A really well-done, emotionally compelling suspense about a young woman whose awesome father dies unexpectedly and she ends up losing herself in an online true crime sleuthing forum. Her grief drives her to take risks and delve deep into a recent case of murder at a college campus, and she and her online friends decide to go "help" the police with their investigation. There are some elements of their ability to help that border on unbelievable, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the novel. The story is told in a first-person narrative style, well after the events of the story have taken place, in reaction to another book Jane tells us about that paints her in a very unflattering light. It makes for a fun and flippant style at odds with the very well-developed characters of Jane and her mother especially, and their grief for Jane's father. Read this if you are looking for something compelling and emotional, but easy to read with humor and unexpected moments of joy.

This Book Will Bury Me, A Novel, by Ashley Winstead.

I rated this 4 stars.

Five amateur sleuths are hunting for an elusive killer. Jane Sharp is seeking a distraction from her own grief after the sudden loss of her father, so she throws herself in to true crime. Finding friends who help her learn to solve crime from a distance, she begins to find her purpose.

Three college students from Idaho are killed, the story takes the world by storm, Jane and her friends flock to the area to help solve/cover the investigation but as evidence comes in nothing adds up. The police are cagey, the media is in a frenzy, the sleuths are theorizing but the evidence isn’t adding up. Could the killer be smarter and more prolific than what has been seen before. The story is told by Jane one year after the Delphine Massacres, and she’s going to share what really happened.

If you love true crime I recommend reading this, and will definitely try other books from the author. The book is slightly predictable, I caught on to the twist about halfway through but it is still a good suspenseful thriller.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Struggling after her father's unexpected death, Jane Sharp stumbles upon an exclusive group of armchair detectives who welcome her with open arms. Jane quickly becomes obsessed with solving the shocking deaths of three college girls.

One year after the events that concluded the case, Jane has decided to break her silence and tell the true story of the Delphine Massacres.

I really enjoyed this book, as much as you can enjoy a twisted book about murder. Another well-written thriller from Ashley Winstead!

4.5/5 I LOOOOOVED this omg I could not put it down. It gave me just enough creepy vibes to not want to read it late at night with a bonus found family trope!!! This isn’t the most thrilling of thrillers but it gives don’t f*ck with cats vibes (the Netflix doc). Also this was such a fun format for a thriller. My only critique is the end (last 15%) was a bit drawn out and could have moved faster.

Winstead is definitely a multifaceted author, but her thrillers are my far my favorite. This Book Will Bury Me was so incredibly entertaining, & I did not see the twist coming (though it was definitely due to my mom brain because the twist wasn’t that crazy, but I still enjoyed it, lol). I personally followed the 2022 UofI murder case closely, so when I first realized it was based on it/there were big similarities, I was not sure how much I would enjoy it; however, I was glad to see that there were multiple crimes & this was not simply a sort of fictional retelling. My favorite aspect was the online dialogue between the sleuths; I love when novels have online chats, text messages, letters, emails - something to make the reader feel like a detective as well. So immersive. I crave books like this that make me feel so involved, I never want them to end. That’s exactly what this one did for me!

Highly recommend!

Entertaining with an interesting structure. I started to figure out the twist but I was still interested in finding out what happened.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc of this book. Unfortunately, I had to DNF as it was just way too for me. I am more of a domestic thriller or mystery that is truly fictional. This will likely be my last book by Ashley Winstead. Her books seem to be all over the place (no signature writing style across her 4 thriller books) and the only one I really enjoyed was “In My Dreams I Hold a Knife”.

ARC Review: This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead
Big thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the chance to dive into this thrilling ride early!

This book had me hooked from the first page—seriously, I couldn’t put it down. It kept me guessing, piecing together clues like a frantic detective. Jane’s story starts with tragedy: she loses her father and turns to true crime as both an escape and obsession. Through it, she meets a group of internet sleuths, and together they’re thrust into the spotlight when the shocking deaths of three girls in Delphine take center stage.

This story is full of tension, secrets, and an epic twist that will leave you reeling. It’s smart, gripping, and completely unputdownable. You won’t just read this book—you’ll live it.

A college student who loses her dad becomes obsessed with true crime and hooks up with like-minded individuals to solve a murder scene in Idaho. This was an interesting read although I do have to mention the many similarities between this fictional work and the real crime of 4 college students that took place a few years ago in Idaho. I felt like the beginning of this had stuff going on that didn’t need to be there and made the start of this slow. It did pick and become more interesting later on. Sometimes the plot was a little far-fetched and there was too much occurring all at once. I did like the true crime solving team aspect. I figured out what was going on with the plot early on and wasn’t surprised by the ending. Still this was a worthwhile read for fans of Michele Campbell and Robyn Harding.

I truly enjoyed Ashley Winstead's latest, This Book Will Bury Me. The plot moved very fast and that kept it really intriguing. I truly was taken for a ride through the main character's recollection of events that happened a year prior. I found the premise - a true crime community getting involved in a criminal investigation - really interesting, as I think it did reckon with the complications of armchair detective-ing that those communities tend to do.

The way the story is told, you really feel like you were in the story with Jane, and it gave me similar vibes as The Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (which I really liked!).

