This book has an interesting plot and great characters, but it's too slow and has a lot of repetitions. Still, it's easy and entertaining to read.

This is the first book in the Vera Boyett Series.

While Vera is engrossed in trouble at work, she gets a phone call from her sister that remains have been found believed to be their stepmother. She goes home to find that her former high school flame is now the sheriff. As they dig in to find out if the remains are indeed the stepmother's, three more bodies are found in the same area. Vera knows the truth about what happened to her stepmother, but who are the other three? But does she really know the truth?

This is a great beginning to a new series! Great characters and a great plot that keeps you guessing about where the story is leading to. I can't wait for the next book in the series!

Thank you to the Author and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Protecting Your Family Was Never Harder

Vera Boyett, the Deputy Chief of the Memphis Police Department, is packing her personal items to take home as this is the end of her career. While not by her direct action, she had let an elite team deteriorate and cost lives. She knew that this would be the end of her career. She receives a call from her step-sister, Selina. Vera thought that the call was about their seventy-five-year-old father, whose health had taken a turn for the worse two years ago. His dementia had made it impossible for him to live at home any longer. Selina tells her that Mama has been found. She said that she didn’t leave us. Someone took her from us. She’s been dead all this time. From this start, a very engaging novel begins.

The novel has only one main storyline thread and is narrated by Vera Boyett. There are two subthreads. Very early in the novel, the reader learns that teenage Vera and her sister, Eve, hid their stepmother’s body in a cave on their property. She expresses that the protection of her family is her highest priority. This leads her to conduct her own investigation to learn what she needs to defend her family. The second subthread is the Sheriff asking her to participate in the investigation. The problems she must face are an increasing body count, and she believes Eve is not telling her everything. Whenever Vera discovers what appears to help shift the focus away from her family, it turns around to implicate her family. This storyline captured my interest to the end.

The novel provides a rich and extensive background on Vera, the protagonist. Her discussions and flashbacks with Eve offer valuable insights into her family ties. These interactions with her sister, Eve, and her step-sister, Selina, reveal the complex dynamics of their relationships. Similarly, her discussions and flashbacks with Sheriff Benton shed light on her professional and romantic past. These are B-storylines, which not only add depth to the characters but also provide a solid foundation for the next novel.

This novel should not present any issues for readers sensitive to intimate scenes, language, and violence. There is only a reference to a twenty-two-year-old intimacy. A noticeable amount of objectionable language is present, but more rude than vulgar. There is a sprinkling of impious language. For violence, only two scenes are described in the more edgy as it occurs, but they still are mild. This is the first book in what appears to be a two-book series, so there are no issues of missing anything from a previous novel.

What kept me reading this novel was seeing the events through the eyes of Vera Boyett. I never knew precisely what Sheriff Benton knew. All that she discovers seems to point back to her family. This locked me into continuing reading. The only issue I had was a loose end at the end. The author does address it in the last chapter, so I suspect it will be part of the second book in this series. Since I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel, I moved the author’s rating up to my Must-Read category and did not deduct my rating based on the unresolved loose end. I do recommend reading this novel. I am just waiting for the next novel to become available. I rate this novel with five stars.

I received this novel's free prepublication e-book version through NetGalley from Thomas & Mercer. My review is based solely on my own reading experience of this novel. Thank you, Thomas & Mercer, for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.

Deeper Than the Dead was my first novel by this author, and I really enjoyed it. Anything with sisters always draws me in, being the first of five girls, I love my sisters so much. Anyways.. while I did figure this out towards the end, I still really enjoyed the book and for most of it I did continue to wonder who the murderer could be and also found myself invested in the side story going on. There was plenty of drama and twists to keep me interested but I wouldn’t consider this a thriller, more like a cozy mystery. I really did find myself liking the main character Vera, and because of that I will pick up the next one in the series when its available. Many thanks to Thomas and Mercer for my eARC. Deeper Than the Dead will be published 8/1.

