Wow! I really enjoyed this twisty read. It was face paced and had me hooked from the beginning. I couldn’t put this book down, it will literally bury me.

While I haven’t followed the tragedy in Idaho carefully so don’t know many details, this book seemed like it was definitely based off of that story which made me slightly uncomfortable. I mean, maybe if it had been any other setting I wouldn’t have been thinking about the Moscow situation the whole time I was reading this.

However, as is always the case with Winstead’s writing, it was superb, sucking the reader in and not letting go until the last page, therefore I still very much enjoyed reading this. Her ability to make me want to keep reading even when I shouldn't be is a gift, truly. I find her thriller books to be cerebral and not fluff, making one think or want to do a deep dive into whatever it is she's talking about, fictional or not. This book just happened to make me now want to watch and read everything about the Idaho murders.

This was my 3rd book by Ashley Winstead and I am not mad at this one butttt again it didn’t tickle my fancy like other thrillers. It was predicable, way too long, and some aspects felt a bit forced. The ending felt more of a cop out more than anything. I wish it was a bit different. This book seems to be based off the 2022 Idaho murders which left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t know if many people want that.

If you are new to thrillers, this is a good starter outer book.

I can't lie and say I wasn't intrigued to see where this one was going. Unfortunately, it's VERY predictable and a little bit off-the-wall by the end.
I enjoy Winstead's thrillers, it's easy reading and there are always entertaining little nuggets sprinkled in her writing. I think she's always had great ideas and I was looking forward to reading a thriller from an "armchair detective" perspective. She sort of explores the pros & cons of these internet amateur sleuths but we don't really get a final verdict on whether this kind of obsession is exploitative or necessary for the future of solving crimes.
Maybe there is no answer - but I found the main characters' actions wildly inappropriate at times and it made it hard to root for them even though I was a fan of their ragtag remote assemble. It was when they got together in person - at the scene of the murders like some weird vacay, yikes - that I really began to feel weird.
Add that to the fact that this murder is very much so inspired by the Idaho 4 - which sounded familiar enough that I did some deep dive research in the middle of this book and YEAH they are way closely related, and that is still an ongoing investigation/not even to trial yet.
I don't know, it's got me feeling kind of icky, especially with how much time is spent to profiling the murderers and detailing violence against women, crime scene photos, etc...
Just not enough time spent researching the victims, especially for internet sleuths who are interested in "finding answers and justice."
Side note, I'm undecided about the breaking-the-4th-wall aspect of this book. It was very cheeky with no deeper reflection since it was clearly written by the main character in past tense. There's some quality stuff about grief and the weight of trying to immortalize your parents as you grapple with life moving on. But it gets lost in the weird fatphobic and trauma-dumping of the other adults in her father's life. It felt kind of out of place with the story but I recognize it as a kind of catalyst for the main character's actions.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy!

BOOK: This Book Will Bury Me
AUTHOR: Ashley Winstead
PUB DATE: March 25, 2025, by @bookmarked
PAGES: 480
RATING: 5 stars (infinity)!
GENRE: Suspense/Thriller/Mystery/Crime

A H U G E Thank You to @netgalley, @bookmarked and the author for gifting me an advanced digital in exchange for my honest review!

QUICK & SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: More like, This Book Had Me in a Chokehold! Let me start off by saying this had EVERYTHING I want in suspense and thriller! As I continued reading chapter after chapter, it drew me in deeper and had me up late flipping pages until the very end. I had a hunch who the “killer” was about 60% in, but it was questionable and full of twists and turns! Hang on to your seats with this one! And that ending!! I’d love to discuss this book with anyone that has read it. This was my first book to read by this author, and I am super excited to read her others that have been on my TBR!
RUN, don’t walk, to read this one that’s out TODAY!!!

