Trace of Evil

This book surpassed all of my expectations and I honestly couldn’t put it down. The multiple story lines, witch craft, and charms town were so captivating. The only thing missing was what happened between Luke and Natalie. I seriously hope this is the first book of a series because this writer is excellent and I have to know what happens next.

I adore when a novel takes me by surprise! Trace of Evil is a fantastic mystery/thriller (and then some)! The premise is very original which is what initially hooked me, but the well thought out storyline is what kept me riveted until the last page! Alice Blanchard did a great job with keeping me on the edge of my seat—love that! My favorite part of this novel is what awesomely bad-@ss character Natalie Lockhart is! Trace of Evil is a total and complete 5 star read! I am keeping my fingers crossed that Alice Blanchard turns this into a series centering around Natalie Lockhart!

How loss can change a family forever...Blanchard tells several stories of death and loss, expertly woven together. Detective Natalie’s Lockhart’s life is defined by her sister Willow’s death, as is her sister Grace.

This loss acts as the backdrop for Detective Lockhart's parallel investigations into the “Missing Nine” cold case and the shocking murder of Daisy Buckner. Wiccan practices, family secrets and a small community’s history play a central role in these plot lines that make it
Impossible to put this book down!

With thanks to the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

This book is gripping from start to finish. There are several different mysteries that swirl around the town of Burning Lake, from the most recent murder to a string of serial murders that are handed down to the most rookie cop on the city's police force. The story is intricate and complicated but Ms. Blanchard 100 percent pulls it off. The characters are well written (particularly Natalie) and the setting is well described. There is a bit of gruesomeness in the story, but it's not over the top. I found this book hard to put down. It's longer than many others of this type and while I felt the length, nothing was particularly wasted. I highly recommend you put this on your waiting list if crime/psychological thrillers are your thing, like they are mine!

This was an amazing book! I was quickly drawn into the story and couldn't wait to find out what happened next.

I was shocked by the ending that I NEVER saw coming!

This is a must read for the thriller/suspense fan!

I thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. This author was new to me and I was not let down. It was a great story and very well written. The characters were easy to relate to and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend this to everyone!!

Trace of Evil is a fantastic suspense. I was pulled immediately into the plot. The plot and the characters are well crafted. Thriller fans will love this book. Thanks to the publisher for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

Let me start off this review by stating that I REALLY hope this turns into a series. Natalie Lockhart is a rookie detective in a quaint town in upstate New York. The town dates back to the days of the Witch Hunts, and its dark past is both loved and hated by the locals. Most of the high schoolers dabble in wicca and other forms of witchcraft.

We meet Natalie as she is going to a "Death-aversary." Natalie's sister was murdered when she was a beautiful, bright high school student, and Natalie and her older sister observe her death each year. However, on the night of the Death-aversary, a beloved school teacher is found murdered on her kitchen floor. Natalie feels that this is not a coincidence -- in fact, she begins to see a pattern between a handful of cold cases.

Trace of Evil was unlike anything I ever read. I loved the mix of the murder investigation, cold cases, and the underlying witchcraft theme. It was the perfect read to kick off the fall season!

Trace of Evil unfolds in a sleepy tourist town near the Adirondack Mountains, in upstate New York. The tourist flock to see where 3 local witches were supposedly killed in the days of the witch hunts and Salem witch trials. Because of the ties to witches there has always been an interest in the occult and black magic and satanism and the town has cashed in on this to promote tourism. But on the whole it is a sweet town, where everyone knows his neighbors, and where everyone knows the secrets that this little town harbors. There is still teenage dabbling with the occult just like when Detective Natalie Lockhart was in school, there are troubled marriages just waiting for the trouble to bubble to the surface, and there is murder… too much murder… some solved, some unsolved, some cold cases and some new. As a new hire Natalie is given the cold case of the missing nine and is determined to help find out what happened to these girls over the years. Then comes a new murder – one very close to home - and Natalie has to separate her professional instincts from the personal feelings she has for the suspects. There is a lot more than a trace of evil hiding in this tiny town as you will discover when the shocking ending is revealed.

TRACE OF EVIL was a completely engrossing and intense procedural. Natalie is a rookie detective in her hometown, as her police officer father had raised her to be. Natalie has the wobbly desk that the more senior people don't want, and now she is inadvertently assigned to a major case. When she was driving another officer home after drinks at the bar, they find his pregnant wife murdered. Natalie chases down the leads and evidence.

