I really enjoyed the concept of the book and thought it would make a good series. Alex could easily investigate another historical mystery in a different locale and I’d read it. I liked the research aspect and her backstory.

A few things stood out that I felt needed a bit of tweaking if I was the editor.

I get the idea of having people with the same name jogging her memory but Xander and Alex? Two Bills? Seemed a bit much.

I also found it distracting how many times she showered and we were told what her skin looked like. It was odd.

The info about the money Fred got felt slightly out of order to me.

A perfect fall read! Alex is a famous writer recovering from a personal tragedy, and she is asked to travel on-site to ghostwrite a true story about the horrors that occurred in a church-run orphanage years ago. Alex moves to be near the location of the abandoned orphanage and sets up to interview witnesses and read through transcripts from long ago. The scenes are haunting and as Alex works, she becomes immersed in the histories and intent on solving the mystery of how a little boy disappeared while living at the orphanage. Is the town protecting the secrets of the Coram House? If so, why? This book has an eerie setting with lots of twists and turns that make reading about Coram House creepy and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The characters are well-developed and this one keeps you guessing until the very end!

I could not put Coram House down. It was a suspenseful, great read. The story is interesting. The protagonist is flawed, relatable, and likeable. The ending is unpredictable and satisfying. Fans of mysteries and suspense will love Coram House.

An expertly written thriller inspired by the St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont and the horrors of child abuse that occurred. Bailey Seybolt pulls you in from the first pages. Her mastery of language engages the readers senses, I could smell the musty air in the Coram House, feel the weakness of the creaking wood in the floor boards, taste the crisp cold air while Alex is running through the woods, the panic when Alex is shut into a dark attic, and feel the anxiety and anger as the story is revealed layer by layer.

The chapters are a perfect balance between narration, dialogue, and other perspectives and shared through trial testimony to give readers the feeling the story is being told by others as well. Cheekily, the author has the heroine explain the writing technique the author employs. I will be rooting this book to make the best books lists; and it will certainly be a book that I suggest to book clubs and gift to friends. I can't wait to read future books by Bailey Seybolt. Truly magnificent!

Thank you to Atria Books for the ARC!

Wow- talk about a messed up and scary place to live: Coram House! AND inspired by a true story? AND a debut author? WOW!

If you're obsessed with unsolved mysteries, old buildings with stories to tell, and the truth coming to light after years of it hiding in the shadows, then you NEED this book!

Coram House was an orphanage with an extremely dark past full of abuse both proven and alleged. No one can seem to keep their stories straight regarding what really happened in the orphanage, especially in the summer of 1968 when a 9 year old boy goes missing.

When true crime writer Alex Kelley starts investigating the house for a book she's writing many years later, she gets more than she bargained for as she's thrown surprise after surprise as she stops at nothing to uncover the truth.

The ending of this book truly shocked me. I thought I had everything figured out and that this was a cut and dry situation and was TOTALLY thrown off my feet by this twist!

The ending definitely bumped a 4 star read up to a 5 star book for me!

Make sure to add this to your TBR! It will be out on April 15, 2025.

if “this meeting could have been a email” was a book…

felt drawn to commit to a mystery thriller bc I was hopping on a flight when I was offered an e-arc. all this did was get me to fall asleep very often!

it felt like it leaned hard to achieve the atmospheric vibe and lost the driving force behind the plot. it was very slow paced and often repetitive. overall, the story doesn’t feel any different to what’s been done before nor does it feel enticing on its own to recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

This was such a good book. I really enjoyed it. More than I thought I would. I loved the writing style. This book had me hooked from page one. This is a first for me by this author but will not be my last!!

Coram House by Bailey Seybolt is a fictional story based on the history of St. Joseph’s Orphanage.

Alex, a crime writer from New York who is dealing with struggles in her personal life, takes on a job as a ghostwriter in Burlington, Vermont. Coram House, known for its abuse of orphans, has been closed for many years. It sits beside Lake Champlain and along with it are the secrets and tragedies experienced by some of the orphans. While gathering information and attempting to interview former orphans about life at Coram House, Alex starts to uncover more than she expected. Being a bit anxious and impatient she tends to get overly excited about sharing newly discovered information. This sometimes leaves her in unexpected situations.

The book was tastefully written without going into too much detail about some of the abuse at the orphanage but does include profanity and murder and references to child abuse. The big surprise for me was when the real murderer was revealed. It almost made me believe the story would go in a different direction that would lead to a cliff hanger hinting at another book.

The book has a cozy, grab your favorite beverage, and get ready for an eerie mystery/thriller vibe.

Thank you to ATRIA Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

When true crime novelist Alex Kelley takes on a ghost writing job in Burlington VT, she finds herself in a full blown set of unsolved mysteries from the 1960's and from current day. Coram House was an orphanage that has a complicated past and she's trying to get to the bottom of the disappearance of a child under the care of the nuns that ran the orphanage. I couldn't put this book down and could go on and on but don't want to give any spoilers.

Coram House is a suspenseful thriller with enough twists and tension that keep me hooked from the first page to the last. Alex is an imperfect MC who continues to fight to expose the truth no matter how many people tell her she should leave it alone and focus on the story she is there to right. She’s determined, brave, and relentless in her pursuit of finding answers and trying to bring justice for the children who were abused at the orphanage. I immediately liked her from the beginning and felt it was easy to get invested in her back story, as well.

