4.25 Stars
Granite Harbor is a small town in Maine where Detective Alex Brangwen lives. He is a divorced father who shares custody of his teenage daughter with his high-drama ex-wife. He hasn't been a detective for long when there is a murder of a local teen. The body is found within the historical reenactment village called the Settlement, which is popular with tourists and schools groups. Many of the townspeople work or volunteer at the Settlement, including Isabel, mother of Ethan, best friend of the murdered boy. When this murder is linked to one from years earlier, the possibility that this is the work of a serial killer has the entire town on edge.

We are introduced to a large number of characters through the interactions at the Settlement, many of them very quirky. The author does a really good job of interweaving these introductions so that most do not feel frivolous. His writing is very engaging and melds the right amount of detail to develop characters and setting but not so much that you are bogged down as a reader. I really liked the way the teenaged characters were just as three dimensional as the adult ones, which is not always the case in fiction not aimed at the YA audience.

While I did figure out who the murderer was way before the reveal, it didn't not spoil the story for me. I've been thinking about several of the things that happened in the book for days after finishing, which is always the hallmark of a good book for me. I will definitely read more by this author. If you like a solid murder mystery, with some chapters from the killer's POV mixed in, this is a great choice for you.

Thank you to NEtGalley, the author and publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my hones review.

Loved reading this book! The perfect thriller/mystery that completely knocks your boots off with that reveal. There is depth to the characters and the writing is very descriptive, I got goose bumps and felt like some of the stuff was happening to me while I was reading.

I highly suggest that you SKIP the official synopsis for this novel as it reveals something that doesn’t happen until almost the THREE QUARTER mark of the book-and I think the story would have had MUCH more of an impact on me-if I hadn’t known what was coming!!

*SPOILER FREE REVIEW *

Life in Granite Harbor Maine, will never be the same after a local teenager's body is found brutally murdered in “The Settlement” the town's historic archaeological site.

The body has been hung from a handmade wooden structure, with a gruesome clue left INSIDE the corpse which has been sliced open.

And, it will be up to Alex Brangwen, the town's sole detective to solve the case.

This will be his first murder case, newly trained after a failed career as a novelist, and his skills as a detective are rudimentary. He will have to use his writer’s imagination and consider all possibilities no matter how unusual- if he hopes to succeed.

Adding to the pressure- the Victim was a friend of his daughter.

This isn’t a bad story, and I quite enjoyed the chapters when Alex was investigating BUT -I have a couple of reasons why it’s just a 3 star read for me, IN ADDITION to the synopsis giving away too much.

First, as we get to know the residents of this small Coastal town, it seemed obvious to me who would be guilty of MURDER.

Second, there is gratuitous animal harm, and if you follow my reviews, you know that I don’t want to read about that. A dog dies in an accidental death, which explains some of the plot, BUT there wasn’t a need to describe the deaths of fish, toads or Coyotes to further the plot after that.

If you go in blind, or if they make the book’s synopsis more succinct by publication date, and you aren’t bothered by animal death-you just might enjoy this one more than I did!

Available April 30, 2024

Thank you to Celadon books for the gifted copy provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

BLURB: "At once a page-turning thriller and a captivating portrait of the social fabric of a small town, Granite Harbor evokes the atmosphere of HBO’s Mare of Easttown with a villain reminiscent of Thomas Harris’s Silence of the Lambs."

Granite Harbor is a small town in coastal Maine where everyone knows everyone else. The kind of boring place where nothing eventful ever happens... until a ritualistic killer shows up.

Police detective Alex Brangwen, a British immigrant, took a job in law enforcement as something of a last resort when his career as a novelist didn't work out. He has a rebellious teenage daughter, a hostile ex-wife, and very little experience in murder investigations.

Isabel is an eccentric single mother who struggles to support herself and her teenage son with her new job at a reenactment village called The Settlement, located at the town’s historic archaeological site. Her husband disappeared many years ago while making a solo boat trip across the Atlantic and neither she nor her son have ever really gotten over it.

Alex and Isabel have a complicated past history that gets more complicated by the fact that his daughter Sophie and her son Ethan were both good friends of the first murder victim.

Those four characters, along with the unknown/unnamed killer, are the main focus of the story. It goes back and forth between the five of them (with flashbacks to the killer's traumatic backstory) as well as several other characters who drift in and out of the story as the plot unfolds.

While reading this I kept waiting for the story to kick into gear; for everything to ratchet up to a feeling of intensity, edge of the seat suspense, page turning urgency. It never happened. I think part of the problem was a lack of focus. Too many characters who weren't really integral, or even of interest, to the overall plot were given elaborate back stories at the expense of the main characters' development. There's no strong connection to any of the characters so there's no real sense of danger or urgency.

The result is a slow, uneven plot that never finds its footing. It's a bit like a genre mash-up of Murder She Wrote with Silence of the Lambs.

The author seems to want the book to be both literary fiction and psychological thriller which is an extremely difficult thing to pull off. Had the author chosen a more clear focus point for this novel then I think it would have been a much better read. As it is there is the connection between the detective and the single mom, the unknown killer's disturbing backstory, a smattering of teen angst and a lot of odds and ends that don't really gel together.