#ThisBookWillBuryMe #AshleyWinsteadBooks #AshleyWinstead #Mystery #Crime #Suspense #Thriller

What a wild ride. I love how she sprinkled in enough clues that we could figure things out but the reveal still came as a shock! This is my first @ashleywinsteadbooks book & I love her style! I’ll definitely read more things by her!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7412738623Basically, once I started This Book Will Bury Me, I was useless until I finished it. This hooked me right from the start, and if some of the broader plot points ended up being predictable, there were enough twists, turns, and red herrings that genuinely surprised me.

This novel falls into the ever-expanding repertoire of works that set out to examine and critique true crime culture by focusing on the role that internet sleuths play in both helping and hindering crime solving. Told from Jane's point of view, this story centers on how she finds herself playing a direct role in a spate of recent murders after getting involved in an online group of true crime amateur detectives.

While many of the story beats are familiar to any mystery reader, I loved the first-person narration and how brazen Jane and her group of internet crime solvers were. I personally don't like to engage with true crime and instead like thinking about the broader popularity of this genre through fiction like this. This novel honestly made me quite uncomfortable at times as it raised some questions about why and how outsiders can become involved in the justice process for better or worse.

After her father's sudden passing, Jane Sharp returns home from college and needs to fill a father-sized hole in her life—enter true crime and the world of armchair detectives. By befriending a core group of amateur sleuths, she exchanges her grief for a newfound love of investigating murder cases. Jane's participation borders on obsession and only becomes more pathological once the Delphine Massacre enters the news cycle. Jane and her band of snoops venture into the heart of an active crime scene in Delphine, Idaho, undeterred by the danger of a killer on the loose, all in pursuit of their mission—to solve the murder.

"This Book Will Bury Me" is an entertaining and nail-biting ride from cover to cover. Jane Sharp’s journey through grief is deeply relatable as she clings to anything that can distract her from the pain of losing her father. But in the distraction lies her newfound online family—Citizen, Lightly, Goku, and Mistress—each as endearing and eccentric as the next. This family helps her crawl out of the darkness and find a purpose in the sadness. You find yourself loving these characters, willing them to succeed, and finding out each sleuth's deeply personal reasons that led them here. Everyone has a reason for entering this world.

TBWBM will suck you in and before you know it, you're deep-diving Reddit trying to become an amateur sleuth yourself. Just kidding. Or am I? Either way, much like Jane, I guarantee you will become obsessive and crave the answers of who is responsible for the Delphine murders. Time to grab this book and put on your investigator cap because we've got some crimes to solve.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, & Ashley Winstead for the ARC in exchange for my authentic review.

5 STARS

Murder mystery, tell-all memoir narrative, sleuthing, found family, twists and turns, secret identity

Janeway Sharp is a 24 year old college student who has just been through an unimaginable ordeal, she lost her best friend and father. In the midst of her grief, she receives a calling and is thrust into the world of true-crime. Along with four other sleuths she meets online, she helped solve a huge high-profile case. Shortly after riding the wave of fame, she and her group of friends find themselves tracking down an elusive serial killer.

This story was so unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read. The main character is walking us through her story as an Internet sleuth/detective. It’s written in the form of a tell-all memoir after a huge, high-profile serial killer case. There were footnotes on the pages, which made it very unique. They contributed well to the story. There are so many mysteries for the reader laid out. The format and structure was entertaining and told the story well! I loved the characters, and I resonated deeply with Jane as she tried to cope with her loss. The found family between these characters was heart warming in the middle of the book. I loved Ashley Winstead’s writing style. I learned a lot about true-crime forums and internet sleuths. Although I was able to predict part of the ending, my jaw still dropped during that last 2%. There are still many parts of this book that surprised me. The twists and turns were great. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true-crime thrillers and mysteries.

There is an author note in the beginning regarding the events, cases, killers, and murders referenced in this book that details Winstead’s inspiration for the storyline. I highly recommend you read this and look into the trigger warnings as well.

This is an HONEST review, and all opinions are my own. Thank you NetGalley and Ashley Winstead for the opportunity to read this book prior to its release date. This was my first book by this author, and I fully intend on reading more after this one.