Vera and her sister Eve know that their stepmother Sheree's body was in the cave but not about the three other skeletons that have just been found. And now they've got to deal with their own ghosts as well as with Bent, the determined law enforcement officer who is looking for answers. This is a fast paced and twisty one about the past coming back with a vengeance. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Good storytelling makes it a good read.

”There are folks who will do anything to keep their secrets”.

This is the sixth book I have read from Debra Webb. As a fan of her Finlay O’Sullivan series, I have discovered I much prefer her later work over her earlier work. It is my opinion that her writing has drastically improved over time as she has become a better and more seasoned author. I’ll leave it at that.

Having just read a story about a couple of families with a lot of secrets in their “family closets”, I was curious what kind crazy stuff I would be finding in Vera Boyett’s closet. I’m not usually a fan of domestic dramas; I find so much of it boring and poorly written. However, I really enjoyed the story of Vera and the skeletons (literally) in her “family cave”.

As the book summary states, one of the skeletons is Vera’s stepmother, Sheree, that was believed to have run off with another man more than 22yrs ago. What the book summary doesn’t say is that Vera and her sister Eve were the ones that stuffed Sheree’s body in the cave 22yrs ago, when Vera was 17 and Eve was 12. This after Eve found Sheree trying to drown baby Luna (toddler) in the bathtub and in the process of saving Luna from Sheree, Eve pushed Sheree and she hit her head on the ceramic sink and then the tile floor that killed her instantly.

Having just been relieved of her position as Deputy Chief for the Memphis PD because of an incident with her team that resulted in the death of two teammates, Vera heads back home to Fayetteville to try and keep the secret that she and Eve have kept for 22yrs from coming to light. There is a secondary storyline of the new Sheriff, Bent, and Vera and their complicated affair 22yrs ago; Vera is still as attracted to Bent now as she was then. However, Bent is obsessed with finding out how the bodies got in the cave and who put them there and is convinced that Vera and Eve are not being completely honest and are definitely hiding something.

Most of the story revolves around the investigation of discovering Sheree’s body along with three other skeletons discovered in another part of the cave. While Vera and Eve knew about Sheree’s body (this was revealed really early in the story), they have no idea who the other three are or who put them there. It wasn’t until well into the second half before I had the slightest clue as to who the killer of the three other bodies could be. I missed the mark on that one.

This was not the fast-paced action-packed kind of story that I typically read. However, the storyline was interesting and definitely kept me engaged. The character development of the MC’s was pretty good although I would have liked to know a little more about Bent and his time from leaving Fayetteville for the Marines, to when he came back 20yrs later. I’m sure future installments will go more into that. I really liked the ending too! Very satisfying. Webb definitely wove a really good story here about a family with a lot of secrets and a town willing to do anything to hide its own secrets. I look forward to more of Vera Boyett and her hometown and all its secrets. I’m looking at an overall score of 4.2 that I will be rounding down to a 4star rating

I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #Thomas&Mercer #DeeperThantheDead

Vera Boyett, a disgraced former deputy police chief, returns to her small Tennessee hometown when the remains of her long-missing stepmother, Sheree, are discovered in a cave on the family property. Vera and her sister, Eve, had a strained relationship with Sheree, and the discovery forces them to confront their past.

As the investigation unfolds, shocking secrets about the family and the town surface. Vera, utilizing her detective skills, uncovers evidence suggesting Sheree's disappearance wasn't an isolated incident. Further discoveries reveal additional bodies in the cave, predating and postdating Sheree's death.

Vera, haunted by her past and determined to find the truth, must navigate a web of small-town secrets, face her estranged sister, and even reconnect with her former love, the town sheriff. The deeper she digs, the more danger she uncovers, threatening not only herself but also those she cares about.

I loved this first book in Debra‘s new series (Vera Boyett #1)

This book definitely has the wow effect. It grabbed me from the very first page, and I truly could not put it down. It’s full of suspense and definitely keeps you questioning.
Talk about sister drama this one definitely has it!