Overall this book kept me extremely entertained and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a true crime community mystery. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Note: There is a small plotline of fatphobia as a person's heart attack is implied to be a product of solely high weight, but it didn't take me totally out of the story, just something to be mindful of!

4.5⭐️This was a fun ride!
Jane Sharp loses her father, and in her journey to find out more about him and herself, she gets into the world of internet sleuthing. She becomes a part of a small group that begins investigating a multi person homicide.

This book is written as Jane writing a book to tell her story. I really like how the author, along the way, drops sentences like, "If I only knew how right I was." I found that it kept me excited for what was to come next!

(Be sure to check trigger warnings if there are things you are sensitive to reading about.)

This Book Will Bury Me ✨
Thank you to @netgalley for the gifted book to read and review.
I could not put this book down. The book within a book aspect taking us through Jane’s introduction to and obsession with solving crimes in real time with a group of internet friends. You can see how easy it is for her to be sucked into this dark world after losing her father suddenly as she finds herself trying to uncover his mysteries along with the mysteries of a group of murders. This was not a typical Ashley Winstead book, less psychological thriller and more procedural but I loved the format and story and was completely engrossed in the story and group of characters. I would not consider myself a true crime aficionado but still loved every minute of this. 5⭐️

Every time I hear about a new Ashley Winstead book, I can think of nothing else. So I was over the moon when I saw I got approved for this ARC. Per usual, it did not disappoint. This Book Will Bury Me was gripping and smart. I don’t think I put it down until it was over.

Now THIS was a thriller!! This book was interesting and kept me fully engaged the WHOLE. TIME. Curve ball after curve ball, then when the truth finally comes out, everything started to fall into place. I appreciated that the author really put in the work and laid all the bread crumb clues throughout the book instead of hastily writing a sloppy ending. This book was truly phenomenal.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I’m really unsure how to feel about this one. I honestly loved the book and the true crime/amateur sleuth aspect of it, but I was really not a fan of the obvious inspiration the murders in this book took from the 2022 Idaho murders. It feels too soon and a little disrespectful. Otherwise this book captivated me from page one. If you like true crime, you’ll probably enjoy this book.

This book tells the story of Jane Sharp, a UCF college student whose dad dies suddenly. She returns back home and becomes interested in true crime, going as far as joining sleuthing sites. This leads to new friendships, found family, and a lot of true crime drama, as well as being head first in a homicide investigation at a college in Idaho, where 3 girls are murdered. (See the similarities?)

I give this a 5/5 Star for story, but 3/5 for morals, with a 4/5 in total.

I love Ashley’s writing and am so disappointed that I can’t give this book the 4-star review I otherwise would. Unfortunately, I feel copying the details of the Idaho college murders so closely is distasteful at best and exploitative at worst. I fully understand being inspired by current events, particularly in the context of Ashley’s letter in the beginning of the book detailing her experience with the case in light of her dad’s death. However, it would’ve been so easy to change more details of the case or leave certain things out (visiting a food truck, seriously?? Wasn’t even relevant to the story). Instead, the victims are easily identifiable as their real-life counterparts - often in ways that feel so disrespectful to their memories & loved ones. Using the surviving roommates story and then having the main character suspect her as some people did in real life was especially gross - it only serves to reignite discourse around the real survivor and cast more suspicion on her. Frankly, it’s lazy writing, and given the themes of the book around the ethical complications of true crime, really lacking self awareness.

It feels deeply unethical to profit off this book and I cannot recommend it to others for that reason. I hope you’ll consider changing elements of the story prior to final publication.

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead
Publishing date - 03/25/25
Rating (5/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Landmark, Ashley Winstead, and Netgalley for my ecopy of this book! This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2025.

In ‘This Book Will Bury Me”, due to be published in March 2025 by Ashley Winstead, Janeway Sharp is a college student who just lost her father to a heart attack. In the midst of her grief, Jane stumbles upon a message board frequented by amateur sleuths attempting to solve real-life crimes.

I loved it! Couldn’t put it down. Hooked from page 1. I find Ashley Winstead’s books to always be page turners and this one was no different. Highly recommend it when it releases March 25th.

Swipe to see some of my other reviews of Ashley Winstead’s books.

The plot explodes @85% in … you just need to hang in until then!

With thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this e-ARC.

First 5 star read of the year! I was hooked instantly, may it be my own person interest in true crime, Winstead’s writing, or some combination (most likely). My go to genre is always mystery/thriller/murder and add a great cast of characters and facts from a real true crime case and I’m sold. Because I read some much of the genre, 8 out of 10 I am able to guess the endings of books. Though I will admit I was half right, I still thoroughly enjoyed and was still shocked at all the twists and turns I did NOT expect! I love that knowing the facts of the Idaho murders case in real life was almost a negative in this book, it led you to the wrong conclusion which will be a gut punch to readers. I truly cannot say enough positives about this book and hope this half mystery/thriller and half true crime retelling is a genre that will pick up lots of steam in the coming years.

I really liked her last book but, this one made me uncomfortable. If you are going to reference a very specific crime…. Refer to them by their name. This is just identical to the Idaho murders, with the names changed. Which honestly feels like a slap in the face to the victims.

If you want to write about a true - true crime, do it. This just didn’t hit the spot and feels wrong to profit off of the actions that occurred. It glorifies the murderer and doesn’t pay respect to the victims.

This isn’t it.