Ashley Winstead definitely knows how to write a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. As a true crime watcher and part time arm chair detective I can see why folks get consumed when a tragedy happens and the need to solve the crime as well. I’ve been reading Winstead since her debut novel and each book keeps getting better and better!

I received an ARC of this book from Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback.

When I first started reading and saw that the subject was a multiple homicide at a university in Idaho, I wondered if this was based on the actual case in Idaho. But I don't really know enough details about the real case to compare. Reading some other reviews, it appears there are a lot of similarities which upset other readers. I personally do not agree, but I can see why some might be sensitive to this.

The format of the book is really unique, as it's supposed to be Jane's writing. It was slightly frustrating when she would say "she who would not be named," but the author actually revealed who she is referring to in a reasonable amount of time before I got fed up. I tend to get fed up easily when authors make vague references and then take ages to clarify.

I enjoyed the relationship between the web sleuths, and I can completely see this happening in real life with lonely people essentially finding an online family.

The villain occurred to me early on, but just as a passing thought, so I was still sufficiently surprised when it was revealed.

I felt there was one point not proved and did want closure on it. I also thought the author was going to go further with Jane's father's legacy.

One thing that was a bit annoying was the footnotes, as on the Kindle, it was not particularly easy to read them in real time when they were mentioned.

I flew through this book and couldn’t put it down. It also is so much like the murders of the University of Idaho students…like down to very specific details. I think that’s why I was so engaged but it also felt kind of…wrong? I have friends that were at the “murder house” at U of I just hours before the girls were killed so I guess I’m sensitive to this case…. But also a bit obsessed with it 🤔
Pros: short chapters, great writing. Cons: is it too much too soon about a heartbreaking case that isn’t even over with yet? Undecided on that. Giving it 5 stars because it’s all I could think about for days.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

I requested this title after seeing it on a Goodreads' list of upcoming buzzworthy books. This did not disappoint! I could not put this down! If you like true crime and suspenseful crime novels, this is the book for you. Jane is a twenty-something devastated by the loss of her father. After she is intrigued by a local crime, she finds an online forum for amateur sleuths who are working to solve that crime. From there, she forms a group of friends and find even bigger cases to solve.

I (mostly) solved the crime at about 60% of the way in, but I still enjoyed the journey of this rag-tag group of characters. The footnotes kept things interesting. At the end of every chapter, I wanted to keep going. Great writing and story!

This book is very good but definitely is too long. The pacing is strong in the beginning but slows as the story goes on only to pick up toward the end. However, it’s worth a read.

4 stars! I really enjoyed this murder mystery thriller. It drew me in right away and I never got bored with the story. I loved the short chapters and the concept of a book within a book. Even though I predicted one of the twists, it was fun to see how it was flushed out on the page. This book was graphic at times but I don’t feel like it took away from the story. Also, TW for parental loss. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

“This Book Will Bury Me" by Ashley Winstead is her newest thriller that lets us into the world of online true crime. Searcher24, Jane Sharp, finds herself part of a group determined to solve the mysterious deaths of three college girls.

The novel is structured as a tell all allowing Jane to recount events on a personal level with advanced character development. This will keep readers guessing with an unpredictable ending!

3 stars

Is this a twisty thriller? Yes. Will you even out the twist/s early on? Probably.

Jane is internet sleuthing to her heart's content, and she gives herself a free pass to check out of the rest of her life because her father has recently unexpectedly died. This connection - the relationship between Jane's grief and her contemporary life choices - is a much more interesting aspect of the novel to me than the central thrills. As a result, I wished for more discussion of that relationship and some stronger ties and development.

Winstead does offer an explanation of authorial choices and connections to various modern crimes in an early note. While the similarities get acknowledged, I still found them distracting throughout. I'd have rather read a version of this novel that was based on fully fictionalized instances. The parallels at times felt too disturbing to me.

This is an interesting enough mystery with some predictable twists. I'd recommend this most to folks who are fully dialed out of current events.

Thank you @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This book releases in March of this year!
I love Ashley Winstead and she has become an auto buy author for me. I also love her range of writing and that she can write many different genres. This one was twisty, and I didn’t see the end coming. It kept me intrigued the entire book.

Read if you like:
-slow burn
-twisty stories
-true crime
-reddit threads
-relateable main character

TW: animal abuse, gore, grief & loss

Favorite Quote:
“I’ve come to think fate is a trap we set for ourselves.”

We follow jane, in her grief following her father passing away, she starts to obsess in true crime. She meets a group of other sleuths that seek justice for crimes.
I loved the reddit thread type of media in this book. It made it feel like you're reading threads and trying to solve this mystery alongside the characters. Easy to immerse yourself into the mystery alongside the sleuths.
I think it brought some commentary on the true crime community and explores different vantage points and outcomes brought on by armchair detectives.
If you had a parent pass away recently , I can see some of the language and scenes being triggering.

3+

Grieving her hero of a father, unable to understand what led him to risk his life when choosing not to follow medical advice, Jane joins a group of dedicated online sleuths and gains notoriety in solving murders. But the pride that comes with the fame becomes their downfall when the groups starts competing with the police in a high profile case.

