Lost to Dune Road is a dark and suspenseful thriller that handles some tough topics. Did I enjoy it? Eh … kind of? The premise is good, but it lost me a bit when it came to the characters and the pacing.

The good:

That cover – so pretty! The cover is, like, 60% of the reason that I decided to grab this book off of NetGalley. I'm like a magpie with shiny things, except that I'm human and my irresistible things are colorful, not shiny. So not like a magpie with shiny things at all, really. Also, I read recently that birds are actually scared of shiny stuff and the magpie thing is a myth, but whatever. The cover is just pretty, okay?

The subject matter – this book handles some really tough topics. Police (and politician) corruption, wealthy individuals and their ability to skirt the law, abortion and adoption, and unhealthy relationships (especially where older men with young girls are concerned). They're not fun subjects, but Kara Thomas writes about them in a sensitive yet entertaining manner.

The plot – compelling and interesting. I really liked the way that both of the major storylines were woven together, even though I sometimes got a bit confused about which victim I was reading about and who did what to whom.

The setting – I'm a former New Yorker and I enjoyed reading about all the various locations in Manhattan.

The mediocre:

The romance – It was unnecessary and the relationship didn't seem particularly realistic.

The characters – they're all rather unlikeable. I mean, I can handle unlikeable characters, but the bad guys are all mostly one-dimensional villains and the good guys are all horribly broken people that aren't much more likeable than the villains at times. Kona (a dog / very minor character) is cool, though.

The pacing – parts of this book were really suspenseful and parts of it dragged on for forever. This novel came in at 272 pages on my Kobo e-reader, but I swear it felt like it was 400+.

The bad:

The characters, part two - HOW MANY CHARACTERS DOES A BOOK NEED? I couldn't keep them straight and felt like I needed a flowchart at times. So many awful rich men. So many cops. So many witnesses. So many family members. So many suspects. If you have a Swiss cheese brain like I do, prepare to be tremendously overwhelmed by all of the names you'll have to remember.

So, yeah. This wasn't a terrible read by any means, and if you like private detective-based thrillers, there's a decent chance you'll enjoy this one, too. Was it one of my favorites? Nah. But would I pick up another book by this author? Most likely.

Final rating: 3.4 stars, rounded down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.

First of all, the cover artwork is beautiful and certainly reminds me of Dune Road. Lost to Dune Road is one of many Kara Thomas’ books I've read, and I really enjoyed it. This was an enthralling thriller from start to finish.

Five years ago, Natalee (Lee) Ellerin was a reporter for Vanity Fair investigating the disappearance of Jenna Mackey until she makes a mistake that costs her career. In present day, pregnant college student Amanda Hartley lies in a coma. She was found at a penthouse. The police are calling it a suicide; however, the facts of the case don’t add up. Who is the father of the child? How could she afford such a luxury apartment while going to college? Why did she have a note with Lee’s name on it?

This book in the beginning was very Long Island Serial Killer (LISK) inspired and I think that’s because Thomas is from Long Island. As someone who grew up on Long Island, I really appreciated how accurate her descriptions were as well.

Twists and turns occur over the course of the book and will leave your jaw-dropping. This will be your next TBR.

A massive thank you to Kara Thomas and Thomas & Mercer for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: murder, suicide, discussion of abortion.

I cant even fully put into words how much I liked this book. It was full of drama and mystery and kept you wanting more. I wanted to cry so many times and then again but happy tears. The ending was honestly the biggest twist that I never saw coming. Ive been a huge fan of Kara Thomas since I read her first book and now I have read all she has written. These characters had so much depth to them and you really did start to get attached and feel like you knew them.

I was excited to see Kara Thomas back! I still think her YA is a little more solid than her adult fiction but this was a good start to what honestly felt like a series to me.

I did think some of the storyline was too easy—she seems to have written about everyone involved in both cases and then either forgot or didn’t think it was important (like having interviewed one suspect’s adult child that fact somehow doesn’t come up until chapters after she learns about the suspect’s connection to the case) and everyone seems oddly eager to talk to her.

The other major issue was the character of William. At one point he sends her photographs from an art gallery show. He was someone who had worked parties with the injured woman and had a defunct food/drink truck business but the then the book says he was from the NYPD in the paragraph that has .her finding the email he spent her prior to their argument. This fact is repeated again in her conversation with Chase but in the rest of the book, William is not involved with the NYPD at all. At first I thought there were somehow two characters named William because the email sender had a different last name than food truck William but then it was clear when she talked to him that food truck William in the photos and was who sent them to her.

The storyline with Chase felt flimsy. It didn’t seem like they had ever really dated yet acted like young teens around each other. He was a very flat character.

