Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for an eARC.

I liked the storyline and the mystery was interesting but the execution was lacking for me. When it first started, the setup of the story and introduction of many characters felt rushed and confusing. I would have liked more time to get to know each person but it was just kind of thrown together probably in an effort to bring us into the fold. It did get better the more I read but it took a very long time for things to happen and some overly descriptive parts and tangents slowed things down. Most of the action happened in the last 20% of the book.

Read if you like slower paced suspense, families with secrets and a small town setting.

Another fantastic book from Lori Rader-Day! Well written, well plotted, ending came together beautifully.

This book was a little bit TOO fast paced. Especially in the beginning when a million characters are getting introduced. That’s extremely overwhelming. I feel some of the scenes are too rushed also. Specifically the one that opens the story on the boys accident that leads to the car being found submerged. That was kinda just dismissed and then character after character started rolling in.

Blurb: One rainy night fifteen years ago, a knock at the door changed Liss Kehoe’s life forever.

On that night, Ashley Hay stood on Liss’s front porch and handed over her brand-new baby Callan.

She was never seen or heard from again.

Since then, Liss has raised Callan as her own, and loves him as fiercely as any mother would. But in the back of her mind, she’s always wondered whether Ashley is still out there somewhere—and feared what might happen if she comes back.

When Ashley does reappear, it’s not in the way Liss expected. After all these years, Ashley’s car has been found… in the quarry pond on Kehoe property. But the discovery of the car dredges up more questions than answers. What really happened on the night of Ashley’s disappearance? Was it a tragic accident, or something far more sinister? Someone in town knows the truth, and they’ll go to great lengths to keep it quiet.

As tensions rise in the small community, Liss must fight to protect her family and keep her own secrets hidden—or risk losing everything she loves.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars
I loved this book from beginning to end! The characters were well developed, entertaining and each chapter had me wanting to read more!

This will be a “must read” for thrillers in the Fall!

Congrats Lori Radar-Day!

Four teenage boys out on a rainy night have a minor car accident, find a submerged car in a quarry and change the lives of just about everyone in town. Lies are uncovered, secrets are revealed and there may be more bodies soon to come. This fast-paced thriller will keep the reader on the edge of their seat until the very end.

An intense and well-written domestic suspense. A family is torn apart by events both past and present and it all comes to a head when a body is discovered and long lost secrets come to light. This was a fast-paced page-turner with a lot of suspects and a lot of layers to it. There were twists throughout. The descriptions completely drew me into the setting. Lori Rader-Day is skilled at creating heart-pounding suspense.

The Death of Us is an adult fiction novel/mystery/thriller by author Lori Rader-Day. This is the first book I have read by the author.

Lissette is a wife to husband Link and mom to son Callan but Callan’s birth mom is Ashley Hay. Fifteen year ago, Ashley appeared on Liss’s doorstep and left Callan and disappeared never to be seen or heard from again.

Fifteen years later, Lissette and Link are married although it is a rocky marriage at best. Link was Liss’s boyfriend in high school, but he cheated on her with Ashley, he also cheats on Liss all these years later. Link is Callan’s father.

One day an accident involving Callan and his friends leads to a car being found in the pond by their house and with it, bodily remains. Everyone wonders if it is Ashley and if it is, what happened to her? Mercer, the Marshall of their small town is investigating the case.

The story started out very slow for me. There are a lot of characters identified in the beginning and it was a little overwhelming and hard to remember who was who.

Around the middle of the book, it picked up for me and got a lot more interesting. There are many layers to the story and it seems most people in this small town are guilty of something.

I really enjoyed the characters Mercer and Liss. Liss is a very strong FMC who is selflessly devoted to her son Callan who she has raised with Link the last fifteen years.

The ending was satisfying and wrapped up a lot of questions but not all of them. I would have liked a little more closure on some issues.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and will look into other books by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow publishing for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The Death of Us has a publication date of October 3, 2023.

This one still has me thinking… family drama, infidelity, small town, murder(s)? The mysteries of this novel kept coming throughout its entirety, maybe even a bit too much? I still have lingering questions. Excellent storyline of a family who would do absolutely anything to protect each other… and themselves. If you love a domestic thriller this fast-paced thriller is for you! A solid 3.5 stars, rounded up instead of down because it was so close to a 4.

Liss Kehoe has a husband she can’t trust and a son that she would do anything to protect.Callan is about to find out what happened to his birth mother Ashley. 15 years ago, she dropped the baby off and never came back. Link, who Liss will forgive over and over, had an affair with Ashley. Callan was the results of that affair, and Liss has never regretted one moment of the time she has spent with him.
But when Ashley‘s car is found, everything in this family falls apart. Her marriage to Link, the people she thought were friends, her son’s love, and her new relationship with Mercer, the man who must figure out who killed Ashley, no matter the cost.
I was so sure I knew who the killer was and was I ever wrong. This small town was filled with unlikable characters. Even so, I so wanted Liss to get her well-deserved, happy ending, and for her to kick her selfish husband to the curb. No spoilers, just my wishes!
Told by Liss, Mercer, and chapters labeled ‘Interstitial’, all of the main plots wrapped up nicely. There was one secondary character(just one!), who I would have loved to see get what he or she deserved.

