In ‘This Book Will Bury Me’ by Ashley Winstead we meet Janeway Sharp. Jane transferred to UCF after going to community college and is slightly older than her classmates. Things start off pretty normal until she gets a call from her mother. Her father had a heart attack. He passes away and Jane’s grief spiral begins (trigger warning as this is a theme and highly discussed). During this time she joins an online message board of arm chair detectives trying to solve murders. This message board, Real Crime Network helps to give Jane purpose again and something to focus on. There is some foreshadowing which got me hooked because it was very vague and I was desperate to know what happened. Jane and her 4 friends from the network get thrown into the spotlight. The murder of three college student in Idaho brings them a new case to solve and closer together.

I found the book creepy in a good way, I’m not really into true crime. This book felt very real to me. True crime fanatics will probably love this book. The second half of the book I binged. The book is written from Jane to the reader. There are chats included which I liked as it allowed us to feel apart of the Network. You could see where the author pulled from real events to craft the story. I was a fan on the authors before this and I cannot wait for the next book to be released and this one doesn’t drop until March 25, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and the author for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

I loved everything about this book. It was so well done. I love this author, they’re one of my favorites and I anxiously await each book they write. The writing is so well done, I felt truly transported to the story with the characters. I haven’t quite read a book with a premise like this one. It was told through Jane, writing a book. After her father’s passing, Jane turns to true crime and meets a group of fellow enthusiasts. This book had me on the edge trying to figure it out! I couldn’t wait to get to the end because I needed to know, but at the same time I never wanted it to end. And then the ending was just amazing, and I couldn’t believe it. I was shook and loved it so much. I can’t adequately describe how much I enjoyed this book. It is the reason I read, I chase the feelings that this book gave me, just so good.

If you’re looking for an unputdownable read, then you need to check this one out.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of this book.

Well, this was a good one. This also was another book were I was not a fan at all of the MC but the book kept me reading. Winstead knows how to tell a story. The only thing I found irksome were her veiled references to conservative networks and how bad they are and how much she likes Rachel Maddow. Come ON! Why can't authors keep politics out of their fiction?

This Book Will Bury Me leans heavily in the direction of horrendous crimes blazing out in the headlines. Too close for comfort. Too real to be unreal.

Ashley Winstead has a talent for drop-kicking you into the center of all the action.......action never requested or longed for. It's like driving a stake into what could be a hair's breath away. Winstead almost hums the words of the song I'll Take You There. And she does by creating windows into this world for her readers.

Jane Sharp at 24 is floating in a sea of random decisions. She's trying to bring closure to her last classes at the University of Florida. Then the bottom falls out of everything with a phone call from her mother. Her father suffered a heart attack and died. Nothing will ever be the same.

Now that would be a storyline unto itself, but Ashley Winstead has filled this one with a wider scope than that. Jane finds herself engulfed in a feature story about a young woman who was killed not far from Jane's home. Jane checks out true crime blogs and hits on a very informative one. In no time, Jane and her fellow blog members are piecing together clues and info. It's drawn Jane in like a fly to a web. She's not just breathing in her grief every day, but she's doing something pro-active. That is until the Big Case walks through the door.

Three university girls have been murdered in Delphine, Idaho. Their deaths have shocked this small community. Jane's team puts a priority on this one. In fact, the group decides to take a trip to Delphine in order to sift through the clues at hand. And it's a brutal case. What transpires will have you hyperventilating at a rapid pace.

This Book Will Bury Me will not be for everyone. Just check out the other reviews. Similar cases have hit the true crime route in real time. No smudged windows. We're seeing this full out clearly and it's the tappin' of that Boogie Man on that glass next to us. Too real. Too life like. Be sure to turn your head in the direction of This Book Will Bury Me.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and to the talented Ashley Winstead.

This was a fast-paced thriller that kept me engaged and on my toes with what would happen next. I enjoyed the writing and characters I loved to hate. Definitely a great read for any true-crime junkies!

amazing book and author! I love all Winstead’s books and can’t wait for more. This kept me on the edge and I could not stop reading, a five star experience.

Thoughts

This was a very graphic thriller. It is about a team of internet sleuths trying to solve murders and they get pretty famous, while trying to solve a case involving a serial killer.

It is really detailed in the descriptions of the people who were murdered. So be prepared for that.