Add some graphic violence and disturbing sexual content and you really need a strong point of view to avoid losing the reader.

BOTTOM LINE: It just didn't work for me. The subject matter is either too dark for this kind of light treatment or too light to have such dark content. NOT suitable for more sensitive readers.

This book had that gruesome murder in a small town, everyone knows everyone’s business… to start the who done it .. and everyone thinking it’s their job to figure it out.
I really thought I was going to love this book and devour it immediately… unfortunately it fell flat for me. You have Alex, single father to Sophie, and the only detective in town left to solve the horrific murder of a teenager and to make it even more messy the victim is one of his daughters best friends. Throw in Isabel and her son, Ethan, their stories and a long list of backgrounds, side stories, and distractions from the plot line and I felt confused and at times frustrated. There was so much going on and I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters this one couldn’t draw me in. It didn’t come together for me in a cohesive story.
It was a dark twisted killer to say the least and without giving anything away you do get the killer’s perspective, which was an interesting twist.
Thank you to the Author, Netgalley, and Celadon Books for the ARC.

Thank you Net Galley and Celadon Books for the Advanced Reader Copy. A mystery set in Maine, which switches from the murderer's life to the present day murder of young men in a small historical village. I love it when I can't figure out the mystery, and this one surprised me at the end. One of the pieces I loved the most was a character involved in making and renovating historic ships in a bottle--very interesting.

A small town thriller grabs me every time. I loved this one. Thank you for giving me early access to this thrilling read.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on April 30, 2024.

This serial killer thriller is set in a small coastal Maine town. I love dual POV's and the author did a great job of combining the two into a seamless story. Alex is a police detective and Isabel is the mom of a friend of the first victim. The community is connected while the characters are well-developed. This book was suspenseful, dark, disturbing, and written with excellence. I had a hard time putting it down.

The story is told from multiple POVs including a group of teenage friends, their parents, and a ritualistic killer. The plotting is dark, suspenseful, intriguing, and full of red herrings which I devoured. The details of the murders are dark and disturbing and there is some animal cruelty in this book, so be aware of the triggers before reading.

In this excellent thriller/mystery, a serial killer is stalking teenage boys in a quaint coastal Maine town. His signature style of killing is grisly and unique, which enables the FBI to establish a pattern. Alex is the town's only detective, and he doesn't have much experience, but he is under pressure both professionally and personally -- his daughter's friends are targets, and possible his daughter is a target as well. Tense and well-plotted, this will appeal to so many thriller readers.

There are some minor spoilers ahead, only because I have no idea how to describe my disappointment about certain elements.

Granite Harbor is a dark story of a serial killer stalking teen boys in the titular small Maine town. Alex is the police detective on the case, accompanied by the eccentric Isabel, whose own son may be caught in the killer's sights.

Let me say this: there are some things I wish I could unread in this book. I've read across a variety of genres, including thrillers and horror and can handle most things. But sometimes, like in this story, it feels like the author is trolling--in a what-can-I-write-on-the-page-before-the-reader-tosses-my-book-in-disgust kind of way.

Beloved Jurassic Park character Ian Malcolm said it best: "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." Indeed, Mr. Malcolm, some things are better left to the imagination.

Other reviews have mentioned the horrific instance of animal cruelty that made them stop reading. But before you get to that part, you have to read some pretty horrific child abuse, including--did I read that right(??)--a 14-year-old "doing sex" with a 9-year-old? Sorry, but I'm not getting paid for this, so I'm not going to re-read any of it.

But moving away from the stomach turning scenes, the story moves along fine, but the pacing at times felt off. There were many "filler" scenes that seemed unnecessary to the plot--backstory of side characters, for example, that I skimmed right over. This includes the present/flashback narrative early on of Alex and his daughter that slowed the immediacy. And the setting was fine, but nothing felt scary, even though there's a creep slicing up teen boys on the loose.

As for the characters, well, they felt a bit flat to me, and many times were unbelievable. Alex is the worst cop--he barely seems to know how to use his gun or technology so I'm shocked that he was promoted to detective. Morgana was obnoxious, the side characters unmemorable. The killer, while his motivations were believable and his backstory made his personality understandable, was kind of a letdown. And the teenagers? Mostly contemptible. I could not even believe Sohphia (Sophie? I can't even remember) had the gall to chastise her mother for tracking her phone. I would have shipped her butt off to that school in Texas. That tracking saved your life, you ungrateful little brat.

All in all, I'm sure this book will find an audience, and it's saying something that I didn't stop reading, because I was truly interested in how everything would turn out. But I wouldn't recommend it--I'd be too afraid of how I'd be judged. And quite frankly, there were just too many parts that made me wish I never picked it up.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an early copy of those book to read and review through NetGalley.

Thank you to the publisher, Celadon Books @celadonbooks, and Netgalley @netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Granite Harbor is a quiet and serene town, until a local teenager is found brutally murdered.

