I had really high hopes for this one. I found Shaw irritating and her personality and attempts at jokes made me uncomfortable. The twist wasn’t really a twist and it honestly took a long time to get interesting. Too many pages and filler of characters that didn’t matter, instead of laying the pieces that tied together the killers existence in her life. The last 30% of the book was fast paced and exciting.

A page-turning, compelling thriller about a woman who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth behind her sister’s disappearance. This is a real thrilling novel and dont read it at night.

Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell by Gillian French
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Shaw Connolly has a stalker. And not just any stalker, this man keeps hinting that he knows what happened to her sister who went missing sixteen years ago. Shaw never gave up looking for her sister, but now she is desperate to find out what happened to her while keeping what’s left of her family safe.
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What I liked:
-Shaw is a fingerprints analyst and I loved learning more about what is involved in that job. Also I really liked all her coworkers.
-I love cold case books. Yes, bestie, let’s solve this cold case that police couldn’t.
-The dog was just the bestest dog.
-I love stories that show a family enduring and learning to become closer, and by the end I could see how that was happening here especially between Shaw and her remaining sister.
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3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 For the most part I enjoyed Shaw’s story. The mystery was really good and I wanted so badly to know what happened to Thea.
The story is a little slow and felt longer than it actually was. Also, I liked Shaw as a character but her sense of humor was a little all over the place.

3.5/5
Thank you @stmartinspress @minotaur_books #partner for the gifted copy of this eARC!

This book was a first for me by this author! Shaw Connelly is very familiar with the seedier side of life. She is a fingerprint analyst that has been witness to a lot of terrible crimes. This time, however, the case is very personal to her. Her sister has disappeared and she becomes obsessed with finding the answers. During the investigation Shaw is receiving calls from a mysterious person named Anders claiming he knows what happened. This only fuels her fire for finding the truth and subsequently everything else in her life is negatively impacted by her need to find answers.

If you like intense cat and mouse books featuring police procedural events and investigations consider this one! I personally really liked how she was a fingerprint analyst and the details surrounding her job. It definitely made the book more interesting to me! I did find the start of the book a little slow and harder to get invested in the characters at first but the ending brought everything full circle and had a satisfying conclusion. The threats and the chase made this book tense at times which I definitely appreciated. This book is perfect for any slow burn police procedural lovers out there! Thank you to my friends in the #sleuthcrew for reading this one with me!

Shaw’s relentless quest to uncover the truth behind her sister’s disappearance collides with her unraveling personal life, creating a gripping exploration of obsession, grief, and resilience. As an analyst grappling with gruesome crime scenes and a menacing caller who knows far too much, Shaw’s journey is both heart-pounding and heart-wrenching. French masterfully builds suspense, intertwining the haunting mystery of Thea’s fate with the escalating danger to Shaw and her family. This novel is a compelling blend of psychological drama and edge-of-your-seat tension, keeping readers hooked until the final revelation.

Sadly, this one was not for me. I love the cover, the plot and the atmosphere of the story, but all in all I did not care for the character's drama and traumas and in the second half of the book everything sounded so predictable and cliché that it totally lost my attention.
The writing, in my opinion, is OK but it doesn't pay off for the rest of the issues this book has.
I wish I had loved it, because I love the cover and the vibes, but it was a huge miss for me.
I'm sure this book will have its audience, but I'm not part of it.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for the advance copy of this book.

Shaw Connolly is no stranger to trauma. As a fingerprints analyst, she’s one of the first on-site for crimes, including murder scenes and a mysterious string of arsons popping up throughout the rural Maine community her department serves. But the tragedy of her little sister’s disappearance sixteen years ago has always weighed on her the most; Thea is never far from her thoughts or dreams, and Shaw knows that her obsession with finding the truth about Thea is driving her husband away and impacting her two boys. Still, she can't let it go and has even started taking disturbing calls from a man named Anders Jansen who all but claims to have committed the crime.

Anders taunts Shaw with hints and innuendo about what supposedly happened all those years ago. His calls go to the next level as he reveals just how much he knows about Shaw’s personal life, like her stalled career and ruined marriage. As his stalking escalates to threats on her and her family's lives, he begins to show just how dangerous he might be. Shaw is too desperate for answers to hang up now, just when she's getting close to finding proof. The only question left is what she must lose to learn the truth.

I found the book very slow and predictable. I found thewriting disjointed and couldn't really connect with the characters.

2 out of 5 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy.

Mystery/Thrillers can be a good ride: entertaining, suspenseful. But, for me, I have to be able to connect to the main character and feel like the plot has plausibility. I just couldn't connect with Shaw Connolly, as a character. From the opening pages she came across as unformed ; there was nothing that made me feel anything in particular toward her. Then, when the man who allegedly murdered her sister calls, the conversation felt so banal that I couldn't keep going with the book. Shaw felt almost resigned to getting these taunting phone calls and her follow up call to the detective who's been in charge of her sister's unsolved murder seem rote and without any emotion. While her job--as a fingerprint analyst--gave a slight twist on the typical law enforcement job, this one couldn't hold my interest.

