Before I cracked this book open, I told myself that I need to go back and read The Taken Ones since it’s the first one in this series and I had every intention of doing just that, buuut I found this book boring.

The setting and characters felt odd to me, not the creepy way that they’re portrayed to be, but in a way that kept me from enjoying the book.

The first 50% was terribly slow, it was hard to keep up with all the characters that were introduced, and it was extremely hard to pick this book up after I set it down so many times. The ending left on a cliffhanger, but I don’t think I can make myself read another book in this series.

I was a massive fan of The Taken Ones, which was the first book in the Steinbeck and Reed series. So, I was super excited to delve back into Harry and Van’s world!

I REALLY enjoyed The Reaping, but I didn’t love it quite as much as the first book. It just didn’t seem to pack the same punch for me.

This book can absolutely be read as a standalone. But, I feel like the series so good that it’s worthwhile to start at the very beginning.

I LOVED the choice of Alku as the setting for the story. It was a small, weirdly tight-knit Finnish community where the main industry was a nursing home for serial killers 😱. The town was the perfect mix of creepy and mysterious, and gave me major cult vibes!

I also really enjoyed getting to know Harry Steinbeck. He was such a mysterious figure in The Taken Ones, and it was really nice to learn about the man behind the immaculate suits.

This story had a bit of a slow start, but began to really pick-up at the 50% mark. However, the plot really kept me guessing the entire time. I developed a few theories about who was responsible for the murders, and they were all wrong 😅🫣.

The ending was unexpected and incredibly satisfying. But, that cliffhanger at the very end sent my mind into a complete tailspin. I can’t wait for the next book to see what happens next!

Read if you like:

✨Cold case mysteries
✨Small town settings
✨Local folklore

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Creepy dark and twisted.

A clear mystery that puts people on edge. If you can handle descriptive dark storytelling you will enjoy.

Thank you Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC.

This is the second book in the Steinbeck and Reed series. While the storyline is different than The Taken Ones (book 1), the characters are introduced in the first book and further developed in this second installment. Therefore, I would highly recommend reading the books in order.

While I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first, it was still a good read. The story builds more slowly and not as fast paced. Book 1 leaves on a cliffhanger that this book addresses and so I was satisfied with that. We learn more details about Steinbeck’s past in this second book and I was happy about that. I definitely look forward to more in this series!


Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Stop it!!! That ending was a jaw dropper!!! I really like this authors writing. Always keeps me wanting more!!

When BCA agents Harry Steinbeck and Van Reed are called to Northern Minnesota to look into a case that mirrors a cold case from twenty-five years earlier, Harry feats that he will have to reopen terrible events from the past.

A gruesome murder has taken place in the small, isolated town of Alku. It mirrors the deaths of a man, woman, and their three children which took place in Alku twenty-five years earlier. First the victims are shot with a shotgun and then their heads are crushed.

Alku is not a welcoming place. Settled by Finns who escaped Finland ahead of a mob who wanted them dead, the town is insular in the extreme. Their only source of income is the nursing home for felons that they run in a school/sanitorium that has had many purposes over the years. Since one of the inmates was convicted of similar crimes, he becomes Harry and Van's first suspect. However, his physical disabilities make it impossible to be the perpetrator.

As Van and Harry look into the cold case, they find that there were a series of other suspicious events that happened at the same time. Two hikers attacked by bears and the disappearance of a local resident all happened within days of the murder.

Now, children are disappearing and Van and Harry wonder if it connects somehow with those old murders.

This was an interesting mystery. I especially like that both of the main characters have issues from their pasts that need dealing with. Harry's guilt over the disappearance of his younger sister - also twenty-five years ago - has driven his life choices ever since that day. Now, he has to confront them and the mother he blames for his sister's disappearance.

I liked the setting which is my hometown - Duluth, Minnesota - even though the author takes some liberties with the geography.

For me to get hooked into a series, the series has to be captivating, thrilling, and unputdownable. This series is one of those. This series books I will download the day they are published and will obsess over the characters and be impatient for the next book (hoping Jess Lourey is working on #3)!!

Agent Reed and Steinbeck are back again. This time up north in Duluth, MN. There is a bizarre murder and of course while they are up there they start to piece together facts from another murder in the same town from 25 years ago.

