Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded interesting to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. It dragged so much I just couldn't stay with the story. I was finding reasons to get up so I could set the book aside. I will give the author another try with future books though.

Started with promise. I liked the idea of women looking into a cold case in a small town where 3 boys were found murdered. There were heavy themes of poverty, rape, abandonment… but I couldn’t get past the nonchalant/flippant attitude of some of the women. The main women played out sort of like “Finlay Donovan” characters, but the book and storyline itself was supposed to be somber. Just felt like too much.

I enjoyed the mystery that is the centerpiece of this book, but I found the characters rather unlikeable, especially the main character. Arlene gets a job bagging evidence at the police department, which she only gets because she’s bored at home and nothing is really happening in their small town anyway, She uncovers a cold case which she believes she can solve, and to her credit she does, but her motivations are kind of selfish in my opinion. She basically pins her solving the murder on becoming the best version of herself it feels like, and also fixing her marriage. Really, her and her husband just need to talk and he actually needs to listen.
But regardless of that, the mystery of the 3 boys was interesting and I think what really held this book.
Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the copy!

Another cover that I loved as soon as I saw it. It is beautiful!
This slow burn, southern small town mystery is a great read for those long summer evenings.
Arlene lives in a small Georgia town with her husband as they look to start a family. Grieving after a miscarriage and wanting more to distract her from her housewife days, Arlene gets a job at the local police station bagging and tagging evidence, but in a small town, there is not much work to be done. In her extra time at the station, Arlene looks over cold case files and she comes across a case that peaks her interest. Years ago, three boys were murdered and found on the river bank of a neighboring small town. Shortly thereafter, the main suspect committed suicide and the case remains open, going cold. Arlene decides she is going to reopen the case herself and she starts investigating with the help of some new friends. She is determined to find out what really happened. With multiple perspectives, uniquely one perspective being that of the killer, this book is at times intense and haunting. Exploring trauma and healing alongside a cold case crime, this amateur sleuth mystery will have you puzzling over who done it until the very end.

This book had some deep subject matter with a commentary on the difference between the "haves" and "have-nots" that often permeates our society.

I loved the narrator, Arlene. Lo Patrick truly was able to take a small-town mystery and completely involve the reader in wanting to follow Arlene on her quest for justice through allowing us to understand Arlene's emotional drive to find meaning in her life.

I thought the pacing of the story was great, the dual POV was well done, and the supporting characters helped to round out the story and full immerse you in the small Georgia town.

The start of this book was promising - it kept me turning the pages and I felt that this was going to be an easy read. But then as I went on reading, it all felt disconnected. First, the title and the cover gave the impression that it was going to be a serious and chilling read. Sure, the story about the cold case of the kids being murdered were heartbreaking. But the way it was written was far from what the cover and title of the book suggested it was going to be. It was amateur sleuthing, so humor was being injected all the time. I like amateur sleuthing but this had humor at the weirdest of places. There were a lot of unnecessary ramblings too that became pretty annoying later on. Sure, there was a good plot twist at the end, but I felt it was a little late and not enough to make the book better. It was a lesson though, that even if the start and end of the book are good, it doesn’t make it an enjoyable one overall.

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for my #gifted copy of The Night The River Wept!

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐞𝐩𝐭
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐋𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

I went into this book completely blind and had no clue what to expect. This was such an interesting and well-written mystery and I really enjoyed it. This was my first book written by Lo Patrick and I certainly want to read The Floating Girls now that I’ve read this one.

Arlene needs something to do to take her mind off things, so decides to take a part-time job at the local police station bagging evidence. The job doesn’t take much time, and the rest of the time she reads over old cold cases. One in particular catches her eye about three young brothers who were murdered, followed by the suicide of the prime suspect, Mitchel Wright. Arlene is determined to help find the truth and becomes obsessed with the case, hopeful to find what she’s been looking for all along.

Posted on Goodreads on July 3, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around July 3, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on July 3, 2024
**-will post on designated dateThank you Sourcebooks Landmark for my #gifted copy of The Night The River Wept!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and author Lo Patrick for this eARC to read and review!

“Everybody's got good & bad in them. In the end, it just depends which side wins out.”

This book snatched me right up from the start. Small towns with dark secrets, a cold case murder mystery & an amateur sleuth is a favorite trope for me & this one delivers!