The book is narrated in first person by Jane, who seems to be writing a tell-all book after something went gruesomely wrong. It's an interesting choice, complete with references and everything that will convince you to be reading a true-crime. Also, it gives the author a good excuse to just hand us the bare minimum and keep us curious, as the fictional readers would already know how it happened but we need to content ourselves with Jane's quick mentions of future events. It's great bait.

At the same time it was a lot of expectation. The conclusion is okay, but it was underwhelming. Even before that, it reaches a point you know it won't be all that. A lot of things bothering me about how the group came to be, I was sure it would be explained but then it wasn't. Not really.

This is a good read. You'll certainly enjoy it because there's little in there for anyone not to. But the promise that it would be more was its worst enemy. Maybe I would have felt it was a 4-star had I known it.

I did like the author and her style. I'd been considering getting one of her works for a while, and this didn't make me regret it. On the contrary, I'm looking forward to more.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

I was immediately intrigued by the concept of the book because of the growing popularity of the true crime community and armchair detectives. Overall, I found it a really enjoyable read. I do think this book was too long. The last 30% of the book was paced perfectly, but getting there felt like it took forever! I'll recommend this book to my true crime-loving friends!

A BOOK!!!! Hooked from the very first page! The writing, the plot… was everything. I especially enjoyed the footnotes and twist were pretty good. I wasn’t able to really guess any. A good amateur sleuth novel. This was my first read by this author but it won’t be my last!

I typically love Ashley Winstead books but this one wasn’t my favorite. While I enjoyed the plot some of the book seemed a little unpredictable and also reminded me too much of a real life tragedy in Idaho. Overall it was just okay!

Unfortunately this book did not excite me the way the authors other books did. I have loved all of her other novels, however, the closeness to real life events really turned me off in this book. I hate saying that! But I truly couldn’t move past it :(

This Book Will Bury Me is a book about five everyday Americans who want to help the police solve crimes. The book first introduces us to the main female character Jane Sharp after her father dies. She is in despair and has decided to drop out of college and move back in with her mother. She joins a true crime website and discovers she is quite a talented sleuth. Soon, she is connected with a “famous” group of four and they are working on a national case together, making them a group of five. Things go awry, and Jane eventually decides to tell her story.

This book was slow and difficult to get into at first. It did pick up pace eventually. The main case the sleuths are interested in resembles a real ongoing nationally-televised case. Like, down to the details. I really didn’t like that. Doesn’t the author have enough imagination to use something of her own? The story might have been great if not for this. If you want to just digest something quick and thrilling, sure go for it. However, this is a real, ongoing case with real people. It troubles me that the author wrote so much that was exactly the same as the real case when there hasn’t even been a resolution. Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

Genre: Thriller
Rating: 2.5/5 ⭐️
Spice: 0/5 🧼

Summary: Jane is struggling in the aftermath of the devastating loss of her beloved father and seeks solace in an online forum of amateur sleuths dedicated to solving crimes. What begins as a distraction to occupy her mind soon turns into an obsession and she finds herself deeply entangled in a chilling and gruesome case.

Thoughts: This book was just not for me. It felt overly complicated for a straightforward situation and just dragged out longer than necessary (ninety. two. chapters. 92?!). It took me months to get through it, which isn’t normal for me.

I can see a lot of true crime fans loving this though as it really dives into how the true crime community can get involved with cases.

I respect the author trying to take a different approach to this book but I feel like I walked into the middle of something I didn’t understand and there wasn’t enough done to bring me up to speed as a reader.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing a copy of this book. I am sharing my honest thoughts, voluntarily.

Ashley Winstead has become one of my favorite authors! I love her writing and how engaging her books are! This one was quite a ride! Get ready to be shocked! I loved trying to make guesses throughout and she tricked me every time! Read this thriller now!!!

Ashley Winstead is a bold author who is not afraid of shock and awe, and she sure takes it to the next level with "This Book Will Bury Me." She uses the real life Idaho murders as her inspiration which many, myself included, found to be in poor taste. It feeds into larger questions about true crime as entertainment and even though Winstead attempts to move beyond entertainment in pursuit of something more didactic (violence against women is bad!) it still read as too opportunistic for my taste.

Gripping, ridiculous, punchy, emotional, and tense🫣😅
this amateur sleuth, unhinged woman, true crime mix had me ON EDGE.
- I COULDN’T PUT THIS DOWN. It’s compulsively addictive, with foreshadowing that is easy to follow as it unravels. I felt myself growing more obsessive and chaotic alongside Jane as the story went.
- The narrative alternates between a chat room format and Jane’s (FMC) present POV, which gave a fun nostalgia for the books I read as a teenager (Ttyl lol). So I imagine the audio version, if a full cast with its mixed media elements, will be excellent when it’s released, but I still enjoyed it as an ebook.
- a good book slump plunger

Author history: Its vibes are closer to In My Dreams I Hold a Knife(4.5⭐️), with a touch of the absurdity in Midnight is the Darkest Hour(1⭐️ lol).