I don't quite know how to describe a Lori Rader-Day book. They are not relatable but very real. The characters are real, and the scenarios are real. This one especially.
Our main gal is married to a boy from high school who got another girl pregnant before they were married, but were together. She forgives him and ends up raising his child one night after the boy's mother comes by and places him in her arms. She ends up trapped in this small town and this terrible marriage because she loves this child so much. She puts everything on hold for him. She isn't an exciting character, nor is she sympathetic. She is just real.
One day her son is in a car accident in a pond on their land (but really it belongs to her inlaws) and after boys are taken care of they pull his bio mother's car from the pond. It has been there this entire time.
This leads to a murder investigation and updends this woman's entire life. She doesn't do the things I would do but she does the things a normal loving mom would do for her kid,
So not relatable but absolutely real.
This story lulls you, in a not comforting way but like a friend is telling you a story. Also the mother son bond in this just was amazing. They are so weird as teens but they do love us.
The ending had me bawling.

I liked the storyline, and thought the twists were pretty good. I really enjoyed how Liss navigated her complicated relationships in the book, between Mercer/Link, her friends, and her ex-in-laws. The ‘Interstitial’ chapters were a great way to add an extra POV - I thought that was very clever and not something I had seen before.

Overall, although the plot was interesting, the execution wasn’t great for me. Parts of it dragged on and some of the descriptions/unrelated events seemed unnecessarily long.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

An incredibly compelling contemporary mystery with relatable characters and relationships, from the author of the historical mystery Death at Greenaway. When Liss Kehoe's stepson Callan and his friends make a gruesome and heartbreaking discovery at the quarry on her and her nearly-ex-husband's property, Liss doesn't know where to turn. Her nearly ex-husband, who definitely has secrets to hide but she still wants to protect? The stepson she has raised as her own since his mother disappeared when he was an infant? The town marshall, who she had a brief fling with when her marriage first imploded? Definitely not her in-laws who seem to hold more sway over the town and their golden child son than is reasonable, and who aren't too keen on Liss since the separation.

Liss lacks the bravado and self-assuredness that often emanates from mystery heroines. Indeed she acts often impulsively out of fear and desperation, and sometimes doesn't act when she should from fear or shame. Her relationships with the people in her life are complicated and messy. She is not sure if her real life has started yet and wonders when this became her life. All things that make her a sometimes unlikable but definitely relatable character. Her friends and family are the same - recognizable and flawed. I love to find that in a mystery novel as readable as this one. Read this if you are looking for a book that will keep you turning the pages well past bedtime, with characters who feel like people you know.

The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day
Publisher William Morrow
Release Date October 3, 2023

Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Suspense: 4/5
Overall Enjoyment: 4/5


Ok, I Love a great suspenseful thriller and when the premise of the book is not one that has been battered to death, it really is nice. This book was one of the good ones out there. The character development was, to me, perfect which led up to understanding the complications that made them who they were. Poor Liss, though, she was raising a child that was basically thrown on her and on her own all with a fear that some day his mother would come back and want to parent him. The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is because I honestly did see the twist coming earlier in the book. If there were more about the boys who found the car submerged that would have helped also. It just jumped right over it. Overall, I definitely think this would make a great movie one day. It is definitely worth the read and this author has a brilliant ability to tell a story and a knack for making that story an awesome suspenseful book.

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

The Death of Us
Lori Rader- Day
William Morrow
Pub Date October 3, 2023
Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
* Thriller fiction
This is a winner! She has delivered another great crime fiction again! She writes beautifully and I had several gasp moments while reading.
What I liked: family secrets revealed, tight storyline, twists, and great characters,
Read this book!
5 stars

If you are a mystery or domestic suspense fan, The Death of Us is a MUST read. It really is just so good…I couldn’t put it down!

When a car is found submerged in water at the old quarry, Liss Kehoe’s entire life is turned upside down. They might already know who is in the car, but how they ended up there is a bombshell that unleashes a trail of revelations and reckonings.

When a book can pull off a gasp moment, I have to give huge kuddos and this book achieved that over and over and over. Yay for unpredictable storylines that are completely engrossing. Next up, the scenery painted in this novel was so crystallized in my mind’s eye that the town became a central character. All the townspeople and each little back story and small mystery and lie builds to the crescendo of the main story. It reminded me of the layered stories you find in Erin Kelly’s Broadchurch. Just an absolutely riveting read.

This was a good story, however, I caught the twist early which may be why I’m only rating it three stars. The “wow” moment wasn’t there for me. Overall, it’s definitely enjoyable and would recommended checking it out when it releases Oct 3, 2023.

I enjoyed this book. There were moments when I thought that the story got a little lost, but it quickly got back on track. I also thought that some of the supporting characters could have been rounded out a bit more in their character development.

I won’t lie, at the beginning I loathed how many people, mixed relationship + friendships there were. But as the story unfolded, I was shook and realized why so many people had to be involved. Truly probably one of the biggest plot twists ever, like jaw on the floor hand to mouth. Shook. Dare I say my fave new thriller?

The story is sooooo good, how have I never read Lori Rader-Day before?!
The story is told from multiple point of views, which I really appreciated. One person always knows just a little more than the others, and as the pins start to drop, you want so badly for the others to get up to speed. Ashley gives up her biological son, Callan, to Lissette Kehole on her front door step while her husband, Link Kehole, is out doing God knows what. Turns out, it’s Link’s baby from an affair he had with Ashley. The two raise them together, while Ashley is never heard from again… until 15 years later. Somehow everyone in the Kehole family is involved, but how?

Thank you, NetGalley, Rader-Day + William Morrow Publishing for the eARC, publishing October 2, 2023. Would 100% recommend.

I appreciate the book's effort to bring us in media res with the action of the story. Liss is a complicated character running interference on so many parts of life, in particular raising a son - on her own - that came into her care under exigent circumstances. Perhaps in an effort to bring us right into the fold, some of the setup (the cause of the boy's accident, the geography of the fated quarry, etc.) felt rushed and a bit confusing. Also, what about the accident CAUSED the boys to discover the car at the bottom of the pond? I think it would've been helpful to slow-play this one a little more.