The story jumps from the POV’s of the MC, Arlene, present day, the diary of a 16 year old from 2 decades ago during the time of the murders & the dark & creepy thoughts of the perp … it is engaging & easy to follow & kept me flippin’ pages to find out the whole story!

Although Arlene may seem a little unstable & emotionally unhinged at times from things she is faced with in her personal life, I couldn’t help but like her & kept rooting for her to uncover the truth & put this crime to bed. She’s actually kind of funny sometimes & pretty relatable, too!

Overall it was a haunting mystery with an atmospheric southern setting that checked all the boxes of a satisfying thrill ride!

L’o Patrick caught my attention with the wonderful Floating Girls and she continues to impress me with The Night The River Wept.Excellent characters a mystery a book that had me involved from first to last page.#netgalley #sourcebooks

Thank you @bookmarked and @netgalley for the e-arc of this book.

Arlene lives in small town Georgia and is married to Tommy. They are trying to start a family but have had some issues along the way. To distract herself from her grief, she applies to work at the local police station. She gets hired to tag evidence. As you can imagine, there's not a whole lot of evidence to bag in a small town, so instead she reads through cold case files. One catches her eye. Three boys were murdered, lined up on the lakeshore, and the killer was never caught.

There are multiple POV here: Arlene, the killer, and a young girl's diary from the time the murders occurred. No one seemed to care about the boys because they were from the wrong neighborhood.

It's a slow burn mystery. Arlene is in her 20s and so my thoughts tittered between how incredibly young she sounded and how relatable some of her experiences were. I did like her as a character. I also enjoyed the mystery. However, some of the aspects were just too far fetched. How Arlene came to be involved, who the murderer was, the story of the young girl with the diary, and several other things just didn't sit well with me.

That being said this would be perfect for someone who likes a small town, slow burn mystery.

The author of the acclaimed debut, The Floating Girls, Lo Patrick, returns with her latest novel, THE NIGHT THE RIVER WEPT, another gripping, haunting Southern tale of heartache, trauma, crime, tragedy, wit, and dark secrets from past to present in this story of good versus evil in a small rural North Georgia town.

About...

How do three little boys get murdered in the middle of the evening right after Thanksgiving and then nothing is done about it for nearly two decades? Faber prided itself on its sense of community—a responsibility that was completely ignored.

PRESENT: Arlene is married to high school sweetheart Tommy and has lived in a small Georgia town her entire life. She wants more than anything to start a family and be a mother, but that has not worked out. She blames herself for her miscarriage.

PAST: Cedar, Colton, and Chase Broderick (brothers) died in November of 1983 on the edge of Deck River. Three innocent boys. Someone took their lives. They were suffocated. Who was the real murderer, and what was the motive? They thought the murderer was the one who committed suicide. But is the real murderer still living among them? Who helped cover it up?

It did not start with the murder or the memory of them, but it began with Arlene's miscarriage. The loss of her baby and the tragic murder of the Brodericks are intertwined in her mind, leading to a deep sense of unhappiness and guilt.

She drives to the police department and tells them she wants to be a detective. (sure, sign her up)? The next day, the Captain of the Faber Police Department called, looked over her application, and offered her a part-time job tagging evidence. It does not take her long before she starts looking into cold cases. Twenty years earlier, three young brothers were murdered on the banks of Deck River; two weeks later, the main suspect, Mitchell Wright, committed suicide.

Arlene is intrigued by the case. The police department receptionist, Ronna, was a friend of the Wrights, and they appeared to be the picture-perfect family. She wants to make sense of things.

In the meantime, Arlene and Tommy do not get along. They constantly bicker back and forth. He drinks too much. Arlene is bored. He is supposed to be a high-powered real estate guy with his wife working for minimum wage at a local lockup (or so he says) that he thinks is nuts. He gets on Arlene's last nerve.

It is funny that Tommy thinks he is a big real estate tycoon when he is in commercial real estate selling strip space to a tire company and is embarrassed that his wife is working at a local lock-up making minimum wage. Arlene definitely puts him in his place, and in the end, they respect one another. He is more interested in golf, homes, society, and the right people, and Arlene is after a career, motherhood, or something to make her feel important and wants to be a detective. But in the end, after all is said and done, she finds her path.