Crime analyst Vera Boyett has possibly lost her job and is debating on what to do. She gets a call from her half sister Luna. Luna’s mother had went missing many years ago. But now she has been found! In a cave on the family property. Vera has home to console her sister Luna and to get her story straight with her sister Eve. Vera and Eve may have some knowledge as to how Sheree’s body got in the cave.
But the plot thickens. They have now found four bodies on their family property. Now her whole family is under suspicion and to top it off the new sheriff investigating just so happens to be Vera‘s ex-boyfriend Bent.
Debra did an amazing job. It’s definitely beyond five stars. The description was so good that I felt I was a part of the Boyett family. Her characters were as always very believable. I can’t wait to see what Vera gets into next.

I was asked to read this ARC IN RETURN FOR MY HONEST REVIEW.

This was my first book by this author!! I am officially a fan and can't wait for the rest of the books in the series to come out.

This book was the perfect thriller with the right amount of suspense and twist.

This was a very interesting read. I thought it was kind of slow but I was stubborn and kept reading it cause I wanted to see what happened and I was glad I did.

This book was very intense at time and it kept you guessing every page.

Great job Debra can't wait until the next one!

The past is coming back to haunt Vera Boyett. Vera is on leave from a special task form that she was in charge. She knows she is probably about to lose her job, so she heads home to Tennessee. She does not realize that she is about to jump from the frying pan into the fire.

When the body that is found in a cave on her family's property turns out to be Vera's missing stepmother, Vera starts to feel the heat. After all who else would know about this cave on her family's property. To make matters worse, their stepmother was like the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, so there was no love lost when she disappeared. This book is an emotional mess with family drama, and sisters who have secrets with one another and some of their own. Secrets can only stay hidden for so long.

At first this appeared to be an easy mystery to solve, but it gets more complex with every chapter. Every time another clue drops, the puzzle pieces multiply and do not fit together. This was an insightful book about a flawed family in all their messy glory. It was a police procedural, family dramatic mystery and a little romance to make it even more interesting. Debra Webb never disappoints with her storytelling and her interesting cast of characters. I look forward to more books in this series.

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The main character, Crime Analyst Vera Boyett, is fully expecting to be named the scapegoat in the deaths of two of her officers in the Memphis Police Department.
What she doesn’t need is another complication to her life. But when her sister calls to tell her that the bones of her long lost step mother have been found, she is naturally shaken. The author gives the reader a lot of information covering the twenty year span of when Vera’s stepmother went missing to when her bones were found. A small town, rumors, secrets and twists lead to more bones being found and more than one mystery to solve. I received an arc from Netgalley and Publisher Thomas Mercer of this new series and I look forward to the next exciting entry by Author, Debra Webb. This review is my personal opinion.

I have mixed feelings on this one to be honest. I was intrigued by Vera's character, and more than a little confused on why she was the one held accountable for someone else's actions back in Memphis, especially after it was concluded that there was no possible way she could have known how things were going to happen. And while her near constant thoughts about how attractive her ex-boyfriend is during a very tense investigation, were cliche and tiresome at times, I did like how there was no romantic relationship getting in the way of the storyline.

My main issue with this story is two-fold. To begin with I found it very implausible that Vera was allowed carte blanche to run all over town conducting her own parallel investigation (often without the sheriff by her side). I could say that I get it, she was a valued FBI agent, except there are two problems with that scenario.

To begin with, she was on leave. Meaning she had no authority to act in any capacity as an FBI agent, she even resigns whilst in the middle of things. And then (the even bigger issue), all of the bodies were found in a cave located on her family's property. Her family (her father especially) were considered suspects. There is absolutely no way the Sheriff should have been telling her any details about the case, much less allowing her to run around investigating on her own. When the FBI sent in other agents, I'm surprised they didn't keep a closer eye on her and her activities.

