it didn’t really hook me in. I do believe that others may think differently about this book it just wasn’t my interest after reading a few chapters.

Intoxicating, gritty and elegant, this haunting murder mystery had me gripped from the start and featured everything I love in a thriller: gothic vibes, teenage angst, twists galore, and the agony and emotion of a compelling mother-daughter relationship.

The story starts with a bang with one teenage girl murdered. Then Rowan Winthrope, the town’s medical examiner, and her husband, Axel, a homicide detective, realize their daughter Chloe is missing. And is a prime suspect in the girl’s murder.

Wildly original, this dark and twisted tale is not to be missed.

Okay, this one was good! I knew the description sounded great and it lived up to it.

It was thrilling and creepy and kept me turning pages. Everything you could want in a book like this.

Another page turner coming in hot. With parents as a medical examiner and detective respectively, one could not imagine Chloe living a normal teenage life. When Chloe lands the lead in her school play, a girl turns up dead and Chloe’s parents are on the case; missing her play. It’s at this point, Chloe goes missing. A series of events following point the finger in different directions regarding the supposed killer while Rowan (Chloe’s mom, medical examiner) and Axel (Chloe’s dad, detective) fight to separate themselves as parents and in their professional roles. I finished this book rather quickly and was not shocked with the ending however I didn’t discover the killer until later on in the read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I'm Dead is the third mystery in the Black Harbor series. I have not read the previous two books, and this did not hinder my understanding or enjoyment of the book in any way. One thing that becomes immediately clear, Black Harbor is a place that people want to leave, want to escape from. Bad things happen in the town and there is a dark and menacing atmosphere that hangs over it.

Thus, we are not surprised to find a murdered young woman on the opening pages of the book. Rowan Winthrop, Black Harbor's medical examineer, and her husband Axel, who is a detective, are often involved in the same cases. Such is the situation when they are both called to the scene of a murder. Rowan realizes that the murdered girl is a friend of her daughter Chloe, or at least at one time they were friends. Chloe is starring in her school play, and both her parents are called away because of the murder. This is an all to common occurrence in Chloe's life. When her parents eventually return from their gruesome work, they find that their daughter never made it home.

The rest of the book is chasing down leads to try to find their daughter, with another murder or two along the way. their are suspects a plenty, and I was kept on the edge of my seat trying to determine who the killer was. The conclusion was satisfying, and I enjoyed reading this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hannah Morrissey, and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an entertaining thriller where it starts with a murder.

Rowan is a medical examiner and Axel is detective. They are both at a high school musical where their daughter, Chloe, is the lead. Unexpectedly they both must leave to go to a crime scene, a crime scene where their daughter’s best friend is the victim. Later when they return home, Chloe is missing. Did she run away, did something happen to her, or did she have something to do with her best friend’s death?

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one. Told via multiple points of view of a cast of complex characters. The suspense made it difficult to put down. It kept me guessing what really happened to Chloe and who was responsible for her best friend’s death. I loved all the twists and the ending. This one is perfect for those who enjoy true crime.