Sadly, this book seriously missed the mark for me. It almost seems like we were joining a series of progress. There were unnecessary subplots. The story overall had parts that were predictable, and other parts were all over the place. Characters are one-dimensional. The pace was just too slow to hold my attention.

The synopsis of this book drew me in , but unfortunately it was not for me. I ultimately finished the book because I was interested in the main storyline / figuring out where Thea was. However, the banter in this book drove me crazy. This felt like the middle of a series where I was supposed to already like Shaw before reading (which was not the case - she was my least favourite part). There was an (in my opinion) unnecessary romance subplot that I didn't care for as well.

slow, predictable, maybe a little flat? it felt like i got dropped into a series midway and i think that was the most frustrating part of it. it wasn't bad, per say. Just not for me. i genuinely had no issues with the writing or characters, but again, the story just didn't hit for me.

While Shaw Connolly’s life as a fingerprint analyst in rural Maine places her at the scene of crimes of all types—the tragic disappearance of her little sister Thea sixteen years before still hangs heavily over her. When she begins to receive disturbing calls from Anders Jansen, who claims to have killed her sister, she begins to fear for her life. When Anders puts a tracker on her car and continues to stalk her with threatening phone calls, she begins to fear for her life. Desperate to find out the truth about her sister's disappearance, she continues to take his calls and soon ends up in a life-threatening situation that threatens her ability to get the truth.

I liked the MC and how grief and loss was discussed but overall, this book was not for me. The story felt disjointed. I did not need multiple in depth descriptions of finger printing. The ending was presumed from the beginning and even though there were some surprises, they weren’t enough to keep the book exciting.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this book I had a hard time jumping into it. I would rate this a 1.5/5 the story was just so boring and I wasn’t interested in it at all.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for this advance reader’s copy, in exchange for an honest review. “Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell” has an expected publication date of June 17, 2025.
There’s something a little off-putting about sitting down to read a mystery novel when the title has given away at least a portion of the ending. You know who’s coming out on top in the climactic fight scene.
That’s not to say that “Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell” wasn’t an enjoyable and emotional read. But that heavy foreshadowing and a few chapters that seemed to drag a bit kept it from being a top-notch thriller.
Shaw Connolly, the oldest of three sisters, is a fingerprints analyst living in Maine. She lives with her father and her two sons, ages 15 and 10. The disappearance of the middle sister, Thea, sixteen years ago, is a tragedy Shaw carries with her night and day. Her obsession with “knowing” what happened to Thea has driven away her husband Ryan, and created friction with her youngest sister, Madison. And that obsession prompts her to continue taking phone calls from Anders Jansen, a man who all but claims responsibility for Thea’s disappearance.
Anders taunts Shaw, seemingly knowing every aspect of her personal life, and eventually begins stalking her. Despite taking out a restraining order, Shaw can’t stop taking the bait. And her preoccupation begins to impact her work, leading to a temporary furlough.
The story flows smoothly, though a bit slow in spots. A series of seemingly related arsons helps build a suspenseful pace. It’s clear there’s a relationship between the fires and Anders’ escalating taunts; Shaw just needs to put the pieces of the puzzle together and begins to come unraveled when nothing seems to fit. Anders is in her head.
The tension, however, loses just a bit of steam since (as mentioned earlier) the book title gives away a good portion of the ending. It’s still a dramatic, intense encounter. But when you know the outcome in advance, some of the punch has been lost. And the dialogue at times is a bit clunky.
There are some good sections of backstory to help understand Shaw and her relationship with her two sisters. A bit more history on Shaw and her husband Ryan would be helpful, as the latter becomes an almost invisible part of the story.
Overall, it’s a good read that would be made much better with a different title. But that’s just my take on it.
Four out of five stars for “Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell.”
And check out all of my reviews at my Raised on Reading (www.raisedonreading.com) book blog.

DNF this one around the 30% mark. It was very slow and I just couldn’t get into it. The premise sounded interesting but I couldn’t connect to the characters.

This is a difficult one. On one hand it's a fascinating psychological study and on the other it's a really slow moving train wreck ( not the writing, the actual storyline, in which you literally watch unraveling happen over and over again). They're not incompatible by any means but the combination makes for a tough book to read. I feel like a movie version, or possibly even an audiobook, would be easier to manage. I was uncomfortable a lot of the time - and while I get that this is partly the point, it did not make for an engaging or enjoyable read. I kept wanting to look away, and eventually realized that feeling was stronger than my desire to actually see what happened, and I wasn't able to finish. This one wasn't a good fit for me and I'm still not really sure why...

This was unfortunately too slow for my liking. There was nothing truly happening to keep me hooked and engaged which caused me to having to DNF.

Shaw Connelly is a fingerprint analyst for the police department. Her seventeen year old sister, Thea, disappeared without a trace sixteen years ago. Now someone is calling her, goading her, and saying that he was the one who killed her sister. Will she be able to finally know the truth?
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was crisp and the characters well developed. Shaw was a borderline dislikable person, but she had suffered a lot of trauma. Highly recommended.

Amazing! I loved this and couldn't put it down. Shaw was so relatable and I felt so captured by her plight to find her sister's murderer and remains.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!