Like, every person in this novel needs intensive therapy. Heavy!! Well done and lots of surprises...sad characters who, hopefully in future books, may find a way to a better life. Audrey is an incredibly complex character.

I Love Kate Kessler. I can not put her books down. Always a great story line with ups and downs, some of which you just don't see coming.
Can't wait to start Two Can Play in this Audrey Harte series. I just bought all Kate's books to sell on our "Staff Picks" shelf in my book store. She is a must read!

Audrey Hart is a successful psychologist that deals with kids that are killers and even has a successful tv show that deals with the topic. It’s to identify with those kids when she was a young killer herself. When she goes back to her hometown for a rare visit her former best friend ends up dead and the entire town believes it’s her, Audrey tries to track down the real killer and prove her own innocence.

While I enjoyed this book, it just didn’t really hold my interest as well as I thought that it would. It seemed like it drug on and on and on, which is probably why it took me almost a month to finish it. While I probably should have picked up on the killer, I was actually pretty surprised by that outcome and I did appreciate the ending.

Didn't really like this book it was too predictable

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Yay for a new-to-me author and thriller series! I may or may not be slightly addicted to psychological thrillers and this one - book one of a series - feeds my addiction perfectly.
Audrey Harte is on a jet plane from L.A. to the little town of Edgeport, Maine. The two places couldn't be further apart and that's exactly what Audrey was looking for when she left all those years ago. She hasn't been home in 7 years and true to form her Mama calls while she's still driving toward the town to pick up her Daddy on the way to the house. He's found at the local bar, passed out from drinking too much. She knew she should have missed her flight. While dragging Daddy to her car she runs into her ex-best friend, Maggie, and they have a few words. Welcome home Audrey. Years ago Audrey and Maggie made a name for themselves by killing Maggie's Daddy, Clint. They didn't even try to hide it and Audrey has never regretted it. He was a monster and no adult was willing to take care of him so Maggie and Audrey did. Maggie went one direction after the death of her Dad, Audrey went the opposite. Audrey took that event and its consequences and became a criminal psychologist specializing in teen murders. Maggie just went off the deep end. Problem is the morning after Audrey's welcome back home Maggie is found dead and all eyes are on Audrey. She knew she should have missed her flight.
The ins and outs of the brain and how it drives our motives, behaviors, etc is a fascinating topic to me - one I will never tire of. Kessler takes an event that her main character willinging participated in and uses it to expose the psychology behind trauma and its long term effects on people. True, parts of her story are dramatized - that's why it is called fiction, but the psychological effects are very real.

I finished this book in a little over 24 hours with only a couple of hours of sleep. It was that good. Audrey Harte helped to kill her bestfriend Maggie's father. He'd been sexually abusing Maggie for years and Audrey wasn't the kind of girl to let it continue. Over a decade later Audrey is coming home for her mothers birthday celebration and Maggie is killed. Audrey is the first suspect.

The friendship between Audrey and Jake was special. All he was willing to give up to see her succeed. The mc's were great and the supporting characters were just as good. I felt like a friend along fir the dinners, parties and drinking. I loved it and sincerely hope thatvKate Kessler writes another Audrey Harte book. There are other murders she can help solve or more teenage murrderers for her to help.

I have to thank NetGalley for my copy to honestly review.

Thank you for the chance to read this book. Unfortunately I had problems connecting with it and didn't finish it. I won't leave a review for it anywhere. Thank you again

** spoiler alert ** This was the first book I have read of Kate Kessler and it will not be the last. I absolutely loved this book. I could not put this book down. When I got into the first couple chapters and I saw how she wrote, I knew this book was going to be a good one. Kessler has a way with words that just captivated me. I loved the characters she created in this book. I loved the main character of Audrey. She was such a strong character. I don't think I've read many books with the main character as strong, physically, as Audrey. I've read books that the character is strong in physical fights when their life is in danger. But Audrey, she was strong in life in general. Not afraid of confrontation with anyone, really. I loved the relationship she had with Jake. Oh Jake. I was so happy when they finally got together because you knew they would. I LOVE those story lines. Friends for years but then finally coming together. Of course, there were many different circumstances in Audrey's life that would have provoked Jake to stay clear of her, but NOPE, he was in it for the long haul.

If you are a fan of romantic mystery/suspense, this book is definitely a book for you. There are some very upsetting topics discussed in the book but it really was a good book. As for the disturbing aspects of the book, let's just say there are some f*cked up people in this world. Speaking of language, there is quite a bit of the f*ck word thrown around. Normally, I am not a fan of a lot of foul language but Kessler uses it very tastefully. She didn't just add the foul language for the sake of having it. It served it's purpose.

Let's just say, I am not going to wait to buy the second book that is following this book. Read this book!

I received this book for free on Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Audrey Hart left Edgeport years ago after being released from the local juvie, Stillwater, for killing her best friend, Maggie's, father when they were teenagers. She doesn't regret it for a second - Maggie's father was a daughter-raping piece of shit, and killing him - and the consequences that followed - have made Audrey who she is today: a successful child psychologist and contributor to a TV show a la Nancy Grace, Kids Who Kill.

When Audrey gets a call to return home to Edgeport, she's dreading it. The whispers, the glances - all eyes are always on her whenever she's in town. That is certainly true when Audrey walks into the local watering hole to pick up her drunk-ass father and Maggie spots her. They speak for the first time in years and it's not friendly. Audrey gets mean, Maggie gets nasty, gets pushed onto her ass and Audrey storms off. The next morning Maggie is dead on the beach and Audrey is a suspect.

So begins all the twisted, romantic, dramatic events that will lead to the disturbing and twisted discovery of just what exactly happened to Maggie. And when I say twisted, I mean twisted. There is so much history to unravel, so many secret and lies to uncover, that while there aren't necessarily many "thrilling" or "dangerous" moments, you are totally engaged the whole time.

There are just so many elements of this novel that I loved.

The small coastal town setting, the town history and complicated relationships, the tough, yet delicate honesty of the damaged heroine, the realness of the romance and the darkness to the crimes.

It was enthralling.

I found Audrey, though technically a murderer with a chip on her shoulder, to be really likable and easy to root for. She seemed inherently good and fiercely loyal and wonderfully self-aware. Then there was Jake - her longtime childhood friend and current complicated relationship. Their romance was adorable and believable, nothing cheesy or cliche or easy or unrealistic. I could get behind it, even though I'm not usually one for too much romance in my novel choices. But Jake was sexy and rugged, and had some nefarious dealings that were hinted at, just giving him enough mystery and edge to make his presence worthwhile.

Besides Jake, there is a whole cast of very robust secondary characters. Audrey's family, Jake's family, and just enough fleshed out townsfolk - drunks, abusive assholes, gossips, deviants and delinquents - to drive the main question "who killed Maggie?" without giving anything away until the author wanted to.

Though I have to admit, at some point I stopped caring so much about who killed Maggie and was more interested in why. Because Maggie was a straight-up bitch, and she had a habit of ruining lives and pissing people off, and getting innocents involved in her perpetual drama. It wasn't surprising someone eventually offed her, but the reasons why someone would were plentiful and kept me glued to the long style chapters.

I loved the crisp writing style, the pace, the realism and personal drama that jumped off the page. The dialogue was genuine, the characters seemed like people you could meet and the setting, a place you could be.

Just one downside to effect my rating: Maggie's personal mental health went off the rails. Most of her pathology was totally understandable, but when you start getting into dissociative personality disorder I kind of think "Oh, please."

Other than that, this is a series I will keep myself involved in. Loved Audrey, loved her dark past and all the potential for her future.

4.5 stars rounded up.