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with true crime….while I enjoy listening to podcasts while I walk I don’t read it, normally choosing mysteries and police procedurals. This fictional story based on a college student who becomes obsessed with true crime as a way to distract herself after her father’s unexpected death was a great way for me to bridge the two, especially since this echos a current actual criminal case. Jane Sharp’s character is well written, I could feel her heartbreak and was drawn in as her obsession with solving murders grows, her new found family taking her in. The twists and turns that are revealed as Jane decides to tell all a year after the crime kept me on the edge of my seat. I did take one star off as I had a small part of my brain telling me this story is ‘too soon’, but it certainly didn’t stop me from reading.
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC, true crime fans will be swept up into the story.

Alright first thing’s first. Yes, this book is long. Too long for a thriller, in my opinion. And I absolutely think it could’ve been at least 100 pages shorter. But I would read it anyway.

Heavy on the true crime, this thriller involves amateur sleuths, crime podcasts, subthreads and conversations, and the justice system itself. I enjoyed this aspect so much. Clues are provided so subtly, and little foreshadowing at the end of some chapters keeps you invested to keep reading. I loved the way the book was written, telling the story one year after the events, so you get both a retelling as well as the narrator’s benefit of hindsight.

I did guess the twist just before it happened, but that didn’t make it any less shocking or immersing.

I also loved the found family aspect of this book, the glimmers of faith in humanity, and the insightful prose interlaced into the book.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and it’s my favorite of hers so far.

[There are several TWs, so be sure to check those if you need to]

Thank you Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC!

“I’ve come to think fate is a trap we set for ourselves…”

Ironically, this book found me as my family was processing the decline in my mother-in-law’s health. Since I finished reading, she has passed and that has made this book that much more poignant for me. I can fully relate to Jane, our FMC, in how she immersed herself in something as she processed the death of her father. Grief can be all-consuming, and I can understand the allure of something that completely distracts you. In Jane’s case, it was a serial killer. I also related to her becoming close to people she “met” online, as I have made some dear friends here in the bookish corner of the world.

Told in a multimedia format, and in dual timelines, Jane is writing a book about her past experience, and chatting with her new sleuth pals online. It also had a work backwards approach, where at the beginning of the story, things had already happened, but the story took us through the events to get to that point. When the truth of the serial killer came to light, I thought I should have seen it coming but I didn’t! It did not end how I was expecting at all, and was very cleverly executed.

With true-crime vibes, Ashley Winstead has once again written a unique story, with lovable, relatable characters. “This Book Will Bury Me” was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025 and I am so grateful for the early read!

”This Book Will Bury Me” is out NOW! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

I loved this bingeable thriller! I’ve been an Ashley fan since The Last Housewife, and this book did not disappoint. I love how she tackled the Internet sleuth vs real detectives debate and even managed to sprinkle multiple murder mysteries at the same time. Loved it!

4.25/5 rounded down

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced reading copy!

Ashley Winstead can really hook me on a book from the start, and this was no different. I was super entertained from start to finish, though things did start to feel just a little draggy in the middle. I think this book could have been a bit trimmed down and been better, but still was great. The benefit of the length was that I had a few suspicions early on that I promptly forgot about by the time the truth was revealed later, and that left me feeling shocked!

While I did enjoy this book a lot, it is not without its flaws. I have read a lot of complaints from other reviewers about the exploitive nature of using actual cases for a fictional "true crime" book, and can totally see where those come from. The ARC does not have an author's note, but Ashley Winstead did post a note on socials explaining this, which I think makes a big difference in how this is perceived.

In the Author's Note, Winstead also talks about grieving the loss of her Dad while hearing about the University of Idaho case, and that adds even more depth to the story. Throughout the book, you can tell that the grief is real and, and presented in a very well-written and powerful way. The grief adds a lot to Jane's character, and I really felt for our character and author as I was reading this.

Overall, this was a very entertaining and interesting book by a fantastic writer. It's different than her previous work, as seems to be the Ashley Winstead way, but just as well-written. I can't wait to see what her beautifully twisted mind comes up with next!

