Rachel Logan Maxey is a widow with two children. She is a teacher in a small community.
Strange things have been happening. Children are disappearing, taken by "The Collector" who steals items from houses, leaving his calling card of a Tarot card.

Rachel can feel there is danger around her, she smells the scent of Magnolias. She feels she is being watched, but there is no one around her.

Hank, her late husband's friend is a tower of strength, she knows she can rely on him to keep her family safe.


This is a creepy thriller, with a touch of supernatural - as in the smell of Magnolias when trouble is close.
The reader can feel the menace surrounding Rachel, and her fear for her children.
The Collector is a strange character, whose talking to himself is very irritating. He is definitely not right in the head, and is a cruel psychopath.

Rachel is a strong, brave and sensible woman, but definitely needs a man to lean on.

The book has a little of everything - thrills, twists, romance and some utter psycho madness.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this book.

Rachel is young widow, raising two children with her grandmother in a small town. Their tiny town is tormented by The Collector, a criminal who has been breaking into homes and kidnapping children. Rachel is terrified for her children’s safety and suspects every male she comes across. I could not connect to the characters or the story line.. I questioned Rachel’s thought process many times, as she was so worried for her family’s safety, but when she encountered trouble, calling the police was not her first action. Rachel senses danger by the smell of flowers, while one of her sisters has premonitions in her dreams and another sister by following the behavior of birds (though they are mentioned, they are background characters in this story). I found the villain to be quite odd and quickly grew tired of his repetitive phrases, “oh yes, ___” and “oh no, ___”. The villains story ended rather quickly, when much of the story was centered around him and the terror he instilled in the town.

A quiet Colorado town is thrown into a paranoid frenzy when someone begins to kidnap children in plain sight. We see the crimes unfold through Rachel, a single mother with a tough-as-nails grandma, both trying to protect her two kids from the threat. We also get the perspective of the Collector, a disturbed man trying to build his own family while his mental state fractures. I think the only aspect of the story I got into was the Collector's POV- his background feels standard for the crimes he commits, but his narrative was interesting. There was decent interplay between his vanity and the deep insecurities driving his actions. I unfortunately can't say the same for anyone else, as they all felt a bit one-dimensional.
All I know of Rachel is that she's scared for her children and determined to protect them. I found the explanations of Rachel's thoughts heavy-handed, without any actions to support them- she is terrified for her kids and identifies danger, but doesn't think to call the police herself in times of crisis? I also really had to question her understanding of the moral code of landlords. Her grandmother is "Western tough" but also has repetitive callbacks to her Irish roots, which seem pretty distant, and basically work as another way to say she's tough? The desirable men in the story are the military personified, which means they don't have much going on beyond the desire to protect. That's fine, but it doesn't really make for strong connections to the characters, since they are all characterized in reference to the crimes occurring and their fear of it touching someone they care for- we don't see much of their other feelings or motivations.
Overall, I think it was a serviceable thriller that could do for a beach read when you want something that follows twists and turns you expect with a bit of thrill from the villain's perspective.

Black Crow Cabin by Peggy Webb is book 1 in the new Logan Sisters Thriller series. A good start and a suspenseful read. There were some creepy moments when the reader was put into the culprit's mind. I know there are some scary people in the real world, and reading this book and seeing into the killer's mind had some "ewww" moments.

I adored Rachel's daughter, Susan. At such a young age, she endured a lot, losing her father and trying to navigate her role in the family. It was sad and heartbreaking when Rachel watched her daughter, who was wearing her cape from her aunt, and hoped it would make her invisible, not as an innocent child but to escape some of life's harsh realities.

Rachel is quite down to earth, and the culprit is quite scary. The Logan sisters are good characters and strong in their own ways. There is a slight mystical element to the story involving their deceased mother.

#BlackCrowCabin #NetGalley @bookouture

I liked the atmosphere this book is immersed in. It's creepy and a bit ghostly even and oh so good. 

A sneaky and deranged person is terrorizing the normally peaceful village. But now every parent is terrified, because The Collector has his eye on their children. He leaves a calling card, warning the villagers to watch out, but even if they had eyes in the back of their heads, it would be difficult to prevent him from striking. 

Rachel is careful and tries to take every precaution she can, but she never saw this coming...

This is a very good start to a new series. If you like characters who can stand their ground, this definitely is a book for you.

It gets the full 5 stars from me.

Thank you

Rachel Logan Maxey, a single mother of two who is still recovering from the death of her husband lives just outside Manitou Springs, Colorado, a small town in the Rocky Mountains. A local boy, then a girl are kidnapped a the suspect is called the Collector, a thief, who seems to have escalated. A statue and a photo are stolen from Rachel’s home, tarot cards left in their places and she is afraid her children will be the Collector’s next targets.

Her husband’s best friend Hank offers to move in with the family to provide protection. Is the Collector after Rachel’s children or is he looking for something else?

This is billed as the first book in the Logan Sisters series, but we don’t see much of the other two sisters as one lives in Florida (she turns up toward the end) and one in Italy (she’s barely in the book at all,) but the very end offers a hint as to how the author plans to handle the distance, I think.

This was just OK, probably a 2.5 star book. The Collector was pretty obvious to me the first time he was mentioned, the writing style is a bit over dramatic and, Lord help us, the magnolia scent every other page! Not to mention….that tip off never seemed to help her at all! Perhaps this is the author’s debut, I don’t recall, and maybe she’ll settle down a bit? Probably not for me, I’m rounding up because I assume it’s her first book.