She Left has a strong, locked-door premise, but the writing didn't hold my attention. This is the kind of story that I wanted to be pulled into, propelled by cliffhangers and red herrings. I'm sure that other readers who want a different style of writing will connect with this more than me. Ultimately, it was a DNF, but I'd be interested in checking out what the author writes next.

I'm an absolute sucker for anything that feels like an homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Years after a massacre, ten people head to a b&b, invited by a journalist covering the case. A storm and chaos ensue.

This mystery kept me entertained, and even when I guessed some things ahead of time, it didn't take away from the fun for me.

Thank you to the publisher for my arc.


So this started out with the potential to be really interesting and the slowly slid into predictable and then just plain this trope has already been done over and over so this was nothing new to me thriller wise.

This book definitely kept me on edge until the end, especially as the twists and turns kept me guessing until the end.

She left begins with 16 year old Amy walking home in the dead of night after leaving a house party after a falling out with her friends.

As any teenager would, she starts to get the creeps are realizes what a stupid idea it was to walk home alone after dark, but when she reaches the safety of her home she soon finds out that the danger was elsewhere. All her friends are dead.

Flash forward 20 years, 10 people (Amy included) have been invited to an air bnb style retreat by a famous journalist who is looking to cover the story. Each person invited has a tie to one of the victims or a motive to murder.

After events cause them to lose access to their keys and phones they soon realize they are stuck in this locked room thriller when one after the other people start to mysteriously die.

The plot definitely gave a one by one who dunnit style, leaving the guests to race against the clock to try to figure out who the originally killer was and uncover all the lies and secrets each other are hiding.

The premise of the plot had a lot of promise, and we have some interesting characters. Some detectives and ex police who were part of the original case, a mother of the framed murderer and friends of the original group.

There’s a lot of back and forth, arguments and accusations. I feel the delivery on this one could have room for improvement, however it was a relatively enjoyable read nonetheless. Although there are a lot of characters to keep track of, some of them have very distinguishable (dislikable) personalities so that makes it easier to keep up with who’s who.

Thank you to NetGalley and poisoned pen press for an advanced copy!

The premise of this book sounded amazing, although for me it did not deliver. There was something missing to make me engrossed and addicted to the story. I just couldn't get through it. I had to DNF.

First, thank you NetGalley, publisher & author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I found this thriller very intriguing with the opening story. I was hooked & then I must say the middle of the book dragged for me. I understand the idea of adding a lot of characters to make the story more interesting & having the odds against the reader to figure out the killer, but it left me wanting more from each character. There was little amount of character development which left me unattached to them. This was a murder mystery, so as stated before, I understand the idea of adding more possible suspects but I felt disconnected as the reader. I enjoyed the FMC, Amy, & wish there was more back story besides what was given. The setting of this book was eerie and you just knew something was going to go wrong. A lot of things just kept going wrong at this remote cliff side house. The actual plot was good & I liked the direction the author went with the story. My only thing, I was able to guess the killer near the beginning. I was not impressed with this ending & I love a good twist with thriller/mystery reads. Overall, this was an easy & understandable read.
The structure and the way the story is written reminds me a lot of Lucy Foley’s “The Guest List,” so if you love those kind of thrillers, add this to your TBR.

Stacie Grey's 'She Left' brilliantly brings the intrigue of the Clue board game into a vivid real-world narrative. The plot's unexpected twists and turns had me hooked, eagerly piecing together the puzzle of the crime. The diverse and intricately crafted characters added depth, making it a book I simply couldn't put down. Grey's storytelling mastery maintains a constant suspense, making 'She Left' a compelling read that held my attention until the very end.

A lone survivor thriller, this one kept me guessing till the end. Nice character development, and it felt fresh and tightly plotted.

Read: January 7th – 9th, 2023
Review: January 13th, 2023

Rating: 4/5 Stars

I thought this novel was a lot of fun. It was a closed room/stranded in a mansion murder mystery. Gave it a “Clue” vibe.

The first chapter started strongly and pulled you in, wanting to find out what happened. I was really enjoying the read and didn’t want to put it down. You get two mysteries in one. What happened years ago and what is happening now. Every time you get some answers you get a new unanswered question to keep the mystery going.

There are quite a few characters to keep track of, which can be a little confusing at first since a lot of them were one note, at least for half of the book. Although that could be a possible writing strategy to make guessing who the killer was harder. I think making the main character, Theresa, a detective was a good choice as it feels sort of like a crime investigation. The story does seem a little slow for a section of the book, but I wasn’t going to put it down. I didn’t find the book to be predictable. It ends with the most logical ending, but I didn’t think there was any big thing that gave the ending away.

<i>She Left</i> is the debut new novel by Stacie Grey, and I was interested in because the premise was intriguing. A partially unsolved massacre haunts the characters as they gather in a remote location. Overall, I thought the story well written and decently paced, but I was not overly invested in it either.

Amy is the main character, and she now goes by her middle name Theresa to escape the public scrutiny around the massacre as the lone survivor. She is now an FBI agent, but not typically solving murders or violent crimes. She is invited to a cabin in the mountains as a 20 year reunion special in remembrance of the massacre, along with others connected to the massacre (family and friends of the slain). The only problem is that it is a ruse, and participants start getting picked off.