Wow! What a book! This book sucked me right in and I just couldn't put it down. This is the perfect book for fans of true crime. The author makes it clear in the author's note that she pulled from current news stories so if things like that upset you, this book may not be for you. This book takes a deep dive into the world of internet sleuths working to solve crimes, their work with police, and the things that can go wrong. I would definitely recommend this book. 5/5 Stars! I would like to thank the author and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book!

Started out strong but then quickly got boring about 30% of the way through. Seemed to be rather long as well and the chat was hard to follow at first with usernames

This book left me conflicted, especially with how closely it mirrors the real-life Idaho 4 murders. As someone who has followed the case, I found it hard to ignore the parallels, and I’m still unsure if I support turning such a tragedy into fiction. While I appreciate Ashley Winstead’s ability to make me think and feel deeply about her work, I also wonder where the ethical line should be drawn when using real-life pain for storytelling. It’s a powerful, thought-provoking read, but I think it’s one that requires careful consideration before diving in.

Thank you to Ashley Winstead, NetGalley, and the publisher for the opportunity.

💻🔍This Book Will Bury Me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This Book Will Bury Me is about a team of web sleuths so deep into an investigation that they themselves are in danger. After her father’s death, Jane finds distraction and purpose in true crime. She stumbles upon a group of armchair detectives and little does she know how close she will become with the group, and how dangerous sleuthing can be.

I. Loved. This. Book. As someone who is also obsessed and intrigued by true crime, This Book Will Bury Me felt like it was written for me. The thorough research and all of the true crime “Easter eggs” tucked away in the pages of the story made it feel so real. Based on the still open case of the Idaho Murders*, this book shows how dangerous sleuthing can be - not only to the individuals, but also to the integrity of the case itself. Theorizing has moved away from online chatter to something that’s impacting and affecting people’s lives. Jane’s story doesn’t stretch far from the truth of what individuals are willing to do with the intent to help solve crimes. Aside from the true crime narrative, I really appreciated how grief, depression, and loss are handled. Jane doesn’t understand her father’s death and hyper-fixates as a way to cope. Her emotions are genuine and heartbreaking. When lost, she finds comfort in a group of strangers that quickly become the most important people in her life. The found family aspect of the story shows how in a world where we are constantly online, internet friends become real friends. I LOVED the dynamic of this group. There is more I could say, but can’t because ~spoilers~. You should head to your fave indie bookstore, local library, or bookshop.org and get this book now! |brit|

*While this book is fiction, it is based on the very real 2022 murders of four college students at the University of Idaho. The families of the students continue to seek justice as we await a trial. While it can be enjoyable and fascinating to read about and study true crime, we can’t forget that behind every single case there are real people who are impacted. RIP Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.

This book is hard for me to rate.

I loved the plot, characters, and story line. The writing is simply amazing, and I love the attention to detail. The ending I did guess, but the journey and the formatting to get there made this a compulsive read. If I were to base my star rating on this information I would give it a 4 star.

However, this book is based off a real true crime: The Idaho Murders. This case hasn’t even gone to trial yet. That part leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes me question how much an author should base their fictional stories around real life crimes especially ones that are still active. Even though the author left a note in the beginning of the book (which I appreciate), it does feel insensitive to me and almost like the author is trying to cash out on the sensationalism surrounding the case. I am not sure if this honors the real-life victims. I wish the author would have changed some of the details, like location, demographics, etc., or based this book off a case that has already been closed, and more time has passed.

This story drops the reader right into the true crime, murderino craze that's swept the world since the "Serial" podcast. True crime isn't supposed to be cozy, it's not a hobby, and it should never be entertainment. But it is. And this story is all those things, too, but with the moral bonus of self reflection. I love how the author drew inspiration from famous true crimes and true crime journalists. I felt as if I was following along with a real case. The ease with which Jane gets immersed in her sleuthing is realistic and relatable. Her observations on grief are poignant. Well done social commentary, well done crime backdrop, well done character introductions. This book did bury me.