These issues, among other things made the book feel like a rough draft that hadn’t made it to the editors yet. The ending seemed a little rushed and anticlimactic.

That said, I enjoyed the character of Lee and her background. I think we could see more of Lee solving crimes with her journalism and PI skills and over all it was a pretty solid mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC!
This is my first read by Kara Thomas and will most certainly not be my last!
This investigative thriller kept me on the edge of seat from start to finish! I truly have zero complaints to share about this book, and the ending just really solidified it being a 5 ⭐️ read for me.
It is my understanding this book will be on Kindle Unlimited, and its publish date is 04/16/24!

For a disgraced reporter, unraveling a conspiracy of murder could mean redemption in a powerful novel of suspense by the bestselling author of Out of the Ashes.

I love Kara Thomas and this was another great novel from her. Wonderfully written with excellent characters and plot twists.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
This was a exciting read! Lee, a disgraced reporter turns investigator when Amanda’s mom offers her 10 thousand to find her pregnant daughters babies father. Amanda lies in a coma - they say suicide but it doesn’t add up. She had a note with Lees name. Why? Who was the father? Why would someone try to kill Amanda? Digging for information get very scary. Can Lee stay safe to find the answers?

Great mystery! Lost to Dune Road has all the elements of a good mystery novel, romance, strong lead characters, wealthy lifestyles, and chapters told from different character perspectives. Lost to Dune Road grabbed me from the beginning and held me to the end.

Every once in awhile, when the weather's getting cold and plans are getting sparse, I like to stay in bed all Sunday morning and just read until I finish a book. Not too many books deserve that, but this one did - I was happy to stay covered up and cozy and follow this one through all its twists and turns. The narrator had an engaging voice that kept me interested and rooting for her throughout, and the intricate plot really kept me guessing. Plus anytime a thriller can get me to raise my eyebrows all "yo, that's messed up" I call it a win.

Although this book did give me sympathy for people that live on Long Island and choose to drive cars in the city, it did get very repetitive being constantly told about having to get from place to place and then find parking, etc. It also strained credulity that like, every person the MC wanted to talk to was both willing to talk to some rando PI while also carving out time in their schedules to meet up in person to do so that same day or the next. Especially people that are busy as hell with their jobs in Manhattan! These elements combined to create a plot that was basically "drive to a place, meet up with a person" over and over and over again, broken up only by flashbacks to other POVs. I enjoyed the book despite this though, and would read this author again.

My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. My third novel by this author and it did not disappoint. Great writing. Great domestic thriller.

Lost to Dune Road by K. Thomas, published by Thomas & Mercer is the highly anticipated next book by this outstanding author.
A stand-alone the story follows Lee Ellerin, a reporter that investigates unsolved murder cases. But things go horribly wrong and she has to leave her career behind.
5 years later new victims show up, new cases and Lee is pulled back into the investigation.
A fast paced, complex read that had me in knots, in suspense right from the start till the very unexpected end. Sitting on the edge of my seat, I read the whole book, cover to cover, in one sitting. Fantastic, incredible.

Lost to Dune Road covers an ex-journalist's determination to solve the case that ruined her career. After losing her job, Lee works as a PI and is hired by a mother to find her daughter's baby daddy. The daughter is in a coma after a suspicious suicide attempt, so Lee has little information to start with. As she delves into the girl's life, she finds connections to the years-old case that landed her in hot water.

Overall, I enjoyed this read. It was fast-paced and intense. The author didn't waste time getting to the story's heart, jumping into the plot. Lee was easy to like, with her grit and determination. Since she's slowly putting together two separate cases, there wasn't a lot of meandering and self-reflection for Lee.

The underlying theme was what powerful men can get away with. Lee comes up against several men who have the means to bury their awful deeds and people to protect them. We also see how callously the men handled young girls and the awful underside of the rich. The frustration and anger Lee experienced were what women in the world deal with today.

While I enjoyed the overall mystery, the ending was anti-climactic. There were too many characters that Lee spent the novel chasing, only for them to be irrelevant. I didn't quite understand the actual culprit's motivation; it was revealed too late in the story for my taste. The supporting cast needed to be streamlined; several characters and interactions had little bearing on the overall storyline.

The romance was so weird. Two grown adults being awkward over a five-year-old kiss was too much for my brain to handle. It ended up being a big deal, and I needed the characters to move on. It didn't help that one of them was in a committed relationship and was still pursuing the weird drama.

Overall, this wasn't a bad thriller. I hesitate to call it a "popcorn" thriller due to the heavy topics, but it had the breakneck pace that I often associate with that genre. If you don't mind a cheesy romance with your mystery, check this out.

*Check trigger warnings before reading. Some TWs include statutory rape, violence, abortion, and sexual assault.