Told from Arlene's POV, Natalie Wright's Journal entries from 1982-1984 (including removed pages from journal), and a condemned man (a sicko murderer, disturbing and unsettling), the narrative style of the book is as intriguing as the story itself. The ongoing mystery revolves around the murderer's identity and all those who played a part in the coverup. Will there finally be justice for the boys? Natalie's journal entries are an essential key to solving the case.

My thoughts...

It is quite a challenging task to review a book with such a rich emotional tapestry with many conflicting emotions. The present is filled with humor, snark, and witty banter, particularly between Arlene, Tommy, and the women, which can be quite entertaining.

However, the past storyline, with its heart-wrenching murder and the surrounding mystery, is haunting, serious, heavy, dark, disturbing, and deeply unsettling. The book's direction is conflicting, a puzzle, and deciphering it is part of the reader's journey. This one will receive many different reviews and discussions, which would probably make it a good book club choice.

QUESTION: Is it a murder mystery, domestic suspense, literary, sleuth-detective mystery, historical narrative, Southern fiction, a coming-of-age story, a humor-filled family drama, or a satire? The book's genre is a delightful mystery in itself, keeping readers guessing and engaged. It blends drama, dysfunction, bleakness, darkness, and wit, making it a unique and intriguing read. But are you supposed to laugh or cry? There are very mixed signals and the overall tone of the book that will have trying to determine its direction.

While I sympathized with the struggles of the town and the poor uneducated families, the heartbreak, its characters, the poverty, the abuse, neglect, their dead-end lives, deaths, secrets, mental illness, and their losses, I think I enjoyed the murder historical part more than the present contemporary which overshadowed the murder mystery which should have been the main focus in my opinion.

This could have been a brilliant murder mystery, but the present-day back-bickering (about useless things) and dark humor did not fit with the overall theme. Maybe I read too many detective cop procedurals, and this one did not measure up there. It seemed disjointed and other reviewers have commented on this, with which I tend to agree.

The book delves into the lives of the 'haves' and 'have nots', those from the wrong side of town. It's a narrative filled with judgments, speculations, jealousy, mistrust, lies, and SECRETS in a small rural town, making for a compelling but questionable read.

Maybe because these ladies are not professional detectives but amateur sleuths (at best) which leaves you shaking your head at some of the things they do and think. Not by the book of course. Most books today, when looking at cold cases, involve a podcast, blog, social media, or sharp new detectives with new DNA. However, here we rely on two women with no education or credentials to be detectives or sleuths without proper evidence or protocols. Not their roles; however, they are tenacious and get the end result, but in a very untraditional way. Most definitely, not professional and by the book. So I would not take the investigation too seriously. They are impulsive and fly by the seat of their pants with no backup.

We are talking about a receptionist and an evidence bag tagger. How did they have enough time to be off sleuthing all the time? There is a lot of jealousy, bickering, lies, betrayal, and protecting one another. Then you have Alaina in the mix, further complicating the trio. Or did the writer portray the actual people who see things differently than the norm?

Arlene's obsession with the murders gave her purpose when she had nothing else eventful in her personal life. She wants to be a detective and make a name for herself, and all her husband, Tommy, wants is to attend dinner parties, golf, drink, connection, and mingle with the right people in upscale neighborhoods and pools. What is hilarious is that Tommy thinks Arlene is cheating on him with the women in her detective's club.

Arlene is quite naive at times for someone of her age. These women seemed like teens or younger. In the end, on her road to self-discovery, she learned something about herself and her marriage.

Overall, THE NIGHT THE RIVER WEPT is a haunting dark story of rural Georgia, gloom, sadness, and murder. However, the author cleverly uses the dialect of her characters for humor to balance the darkness. These small-town folks are a tangled mess—almost a poor rural version of Big Little Lies.

You may reach a different conclusion after reading. I urge you to read and draw your own. Can you ever escape your past? PS There are several trigger warnings.

