3.5⭐It is a well-written psychological thriller set in a small town with compelling, flawed characters, many of whom struggle with mental illness and harbor lots of secrets.

Willa is a child psychologist at the peak of her career. However, her reputation is jeopardized by a viral video of a disastrous television interview. As a result, Willa retreats to her former home in Broken Bayou. In this town, mysterious barrels containing human remains have surfaced, along with something from Willa’s past that she never expected to encounter again... I enjoyed the strong sense of place, the twists and turns, that will keep you guessing until the very end, and how the author portrayed mental illness and the impact of emotions on our decisions...

The book started slowly, lacked action until the end, featured some characters making ridiculous decisions, and included scenes that didn't make sense... However, it was ultimately an interesting story and a decent read, a page-turner, and a good summer thriller with some suspenseful and scary moments.

*4 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley for an honest review.

A very interesting read with great characters. Dr Willa Waters was determined to find out what happened to her sister and the other missing girls. The story pointed to a lot of suspects. Willa put herself in a fair bit of danger throughout the story. The ending surprised me. Would recommend.

This book actually shocked me at the end! It had a lot of twists and turns and things that I didn't see coming. I did want to yell a bit at her to lock her doors and be more safety conscious when there is a killer on the loose. But other than that this was a captivating mystery!

SUCH a good thriller! It kept me guessing the entire time and I couldn't put it down!

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

Nice little thriller.
I decided to pick up the book mostly because of the setting.
I enjoyed getting to know these complex characters.
I did guess the killer near the end but it didnt really take away from the suspense.

This has multiple layers to the storyline. Willa's relationship with her mother and sister, Willa's summer love and the story with his family, Willa's divorce scandal and the possible downfall of her career. It was a very good read and an easy pick for someone who may be in a reading slump.

The only reason I gave three stars and not more is due to personal preference. This was an overall good story and kept me entertained but this just wasn't one that I LOVED compared to others. This is strictly personal and do believe this will do well.

Thank you Net Galley, Jennifer Moorhead, and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to review.

Broken Bayou is a wonderfully creepy atmospheric novel that scratched an itch I didn't know I had. We start the story out by witnessing child psychologist, Willa, seemingly have a mental breakdown on Live TV. After the incident, she decides to head back to a home she spent many summers at during her childhood with her twin aunts and her wild and flaky mom.

Once she shows up in town, barrels of human remains start showing up and Willa's past comes back to haunt her. Staying at her aunt's home (which is fantastically creepy), she hears sounds and thinks someone may be watching her but she's on a mission to find something that may be hiding in the house which would put the pieces together on an incident that happened years ago.

4/4.5 stars. This was a really solid thriller that had me totally freaked out multiple times throughout the book. I had an amazing picture in my head of the bayou and loved reading about the town an Willa. I would absolutely recommend this book to friends and family.

Thank you NetGalley for my eARC. All opinions are my own.

If you are looking for an intense, attention grabbing book, then this is the book you need to read next.

This book has everything from theft, murder, and small town secrets all intertwined together with some interesting but seemingly broken people.

The story was very fast paced and the story was easy to follow along with. There weren't so many POV's that made it hard keep track of what was going on.

This book had me hooked from the first chapter and had great character development.

I will recommend this book to all of my friends and I am looking forward to reading more from this author

Broken Bayou focuses on Dr. Willa Watters trip back to her Aunts' home after a disastrous tv appearance. In addition to seeking refuge from the embarrassment, Willa wants to get some of her mother's things that were left with her aunts after their hasty exit years prior. The town of Broken Bayou is simultaneously dealing with the discovery that serial killer may be amongst them. Police have started recovering many secrets hidden in the bayou and the chain of events begins to unravel.

I really enjoyed this one. Moorhead did a solid job with the main character and creating a "quirky" but not comical small southern town. The twists in the book did surprise me which is rare these days so even more kudos to the author. Highly recommend for mystery thriller fans who want a straight forward story that tackles a lot of difficult topics.

Nature vs. nurture has been an argument for dealing with people that commit certain crimes. It is believed that both contribute to whether a person uses or chooses not to become what they experienced. This author did not really good job of keeping the reader from finding out who the sociopath was until the very end. I really find these kinds of novels so interesting to read because of how the author chooses to write about people who need or want to kill. I was so invested in this book that I read it in about 4 hours.

What an amazing debut novel! It kept me in the edge of my seat the entire time! I’ll be anxiously waiting for her next book!