Once I got to the 60% mark I just couldn't stop reading. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it and picked it back up.

One night I had to read a romance before going to sleep because human monsters will always be what gives me nightmares.

It definitely reads like a Winstead book. The female protagonist is what I have come to expect from her thrillers. And she knows how to get the reader invested.

It also deals pretty heavily with grief from the death of a parent. That is a side journey in this book.

I think this is perfect for people who enjoy the true crime elements in their thrillers!

Ashley!! One of my favorite authors does it again! I loved this book! The setting was perfection, characters were well developed, enjoyed the story!

WHAT!!!!! Ashley Winstead gets better every single book she writes and I did not think that was possible. WOW! The twists and turns in this book were insane. I was hooked and could not stop reading. I highly recommend this absolutely mind-blowing book for all those thrillers/mystery lovers out there.

When 24 year old Jane joins a band of amateur crime solving podcasters to try to solve a college sorority murder, she ends up being in the limelight and has to deal with more that what she signed up for.

Written by the master of twisted storytelling, Ashley Winstead's latest novel will have you thinking all about true crime drama and the mysteries that follow.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark @bookmarked and @netgalley for this ARC. This novel is due to be published on March 25, 2025. Add it to your TBR so you'll have it come spring!

Something Ashley Winstead does perfectly everytime is delivering a thriller that will send your nervous system into overdrive and have you on the edge of your seat. For much of the book I was trying to solve the mystery along with the group, but as we got closer to the end I was holding my breath (and my jaw off the floor)

ARC Review. 4 stars! I had so much fun with this one. Ashley Winstead never fails with her mystery/thrillers. I loved the originality of the online true crime forum and exploration of grief and coping with grief. Unlike her other releases in this genre, I do have some qualms with this one. Firstly, it was highly predictable which takes the schock factor out of the story in times of reveals. Secondly, this is very obviously inspired by and based off of the Idaho murders which I have mixed feelings about.

I thought this book was well done. I liked the format. The book is about internet sleuths trying to solve some murders so you are reading the chat messages. You get to know the sleuths through their usernames over their real names.

The book is about a girl in college whose father passed away unexpectedly. She drops out of college and as a way to handle her grief, gets involved with a group who tries to solve murders. Her mother handles her grief very differently. The book explores her relationship with both her parents which I liked.

The thing that bothered me about the book is that it very closely resembles the University of Idaho murders which only happened in 2022 so either the author wrote something that hadn’t happened yet (eerie) or she took advantage of this news story (creepy). It really bothered me that this was fiction based on an actual tragic event. It seems disrespectful to the families.

Overall, I thought the book was good and had a good twist at the end. I just wish that it didn’t resemble the real murders in Idaho.

I’ve read and loved all of Ashley’s work. I always know I’m in good hands when I open up one of her books. This one was a personal one for me, as I had just moved to Idaho a month before the Idaho college murders of 2022 took place-which is much of the inspiration for this book. While many similar details from the actual case made its way into the book, it is still a fictionalized crime fiction with several events added in. Was some of the content difficult to read at times as it related to the real case? Yes, but I also think Ashley sought to give the victims of her story justice and us as readers a takeaway to discuss.

I loved that it’s told through “Searcher’s” perspective-one of the online sleuth’s determined to solve the Delphine 6 college murders. She really developed Searcher/Jane’s character especially as we come to understand her motive for being so closely involved in the true crime world of sleuthing. She’s dealing with the loss of her dad and wanting to know him on a deeper level, and that journey is beautifully written and conveyed. She also gives us a complex found family of sorts with unique backstories and personalities as these sleuths work together to solve this case. It makes you assess the fandom of true crime and those that become especially invested in it. I also found the writing style, using Jane’s tell-all memoir as the narrative, including footnotes, and online chat thread transcripts to be such a fantastic format for this storyline!

It’s a complex story that transcends a typical crime fiction thriller, with Ashley’s literary prose and storytelling that I’ve come to love. Thank you again Ashley for my early copy, I’m thankful to not only have read it early as a lover of your talented work, but also as a friend I deeply admire.

•𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 •
+ amateur crime sleuths
+ dealing with grief and loss and sense of purpose
+ inspired by the Idaho college murders
+ especially for the true crime lovers
+ Star Trek parallels
+ mentions of Buffy fanfic
+ compelling, layered mystery
+ campus serial killer thriller
+ misfit found family
+ online crime forums
+ shocking ending
+ complex characters
+ read if you liked Bright Young Women
+ content triggers involving crime scene descriptions

𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: March 25, 2025
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Crime Fiction • Thriller
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭: Physical 📖 (441 pgs)
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★★

✨Thank you SO much to @ashleywinstead @sourcebooks @netgalley for my #gifted ARC!

This book was intriguing but failed to keep me interested. Love the storyline and I felt like the author wrote a very good detailed book but I had a hard time really getting into this book. This was not for me but others might love the book if your looking for a slower mystery.

tl;dr I liked but didn't love

First of all, the killer didn’t surprise me. I had icky vibes from Citizen when he got mad about the security guard thing but the thing that made me go it was totally him was the way Jane described the killer on the podcast (and then Mistress’s reaction to it). So the big reveal that he was the killer didn’t hit that hard for me (but also maybe it wasn’t supposed to? I felt like Jane was pretty obvious when she said he was going to get someone killed lmao

Second, I almost wish we had a villain monologue because I’m so fascinated by what led Citizen from Bridget’s murder to true crime boards to the Idaho murder. did he really just commit a perfect crime to keep his friend engaged? Are we supposed to infer he’s killed other people since.

Third, I still don’t know how I feel about the Lizzie of it all. I feel like I would’ve appreciated a little more build out.

Fourth, the Natalie reveal was cool but I feel like there was a lot of build up about why Jane was telling her story and how terrible things were but I feel like we didn’t really get a true taste of that other than people hating on the sleuths while hey were undercover

Overall, despite the above qualms, I found this to be a pretty propulsive read but it’s not one of my top thrillers of the year. I did enjoy this more than Midnight is the Darkest Hour and think this will be a safer recommendation than the Last Housewife

The story unfolds as we see a grieving amateur online crime sleuth writing about her experiences in helping take down a serial killer. Jane Sharp is at loss on what to do after her father dies. Instead of focusing on her college studies or her job at Starbucks, she turns to the internet and finds herself helping solve a real crime. From there she finds other crime fighters with her passion for solving murders and find a family.
Drawing on the murders of the college students in Idaho, the author shows the ups and downs of having online forums trying to play detectives. I loved the way this book was written - part memoir, part real time. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves true crime or anyone that likes to play at being a detective.

📖 Book Review 📖 Grief is cruel. It steals pieces of your heart and soul and leaves you a different person than you were before. Losing a parent is so hard and when faced with that immense pain, the need to bury yourself in something is normal. Some people escape into alcohol, some into food; I escaped into books when my mom died last year and found solace in fictional characters also dealing with grief. For Jane, losing her father was her gateway into armchair sleuthing with a group of online detectives, a phenomenon many of us are familiar with. This Book Will Bury Me is raw, riveting and rife with a quiet suspense that builds beautifully. Ashley Wingate delivers a deliciously dark gift tied up nicely with a black bow, inside is a gripping tale that is absolutely unputdownable, with questions that just continue to grow as the pages turn. This Book Will Bury Me is the true crime fiction book to read in 2025!

I was excited about Winstead's new release because I love her writing style. However, I have mixed feelings about this one. It caught my attention and the short chapters kept me intrigued, making it easy to pick up my Kindle everywhere. Unfortunately, I felt like I was waiting too long for anything to happen and then the twist was so painfully obvious I didn't want it to be true. This one won't stay with me like her other 2 do, but I'll still pick up her future releases.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC!

First, thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the digital ARC of this new read from Ashley Winstead, coming out in March 2025! This is a solid book. I love the setup and enjoyed the characters and how they related to each other. Yes, I thought the twist was coming but it's a good one and I liked it. I have to take points off for the similarity to the recent Idaho murders. It makes fiction out of a real-life horror and while I understand what the author was going for, I wish she'd chosen a different setting and circumstances around where the murders occurred. It feels weird to have made it so similar to something that actually happened and I think it creates distraction from the rest of the book overall. It's well done otherwise. Like many others, I wish there'd been more consideration around blending real-life atrocities with fictional ones. I sped through this one considering how long it was, but I do think it’s more than worth your time. I found myself a little sad when it was over because I'll miss the characters. Perhaps there's a chance at a sequel or follow up?