The town is Alku, near Duluth and is home to very heritage based Finnish people. They are descendants from parents straight from Finland who take their culture and family ways very seriously. They are also creepy af. The way Jess Lourey describes their long necks and big foreheads… I’ll be thinking about this story for a long time. There is a prison/nursing home that hosts serial killers who are now infirm and that is the base of the town and how they get income to add to the creepy factor.

Not only do you learn of the old traditions and try to piece together why there’s been these strange deaths in this small town, but this one gives more insight into Harry’s past and his connection to Duluth, where he grew up and where his little sister disappeared from. He has so much guilt from that time even though he was just 19 years old and in college.

I absolutely LOVE the relationship between Harry and Van. They are awesome partners and I’m wondering if there is something more there eventually.
They are two people who were broken, had pretty traumatic childhoods and who now protect and solve cold cases. Their stories unfold nicely in the first and second book of the series without compromising the story of the case they are working.

All of the characters are well written I can picture them in my head.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, I cannot wait for more Reed and Steinbeck stories.

Minnesota is the land of 10.000 lakes. It seems as many in cold cases.

Harry Steinbeck, forensic scientist, and Agent Evangeline "Van" Reed, a former homicide detective in the Minneapolis PD, have been assigned to some strange happenings in northern Minnesota outside of Duluth through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).

It appears that crime resides even in the smallest of towns. Alku was first settled by pioneers from Finland. To this day, the residents still hover over the folklore of the veri noita monster also called the Finnish Blood Witch. You're cautioned not to be out in the surrounding forests late at night. But then, living breathing humans have also left bloody footprints in this area.

When children go missing in Alku, Steinbeck and Reed must sift through some heinous cold cases of the area. Their search leads them to a serial killer named Matthias Millard also known as Matty the Mallet. Matty is now non-verbal and resides in a hospital for the criminally insane. Frustration lines their search. Is this a copy cat case or what?

The Reaping is #2 in the Steinbeck and Reed Series. I didn't read The Taken Ones #1 and that didn't cause any confusion. I did read Catch Her in a Lie (Steinbeck and Reed #0.5) which I absolutely enjoyed. This duo works well. Steinbeck is meticulous while Reed embraces chaos. What drives them both is the determination to solve cold cases from years past. There's enough creepy business here to keep the fires lit while this duo implements hardcore policing. Check it out.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to Jess Lourey for the opportunity.

this book was hard for me to get into but once i did it was good-if not a little odd! the people in it reminded me of a cult, and its always the ones you wouldnt have thought it!

This was a very slow slow paced book. Took me days to finish it only because I got uninterested in it. I didn't want to DNF it so I rode it out to the end. The twist at the end had me like 😲 but I feel like I read the whole book for just that little small reveal. 1st book was slightly better, only reason I gave it a 2 star was because I understood the references from the 1st book "The Taken Ones".

4.5 stars!

I LOVED this??? I have not read the first Steinbeck and Reed book but after finishing this one I immediately downloaded it onto my kindle. I have found recently that I really enjoy detective thrillers and I thought that the detective pair in this book were so interesting both individually and together and I truly hope Jess Lourey writes like 15 of these so I can keep watching them solve cases.

As for the actual case, I was so interested in the combination of religious discussion and occult/supernatural elements. Some other reviews compared this to Karin Slaughter novels, and I honestly have to agree! I also don't think that reading this book as a standalone hindered my experience, nor was the first book spoiled, but it did succeed in making me excited to go back and read the first book in the series!

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Very good book, following two detectives as they investigate gruesome murders in a secluded community. The story was interesting, and I found the ending to be surprising. This is a series, and the last few lines set up a story for future books.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy. My opinions are my own.

There are plenty of small town secrets in Alku, a remote Minnesota town rich in the traditions of its Finnish settlers. Crimes committed twenty years ago are being copycatted, while the original perpetrator sits infirm in a prison cell.

‘By-the-book forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck and rogue BCA agent Van Reed must catch a cold-case killer who’s returned to abduct a small town’s children one by one in this heart-stopping novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.’