Books like this make me scared to sleep. Bring all my fears as a woman simmer to the top and make me question if novels with such deep psychological horror towards girls gives people ideas or just nightmares for readers.

This one messed with me.

I wear left reeling and on the edge of my seat turning the page and ready to know what was coming next.

Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead was an exciting debut thriller.
The premise was so intriguing and the title just drew me in and made me want to read it all the more. The writing was effortless that you easy can fall into turning pages long after you intended to go to sleep. The authors style is descriptive, character-driven but with an excellent mystery that will leave you gasping and wanting more. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Well written mystery/thriller (with a little psychology thrown in) that falters just a tiny bit at the end. Still, an enjoyable and fast read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197600306

I loved the atmospheric prose in this book! I felt like I was right there and living these experiences.

“Broken bayou” is an atmospheric, slow burn mystery / thriller.
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This was a great debut, the characters were written with depth, there was a dense scenic ambience to the location setting and lots of tension.

The plot follows Willa who finds herself revisiting a place from her past after her work life comes crashing down. She finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation as a potential suspect when bodies start surfacing in a local lake.

Although it doesn’t seem like she has any involvement in these suspicious deaths there is a lot to unravel as we find out what really happened.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer, Jennifer Moorhead and NetGalley for the EARC!

Publish date: July 1st 2024

Set in southern Louisiana, the blurb for this book seemed to suggest a tale resembling something penned by James Lee Burke. And to an extent that’s exactly what it delivers. There are huge differences, of course: JLB’s tales are soaked in the lore of the place and the author’s love for it, but they’re also often abstruse, the narrative hard to follow; Moorhead’s novel provides some of the same atmosphere and sense of place, and yet despite it being a complex tale of historical misdeeds and present day angst, at heart it’s a more straightforward story.

Dr. Willamena (Willa) Pearl Watters is a child psychologist. She’s currently tortured by a disastrous television appearance, in which she became confused and, as a result, somewhat lost the plot. There’s also something in her past that she feels compelled to investigate and resolve. This combination lures her back to the small town in which she was raised, to a house owned by two, now deceased, aunts. There’s something there that is hidden and is demanding to be discovered. She is planning for it to be a short visit, and she’ll use this time to escape her present problems and emerse herself in the past.

We learn that she grew up with a bipolar mother and a younger sister she doted on. She’d spent a good deal of time at her aunts’ house – it was often an escape from the bad times at home, times when her mother was tough to be around. But the escape she was seeking quickly turns into a tortuous series of encounters with people from her past. Many seem to be aware of her televised disassembly, and it feels like she’s being taunted by them. There’s also an encounter with an ex-boyfriend, now a cop, and his spooky brothers. Very quickly, Willa realises she can’t wait to shut herself away in the house, to drink a bottle of cheap wine and decompress.

There’s also a second thread to this tale. The town has been invaded by the press and television media, as a result of a school teacher who’s gone missing and also a barrel that’s been discovered in the bayou. Human remains were discovered inside the barrel. Soon, more barrels are discovered, courtesy of a drought that’s affecting this area and is reducing the water level, causing the bayou to expose its secrets.

There are some wonderfully descriptive passages in this novel, as Willa wrestles with the challenges she currently faces and is plagued by elements of her early life, frankly things she’d rather completely block out of her mind. And yet there’s a sense that just too many issues are piling up for her personally, and with a bunch of others impacting this small town, all at the same time. It’s busy, very busy. I really think it could have all been paired back a little. A case of less would have been more.

It’s probably unfair to compare this novel to Burke’s work. JLB has been at it for many years, for time immemorial, it seems. This is Moorhead’s first novel. It’s a decent story, and it’s well told, too. Perhaps she’s stacked too much on the plate, but there really is an awful lot to enjoy here. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for her next offering.

pretty good overall!!!! this would a great mystery type thriller. i enjoyed this author's writing style. 4/5 stars!

Can you go home again and what will you find.?

WIlla ends up back where she spent many summers after her work life implodes and finds herself as a person of interest when bodies start surfacing in the lake. I didn't really like Willa, but that isn't a deal breaker for me in a thriller. She was always psychoanalyzing everyone. This isn't your normal crime novel, because Willa is the central character and she is neither investigating the murders nor does it seem like she is involved.

The setting and the characters were deep and well described and I was interested in seeing how this one played out.

Sophie Amoss did a good job bringing this slow burn atmospheric mystery to life. Her voice fit with Willa and she kept me engaged in the slow unraveling, which is not always a given for me on a slow burn.