Alex is adjusting to life as a single father and is the towns sole detective. Alex knows the people of the town are looking to him to solve the murder.

Isabel is a single mother attempting to support her family. She finds herself immersed in the case because her son Ethan, and Alex’s daughter, Sophie, were best friends with the victim. They both are fighting to find the killer in their midst. When secrets are revealed, can they keep their tight-knit community, that way?

This was a dark and immersive read. I struggled to get into this one as the pacing was on the slower side and there are lots of characters to get to know, so I did have a hard time. After about the halfway mark, things clicked, the pacing picked up, and I really started getting into the story. I enjoyed that we got the killers perspective, without knowing who the killer was, which was an added perk. With plenty of characters, there are some I liked and some I really didn’t like at all, but they were all thought out and developed. I also enjoyed the look into the relationships between teens and their parents, it was well done. This book was a little gory at times, but I didn’t find it off putting, it was well done and flowed nicely with the story. It was vivid and I easily pictured it, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but the writing was wonderful. I think the author did a great job with the complex characters in the story, and the reveal was fun.

If you are looking for a character driven, atmospheric mystery, then check this one out.

Once teen Shane is found brutally murdered at an archaeological site in a small town of Maine, single father and former writer turned detective, Alex Brangwen, is called to investigate his first murder case. Isabel, single mother, finds herself in the middle of the case when she begins working at the location where the body was found. Alex’s daughter and Isabel’s son were best friends with the deceased teen, so when another teen is found murdered in the same gruesome fashion, both Alex and Isabel are terrified their children are next.

A dark and disturbing serial killer thriller that takes place in a small town? Yes please! The small town setting and dynamics were creatively captured within a dark and atmospheric vibe and the characters were well developed. I personally loved the flashbacks to the killer’s childhood, which gave me more of an understanding of the killer and how he was molded into this monster without knowing his identity. While I was able to determine who the killer was pretty early on, I still enjoyed learning about the killer’s MO, the suspenseful build-up, and twists and turns throughout.
If you are a fan of the show Criminal Minds, I definitely recommend picking this up!


Thank you Celadon Books for a #gifted copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This upcoming new release is one of the darkest and most captivating crime novels this year. Although set in Maine, the style of this novel closely resembles my favorite Nordic Noir - think The Chestnut Man and Lars Kepler novels. What looks like a ritualistic killing of one of the local teen turns into a nightmare when another boy is found dead. Town's only detective is now on a hunt for a serial killer.

This deeply atmospheric read really chills you to the bone. From page one, you get a true horror movie vibe: a psycho following and hunting down teenagers. The author did such a great job creating the unsettling, eerie feeling of the empty streets at night.

The side story of single parents raising their teens in the town of Granite Harbor is emotional and grim. Their struggles, worries and horrors they are thrown into while the killer is on the lose are real and deeply felt. I really enjoyed the psychological aspect of this novel. The dual timeline tells the story in present time and gives a glimpse into the killer's early life and childhood trauma. As the past slowly revealed, you are able to put two and two together. It's a surprising twist and the race against time begins.

Overall, this was an excellent thriller, propulsive and intriguing. Be ready for some dark and disturbing parts. Plenty of spine-tingling suspense and tension building till the very end.

This is a suspenseful crime mystery thriller about a serial killer in a small town in rural Maine. The detective investigating the case is new and this is his first murder. He is feeling tremendous pressure to solve the case but the small community has their secrets and he is finding it hard to get information. It’s a dark grisly atmospheric read that’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat!!

It took me a while to get into this book. I was about half way through before it really grabbed a hold of me. I did really enjoy the rest of the book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Was ok. Not my favorite but I did enjoy the setting. Definitely some dark plot points. Thank you NetGalley for this arc

GRANITE HARBOR by Peter Nichols review!

Thank you to @celadonbooks for my early copy on NetGalley! When I read the blurb in the email that this is a crime fiction/serial killer story taking place in Maine, I knew I would be reading this ASAP! I’m giving this one 4 ⭐️

Maine (my favorite state) 🤝 serial killer crime fiction. Alex is a Maine transplant from the UK, single dad, failed author, and idyllic Granite Harbor’s new detective. For his first case, he’s faced with a brutally murdered teen found at the small town’s historic archeological site. Alex knows that the tight-knit community in which everyone thinks they know each other, is looking to him to find the killer amongst them.

This started off a bit slow for me, but I quickly became wrapped up in the characters, the setting, the writing, and the overall creepiness of small town murder hysteria. There were some genuinely dark moments that I didn’t expect, but very much appreciated. If you enjoyed Tana French’s IN THE WOODS, THE CHESTNUT MAN by Søren Sveistrup, and TRUE DETECTIVE, you’ll enjoy this one! Available 4/30!

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for the copy of Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols. I loved the story and I liked the quirky characters. Unfortunately, the writing was choppy, and a couple of times I would have to reread a sentence because the sentence structure was awkward. I didn’t enjoy the animal cruelty or the racist remarks one character made, so those were almost DNF triggers for me. You should read this if you want a great story and enjoy a large cast of interesting characters, you will love this book.