Recs... I'm sorry, but there are no recommendations here to compare to. I cannot think of any other book to compare this to. I have never read anything quite like it.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing a digital advanced reading copy.

blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3.5 Stars (rounded to 4)
Pub Date: July 2, 2024
July 2024 Must-Read Books
July Newsletter

Small southern towns and all their dark secrets. There is good and there is evil. Arlene dealing with her own loss, finds a part-time job. I was not enamored of her husband. This could have triggers. The ending left me sitting on the front porch saying what? Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley. I freely share my thoughts and opinions. Nothing was requested or expected from me. #TheNighttheRiverWept #LoPatrick #SourcebooksLandmark #NetGalley

Also left on Facebook, X, Kobo, Pinterest

The NIght the River Wept is a southern novel set in 1980s Northern Georgia. The characters felt like real people you would meet in any small southern town. When Arlene starts a part-time job tagging evidence at the local police station, she is allowed to read the notes of old, cold cases stored in the basement room. She is determined to solve the murder case of three small brothers who are from what most people would say was the poor side of town. Along with ruffling a few feathers of co-workers, Arlene discovers that people from a small, tight-knit community can keep many secrets. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the author's next work. Thanks to author Lo Patrick, SOURCEBOOKS Landmark, and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

DNF at 30%. I loved THE FLOATING GIRLS, but for some reason, I could not get into this one. The characters were beyond quirky - their actions and mannerisms were downright weird. Arlene is an odd duck - the way she speaks and thinks and acts. And I couldn't figure out the timeline - is this the present or the 1990s? Unfortunately, just not for me at this time.

The premise of this book sounded so fun and interesting, however I found myself bored from the very beginning of the book. I was just not invested in this book at all.

I would pass on this book.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my early e-arc copy of this book!

Sometimes books try too hard. That's how I feel about this.

Cold cases, miscarriage, unsolved deaths of three brothers. It's DYING to make you cry. It wants you to feel the feelings that are written on the pages. But, it's fails to make that impact because the main character was....kind of an idiot? Maybe not idiot, but Arlene was too much in her own head, dreaming about things. She wasn't serious enough for these serious topics. It's not a cute 'girl detective', it's a bored woman who has no business digging around in police files.

This one was a dud for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I ended up DNFing this and I was pretty disappointed by that. I was very intrigued by the concept of this novel, and I was excited to dig in. But the dialogue was so unnatural and forced that I could not get into it. Every time someone spoke it took me out of the story.

3.5 stars rounded up

I love southern fiction, and The Night the River Wept had that kind of feel, with a pretty good mystery wrapped in. I actually enjoyed the book quite a bit; the story is told from mostly the perspective of Arlene, a 24-year-old married woman who is looking for something to keep her busy until she is able to have a child, but it has short chapters that are excerpts from the diary of the sister of an assumed murderer and reflections from the actual murderer.

One theme of the novel is a community's biases about those who struggle financially, and the way people overlook and ignore the atrocities when they happen to 'those people'. When Arlene starts to look into the murders of three children that happened years ago, she runs up against the assumptions repeatedly. It is clear from the start that the story the public was told is not the actual truth, but the real murderer is not named until the end, and it seems that everyone is lying and covering for someone they are close to.

I did not like the main characters, which is usually not an issue for me, but I found Arlene to be almost stupidly immature and naive, her marriage seemed doomed to fail, and Ronna and Alaina's bickering was infuriating. Several scenes in the story felt almost slapstick-y, which made me cringe.

Overall, I think this will appeal to readers of southern mysteries, especially if they enjoy amateur detectives. Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital ARC of The Night the River Wept. The opinions in this review are my own.

Though a slow burn, slow starting novel, the cold case that Arlene is looking into is gripping and intense as are the diary entries of Natalie Wright, brother of the main suspect who later committed suicide, and the narration from the ‘condemned man’ which is chilling in its forthright lack of emotion, justification, and buildup to the crime. An easy read, stick with the first part of the story and you’ll find yourself needing to know who the culprit is and wanting justice for the three Broderick brothers whose only crime was living in a derelict area of the community.

I’m not sure I really like the main character, Arlene. She’s a self-involved people pleaser who doesn’t seem to have a filter. But perhaps this is in part due to the miscarriage she suffered before the story begins that results in her taking a job at the police department to sort evidence in an attempt to fill the void. I think she’s insecure about who she is, or maybe questioning who she is, so wants to incorporate parts of other’s personalities and affects as part of who she is to become more likeable.

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookmarked for the digital copy of this book. “The Night the River Wept” will be on shelves July 2, 2024.

#thenighttheriverwept #lopatrick #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booknerd #bookgeek #femaleauthor #femalewriter #bookreview #netgalley #sourcebookslandmark #mysterybooks #thrillerbooks #fictionbooks