3.5 stars.

The Reaping was a twisty lil cold case mystery. I liked it……….. But I believe it’s because I LOVED book 1, The Taken Ones so, so much, that I found this one didn’t quite live up. But that’s just my simple opinion.

There was some creep factors throughout that were admirable and I totally got “The Village” vibes many times which I appreciated very much (Iykyk, that movie was wild and creepy as hell).

This is book 2 in the Steinbeck and Reed series. And while I believe this one can be read as a standalone, I’d still highly suggest reading book 1 first, simply because it's fantastic!

That said, I am certainly looking forward to the next one. I will never stop reading this series as I am 100% invested.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for review.

Pub date: 9.3.24.

I was very worried about reading this once I found out it was the second in a series, but thankfully, it is a book that can be read on its own. While there are some references to the first book that would make more sense had you read the prior novel, it did not hinder the reading experience.

I mean this in the best way possible, but this kind of felt like if mindhunter (the show, not book) and V.C andrews books had a baby. I really enjoyed this book and was thoroughly entertained the whole way through. It felt very crime investigator meets paranormal investigator and I ate that up.

I definitely am considering picking up the first novel and any others that come out in the series!

4.5/5 stars! Wow! This book was a wild ride. I loved how at parts it read as a true crime novel and at other times as a supernatural mystery. I thought I knew the final twist, but I was shocked by both of the final two twists. I am eagerly waiting for book 3 in the Steinbeck and Reed series.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book started off a bit slowly and it took me a while to really get into the story but I'm glad I stuck with it because the further I got with this story, the more I found myself enjoying it. I didn't realize that this was the second book in a series. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the beginning more if I had already read the first book. Very well written and atmospheric though. I think that I'd like to go back and read that first book.
Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC, NetGalley!!

I love the Steinbeck and Reed series! The Taken Ones was excellent, so I was so excited for this 2nd book in the series. A cold murder case file of a family murdered in 1998 is reopened in Alku, Minnesota when a recent homicide with a similar scenario occurs. Steinbeck and Reed are called in to investigate. Unfortunately, this hits a little too close to home for Harry Steinbeck whose own sister was taken years ago in the Northland. The residents of Alku are very strange and very secretive. It takes a lot of deep diving to gain any information in this case. And as the days go on, it’s a race against time to save the children of Alku from another “reaping”.

After reading the first in there series I found myself angry I had to wait for September for this book and then I remembered I had it from Netgalley and I'm so glad I did!

It's rare to enjoy a book 2 as much as you enjoyed book 1 but I did. And I think a big part of it was that we got Harrys pov this time and not Vans.

We follow them as they dive into another case that connects to a cold case and learn more about Harry. The book was well written with an interesting story and I did not expects the ending at all.

4 stars.

I am giving this one a sold 3.5 stars. I can say with certainty that this can be read as a standalone. Being a series addict, I was erked that I did not read book 1 before this as there are some references that I did not understand. This was a good old school detective book with a touch of paranormal/horror. It had an added cult like feel as well. I enjoyed this one enough to pick up book 1 and be on the lookout for the next one in the series. There was a good dynamic between the two MCs that I enjoyed. They played well off each other when trying to crack this case. I also liked the added element of them being part of the BAU and working a cold case (that is my JAM).

Someone has been murdered in Alku. Minnesota. The key difference here is that the murder exactly replicates a family of five that was murdered 25 years ago. Harry and Evangeline are called to help how they can and after digging into a few things decide they are going to reopen the cold case to determine what happened to the family. The more they dig, the worse things look. There is a very weird vibe going on in this uber small town that doesn't accommodate outsiders or seem to let people leave like ever. Weird in the fact that children are missing one day but then have been found without anyone seeing them. Everyone seems to be covering something up but Harry and Van can't figure out what. Until they catch a break, they have witnesses that tell them of the true horror that is happening in this town. It is unspeakable and tragic and now that they know what they know, they have to find the missing children before it is too late.

Even though this is set in modern times, it felt a little different than your standard murder mystery police thriller. There was an old school aspect in my mind with Harry that stemmed from how he processed things. I would recommend this one! I am intrigued to learn more about Evangline in book 1.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!