Now when it comes to the ending, again I'm of two minds. On one hand, it was interesting to see how things wrapped up. Who was really involved, and how things happened, but I feel like there were areas in this where the author could have gone into more detail (for example did the one parent know their best friend was having an affair with their child). And other areas where the story didn't quite make sense (to be perfectly honest I felt like Eve's originally account of events regarding Sheree made more sense than the supposed truth). On the other hand, there was still one thread that was left completely open, which didn't make sense. Sure you had all of the other murders all tied up with a pretty little bow, why not push for answers for the final victim? I can only assume this may somehow tie into a future book?

Which makes me wonder what will happen to the friendship (and potential rekindling romance) between Vera and Sheriff Benton if the truth does eventually come out?

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Vera is back home with her sisters Eve and Luna because she had to quit her job with the FBI since she made an inexcusable mistake.
Now she finds that there are bodies found in a cave she and her sisters used to play in. She knows that the skeletons are being pulled out of the closet and it's going to be her job to solve this crime without her and her sisters ending up going to prison for it!
This is yet another, you're gonna miss some sleep, read by Ms. Webb.
There were some places in this book that were too slow for me, but I still loved this read!

Leaves you breathless and eagerly turning pages!

Debra Webb's latest thriller is an absolute page-turner, brimming with twists and turns at every corner. Deeper Than The Dead captivates from the first page with its gripping plot and emotional depth. Crime analyst Vera Boyett, now a disgraced deputy police chief, is forced to revisit her past when her long-missing stepmother's remains are discovered in a cave on her family land.

Set in the steamy, secret-laden summer of small-town Tennessee, the story beautifully intertwines the nostalgia of a once fairy-tale childhood with the chilling uncovering of buried truths. The relationship between Vera and her sister Eve adds a poignant layer, making the narrative as heart-wrenching as it is thrilling. Debra Webb masterfully crafts an atmosphere so thick with suspense, it will leave you breathless and eagerly turning pages. A must-read for any thriller lover!

A small southern town full of secrets is the setting for Debra Webb's new series and once again she knocks it out of the park! Vera, a crime analyst/deputy, returns home for the summer hoping for peace but instead finds family skeletons. The twists and turns take the story down a lot of paths in this enthralling book that is part procedural, part suspense, with some family drama and romance thrown in. Very enjoyable!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All thoughts on this book are my own.

Wow! Debra Webb is an auto buy author for me and this one did not disappoint! Webb mixes police procedural and thrilling drama in the best ways. The story was excellently crafted and intriguing. I can't wait for the next installment and will be recommending for sure!

WOW! Whatever Debra Webb writes I read. I just love her books, full of mystery, suspense, drama and even some romance. I love her characters, they just draw you in and you just can't stop reading until you find out what happens. There were so many twists and turns and leading your mind in one direction and then just as fast you are going down another direction. So exciting and enjoyable! Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book.

Deeper Than the Dead by Debra Webb is a captivating start to the Vera Boyett series, blending small-town charm with dark secrets and gripping suspense. When disgraced deputy police chief Vera Boyett returns to her Tennessee hometown, she uncovers her long-missing stepmother's remains in a cave on her family's property, igniting a dangerous investigation that unravels deeply buried family secrets. Webb's vivid descriptions and well-crafted characters, including Vera’s complex relationships with her sisters and former love interest, Sheriff Bent, create a compelling narrative. The intricate plot, filled with twists and emotional depth, keeps readers guessing until the satisfying yet thought-provoking conclusion, making this book a must-read for thriller enthusiasts.

Vera Boyett's police career is unraveling in Memphis when an urgent call from her half-sister beckons her home. The discovery of her missing stepmother's body in a cave on their family farm marks the beginning of a chilling mystery. Vera harbors secrets about the body's presence, but as more remains emerge, the small town of Fayetteville, TN starts revealing its deeply hidden truths. The narrative poses a compelling question: How far would you go for family or friends? I was captivated by the fast-paced mystery and the blend of Webb's characters with small-town drama. I look forward to more from Webb and the Vera Boyett series.