I will be highly recommending this book and will gladly purchase the final version once it’s published.

Oh my word, I loved this book so much! This is definitely going to be a 2025 book of the year contender for me. I loved the mixed media of telling this story by using police interviews. I love the flashbacks - I just loved this storytelling. It was so atmospheric and I did not see that twist coming! This book come out in April but go ahead and put this on your radar. I’m OBSESSED.

Alex lost everything and has a chance to redeem herself. With her future on the line, she has to choose between telling the story she was hired to write or solving the mystery of a young boy who suffered abuse at the orphanage she’s writing about. When a modern day murder occurs, she has to choose between telling the true story or selling out. either way, she has more on the line than just her career.

I love when authors take a true story and wrap their own around it and make it their own. This was well written and kept my attention throughout the entire book. A good read for the true mystery lover.

This book had everything that I need to have in a book. Wow...what a story and I totally did not guess the ending. My money was one someone else! Such a great mystery book that keeps you guessing until the bitter end. The detail put into every character was great. I felt like I knew each character and that is why I was so surprised by the ending. This is a great book to cozy up to for a weekend because you will not want to put it down!

Coram House by Bailey Seybolt
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Alex Kelley is asked to ghost write a book about the Coram House Orphange and finds herself tangled in the mysterious death of one of the children, Tommy. As bodies start piling up, Alex wonders how deep the abuses at Coram House really go and who would do anything to keep the history quiet.
Based on the true story of the St. Joseph Orphanage of Burlington, Vermont, this story will drag you in and keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page. Truly one of the best mysteries I have read in a long time.

A true middle of the road 3 stars for me. interesting plot but at some points it lost me towards the end. thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

While factionalized, this is inspired by the St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont and the abuses that occurred there. I found this story fascinating from start to finish!

Alex is a true crime novelist whose first novel made it big when she uncovered the truth behind a murder of sisters in Maine in the 1800s. Her second novel, written while her husband lay dying, mistakenly pointed the finger at the wrong man in the cold case murder of a child and was pulled from the shelves.
Now, widowed and living as a shell of her former self, Alex is trying to pick up the pieces and start fresh by ghost writing a novel about Coram House – an orphanage in Burlington, Vermont that was shuttered in 1977 after allegations of sexual misconduct by the Catholic Church were uncovered. Alex has been hired by the attorney that settled the case for the victims but as she begins digging through the old files one story sticks with her – the testimony of Sarah Dale and how she witnessed a nun throw a boy out of a boat and watched him drown. A story that was hushed up saying that the child ran away and Sarah being discredited.
The attorney, the police, even Alex’s friend Lola all tell her to forget about the boy and tell the story she was hired for but she can’t. And then she stumbles upon a body of a woman on her morning run. A woman with ties of her own to Coram House. Soon, Alex finds herself wrapped up in the middle of the investigation and she’ll have to unravel the truth – from back then and now – before she becomes the next victim.
This book was very well written. It pulls at your heart and leaves you breathless with anticipation as Alex follows up on leads. It kept me guessing and I was genuinely surprised by the ending! I also thought, though fictionalized, the author’s depiction of the orphanage was vivid on the page. I could see the orphanage so clearly in my head as well as the cruelty of the nuns and the abuses described. I immediately went to the website the author cites at the end to read more about the real orphanage.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by this author!

This book was deff up my ally. And I enjoyed it a lot. The ending was -chefs kiss - . I have no complaints. I merely just enjoyed this book.

3.5 stars that I'm rounding up to 4 as I sure didn't see that ending coming!!! This was an atmospheric read, in that you could feel the cold and the storm raging at the end - so much so that it was 90+ degrees here and I had myself wrapped up in a blanket while I sped through the pages. Coram House is a place no one want to even exist, but sadly for the children involved it did exist. I enjoyed our main character as she doggedly pursued the story to its stormy conclusion.

Alex Kelley is journalist who has recently suffered personal and professional losses and is hired to ghostwrite a book about an orphanage in Vermont. When she gets there, she discovers that there’s a lot more to the story than she originally thought. Soon, bodies are piling up and the mystery thickens.

This book is blurbed as a must-read for fans of Tana French, and I really agree with that assessment; it is atmospheric and well-written, and I couldn’t put it down. I would love it if, like Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad, this became a series: I’d follow Alex Kelley around the world as she tries to solve cold cases and write books about them!

There’s been a “The God of the Woods”-sized hole in my heart, and this book partially filled it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a literary mystery.

I thought I had it all figured out and I was wrong; the ending really solidified this as a five-star book for me. I’ll be recommending this one to lots of people!

Alex is a true crime writer who suffered a second book slump while she also was grieving her husband's death. She accepts a contract to ghost write the history of Coram House, a Catholic Burlington, Vermont orphanage that settled sexual assault lawsuits with the children who grew up at the orphanage 50 years ago. Alex moves to Burlington and uncovers missing pieces of the crimes. Keen readers will know early on who committed the two murders that happen during Alex's investigation. Based on the true incidents at St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Coram House is recommended for readers of smart investigative thrillers.