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas Mercer for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Is it too early to start screaming from the rooftop about a must read that doesn't release for six months? If you're a Kinsey Millhone fan you need to read this book! Is there any way possible that we could talk Kara Thomas into writing a series of books following private investigator Lee Ellerin? Lee Ellerin was a reporter until an investigation into a young women's murder on Dune road caused her to lose everything. Now working as a private investigator she's hired by a mom whose daughter is on life support. The mom contacted Lee because the daughter had Lee's name written on a receipt. This story kept me from sleeping because it was my nightstand read and I could not put it down.

I was so pleased to be able to read this - Kara Thomas is such an excellent author and this was a great read. This was an intriguing mystery - Amanda was a really well drawn character and her motivations were clear throughout. The flashes back to her were well placed throughout the book.

Like other reviewers, I found the romance sub-plot unnecessary and pretty uninteresting - likewise I wasn't invested in Nelson. I felt there were a few too many characters to keep track off (in particular, naming two of them William seemed an odd choice!). I think for me there might have been too much time dedicated to the narrator's romantic and friend relationships and this squeezed the plot a bit at the end. We were introduced to the key character right at the end and given very limited information about his motivation behind his action. I also expected to be 'shown' not 'told' about Jenna's murder/Amanda's attempted murder. In particular, because we didn't 'see' what actually happened to Amanda, I was expecting a last chapter plot twist where it turned out the key character was covering for his wife. Because we'd had so much info throughout about how unusual Amanda's situation was, it was odd not to have the final puzzle pieces - how did she end up in the bath without any signs of a struggle on her body etc?

Overall I really enjoyed reading this and was gripped throughout, but was a bit taken aback by how quickly the ending wrapped up - it didn't seem in line with the usual complexity/detail of Kara Thomas' books.

This book was nothing short of phenomenal. I was hooked from the first chapter and couldn’t put it down. Lost to Dune Road is the story of Natalee Ellerin, a disgraced reporter turned private investigator. Lee begins the story investigating the supposed suicide attempt of a young pregnant art student. In an attempt to find the baby’s father, Lee embarks on a twisty, layered investigation that leads her right back to the case that ended her writing career. Lee is messy but endearing and the mystery itself is layered, twisty, and unpredictable. I loved many of the supporting characters and felt they added a lot to the story. Chase! Nelson! Even Molly. Also, the ending was fantastic- definitely didn’t see it coming. All in all, this is one of my favorites of the year.

I would give this 3.5 stars. It was fine, but I expect more from Kara Thomas. It was a quick read, but it probably won't stay in my memory for a long time. Still, thriller fans could like this one.

This was a super quick and thrilling read for me! I really enjoyed all of the build up and found the twists to be entertaining and not too predictable. I definitely will recommend in the future!

Lost to Dune Road it's a super tense and fast read!

Suspenseful, witty, and full of surprises - everything I love to see in a great story.

Lost to Dune Road it’s an adult thriller based on a disgraced journalist turned private investigator who is investigating what seems to be a random suicide - except somehow, it seems related to the case that ruined her life five years before. This one is a deeply layered mystery book with deeply troubled women at its heart who are trying so desperately to navigate and survive a world that does not give a fuck about them.

I'm just not gonna give it 5 stars because I was a little bit disappointed with the romance - which personally, I felt was unnecessary. I didn’t love how it was wrapped up and would’ve been happier with either zero romance or a new interest.

Despite that, I loved the twists that came towards the end and had a lot of fun with the mystery aspect of this story.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the gifted eARC to read and review!

This was my first read from Ms. Thomas and while I admit it was an, “Oooh pretty cover! 😍” insta-grab for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I especially appreciated the first-person POV, (this is rare for procedurals, but can I please have more of it?). The suspense build up was spot on and perfectly paced. I assure you 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝐷𝑢𝑛𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑎𝑑 won’t be one of those disappointing cover buys!

Pubs April 9, 2024!

In Lost to Dune Road by Kara Thomas, reporter Lee Ellerin’s investigation into a young woman’s unsolved murder gained national attention—only for her to lose everything due to a tragic mistake.

Five years later, pregnant college student Amanda Hartley lies in a coma. The police say she attempted suicide, but the details don’t add up. And, there’s also one alarming coincidence: Amanda was last seen on Dune Road in the Hamptons—where the murder victim in Lee’s previous investigation disappeared.

Lee sees the chance to amend the mistakes of her past. But finding a killer and unearthing Amanda’s secrets sends her down a dark path.

Lost to Dune Road had good suspense and intrigue. The author presents the twists and turns with interesting characters and plot twists that have you reading well into the night. The ending was satisfying and made sense.

A good mystery, good plot, and well-written to keep me involved in the story and the characters.

#LosttoDuneRoad #NetGalley @AmazonPub