Amy was very level-headed. She did what she could to protect herself but otherwise didn’t seem overly concerned with getting out of the cabin alive. I think this was what made it hard to invest in the story. Despite there being all the elements for a creepy story with nature contributing more elements, most chapters didn’t build that suspense, and it was only really the finding of a body that triggered that again each time. I also think while the story tried to throw suspicion on different characters, it wasn’t enough to really make you think the killer was different characters. <spoiler> Despite putting this under spoiler tags, I will keep this vague, but ultimately the character that I thought seemed the most likely based on circumstances was the killer in the end, so not very surprising.</spoiler>

While I didn’t think this a stellar read, the strong plot would have me considering more by this author in future. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say it was a bit over-edited, which may have taken some of the feeling out of it. If this had more feeling to it, it could have been stellar, I believe . Overall, I think this was a good read and a good debut.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book. Views are my own.

The Memorial Day Massacre, as it came to be called, rocked their small California community and Amy—the girl who had walked away just in time—couldn't escape the media circus...or the guilt. I love the story, the suspense and Amy, the main character. Must read, I read it in 24 hours!

This book starts with a retrospect. We see a girl who decided to walk away from a peer gathering in a cabin. Something happened that made her leave, but we don´t know what. She just decided to walk away, catch a bus, and go back home. This is the strongest part of the book.
Then the setting changes and we have a bunch of people stuck in a house on the side of a mountain. Nothing is as it was supposed to be and it gets only worse.
It would be such a great story if not the fact, that the story itself, the reasoning, the ending, and the characters are not convincing at all.
Has anyone noticed that the weather clears up right when the mystery gets solved? How convenient.

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery story that focused pn a wide range of suspicious characters facing a terrifying situation trapped in a remote rental house when they realize they were invited under false pretenses. A long ago explosion and subsequent horrific stabbing of the survivors paves the way for a journalist to invite friends and families of the victims to what is supposed to be a memorial weekend of closure, not murder. The guests soon learn the man convicted of the crime may not have worked alone when his mother drugs the guests, steals their phones and traps them for the weekend.. One guest is now a FBI agent and she races to discover if there is an unknown killer stalking the guests or is it one of them ???

Venturing into the chilling aftermath of the Memorial Day Massacre, this psychological thriller takes you on a riveting journey. Two decades later, Amy Brewer finds herself entangled with a group brought together by a journalist, unveiling dark secrets. The narrative, though slightly drawn out, captivates with suspense, keeping you guessing about the elusive killer. The characters, especially Amy, are skillfully developed, making it easy to root for them. While the multitude of characters may seem overwhelming, the singular POV and occasional glimpses into others' minds provide intriguing insights. This “airport thriller” offers a suspenseful, if slightly slow, exploration into guilt, secrets, and a final reveal that, while somewhat anti-climactic, aligns seamlessly with the story's build-up.

I struggled a little with this at the outset. My version also had a typo or two and I wondered if a character's name changed as at one point Conor was referenced rather than Oliver, which was kinda confusing as I couldn't get everyone's names straight in my head (including the five original victims).

I understood why Grey included such a large cast (to maximise the suspect pool and ensure any of the original group killed could have been the target) but given I put this down part way through I didn't remember who anyone was when I came back to it. The large cast also meant that we didn't really spend time getting to know some of the characters. As a result I wasn't terribly invested in the fate of most. Having said that I liked the realism Grey proffers upon Amy/Therese - despite being an FBI agent, happy to have someone else deal with the mess rather than feel compelled to solve the mystery herself.

Most of the book unfolds from Therese's point of view though there are excerpts involving most of the other characters and we all learn they have their secrets and 'may' have had cause to harm one of the original victims.

This was an enjoyable enough read and is the equivalent of a locked room mystery in the present as the group are isolated. Obviously the person behind the weekend hadn't intended for that to happen though I couldn't help but wonder what they thought MIGHT occur when they confronted a murderer who's gotten away with their crime(s) for twenty years.

Great writing style.but felt deflated with not much story of the original night.
I know there was some mystery needed and what was said about Amy Theresa in the years before they are brought to this house.
Also a bit more emotions based on why she joined the FBI.
I would watch this a thriller/mild horror movie as it would be great on screen

This was a fun read! It did feel a little dragged out, but never enough for me to want to put it down. It kept me guessing as to who the killer was and what the deal was, which I love.

She Left by Stacie Grey is a closed circle mystery following Amy Brewster, the lone survivor of a mass killing twenty years prior as she and others connected to the killing are brought together at a remote location for a follow up article.

I typically enjoy a closed circle mystery with everyone trapped in a house, trying to figure out whodunnit but this one missed the mark for me. The writing style is fine but the characters felt very bland and their motivations didn’t feel believable. This book was really slow for me and by about halfway through I’d lost interest in the mystery. Maybe those new to closed circle mysteries might like this, but it wasn’t for me.

thank you netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy. it was a good thriller that kept me on my toes!