At the same time, she was also given some cold cases, and something about them is giving her new avenues. When someone she knows disappears, they become even more important. Working both lines of investigation at the same time, this book is anything but boring.

I became quickly invested in these characters, within the first chapter, and I loved following these cases. There was never a dull moment, and I had plenty of guesses- but none close to the actual perpetrators. This is certainly a book that keeps the reader guessing with all kinds of twists and turns. When you get to the end, the clues start adding up, begging for another reread with the ending in sight (so you can catch all things you missed earlier).

The new angle to this series is in the town and Wicca culture. Not as famous as Salem, this town also hung some witches. The religion persists really strongly among young people, and it plays into the things they find and the way the cases go. I would definitely love to read more from Natalie and in this town setting.

There is also a light love interest for Natalie, and I assume this will be developed more in the future. While Natalie herself is fleshed out well and we get a great feel for her character, the primary focus of the book is on the cases, and I really enjoyed it.

Captivating and completely engrossing, TRACE OF EVIL is a delicious page turner that will keep you guessing all the way to the surprising end. Highly recommend for anyone who loves mysteries and/or procedurals.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

#Trace of Evil
#NetGalley

Burning Lake, New York, a quaint town near the Adirondack Mountains is best known for its evil past. Tourists flock there every year to see the site where witch hunts were held in the town's troubled past. Natalie Lockhart finds herself returning to her ill fated hometown after trying to escape the dark memories she has of her sister's unsolved murder there. As a rookie cop, she is assigned to a massive cold case involving nine missing transients who mysteriously disappeared years ago. But to Natalie, her sister, Grace's death remains the greatest mystery. To throw another twist into Natalie's investigation, a popular teacher has been found murdered and quickly grabs center stage.

Trace of Evil is a spooky police procedural, that is filled with witchcraft and spells dating back to the town's dark past of hanging witches. The plot involves murder, lies, drugs, and madness. All is not as it seems with the characters that are vividly defined in the story. An evil cloud invades the very atmosphere of Burning Lake, and as the plot progresses, Natalie finds herself dangerously in the center of this evil. I found Natalie to be a compelling strong character with great determination, courage, and the desire to find the person responsible for her sister's murder. Daisy, the murdered teacher, was also a sympathetic and seemingly good person. But as the plot thickens, the reader finds it more difficult to tell the good guys from the bad ones. I found that the pervasive atmosphere of evil continued throughout the book, leading up to the explosive conclusion. With so many twists and turns, red herrings, and misdirection, I think most readers will be shocked at the ending!

Sending a big thank you to the author, Alice Blanchard, and to the publishers, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for my advanced copy of Trace of Evil. The publication date is set for December 3. 2019, and I hope this date will go on your calendar. I highly recommend this book with a five star rating!! Those who love good spooky thrillers will want this book on their To Be Read List!!

TRACE OF EVIL has a cold case murder mystery that may incorporate the present. It’s a twisty tale with many subplots that weave a mesmerizing tale. Highly recommended.

As a new detective returns to her hometown to follow in her father's footsteps, the tension and unique storyline in Trace of Evil keeps readers enthralled by the inevitable crimes, new and old, that set the tone for this outstanding book. Alice Blanchard gives us the new-to-the-job but not to town detective, setting her right into the middle of her hometown's history of unsolved violent crimes. With her own sister's unsolved death giving her extra determination to find the killer who has haunted her hometown for so long, the twists and turns thrown in this story will keep you guessing. This is truly one of the best new series I've read for awhile.

I really enjoyed this book. It was not what I had expected. There were two mysteries going on in this book. Both evil, full of family secrets, witches, covens, magic and teenage angst. Page turner.
I would give this a 4 out of 5.

I spent the first 75-80% or so of this book thinking it was a solid start to a new police procedural series. It's got a lot of great, traditional mystery elements to it and relies on good detective work throughout to reveal breaks in the case versus big twists. However, the last quarter or so of the book absolutely blew me away. Should I have seen all of these things coming? Maybe, but I think the author did a great job pulling off a surprising and genuinely moving ending without resorting to measures that made it feel like a trick. I really love Natalie Lockhart as a character, and since these seems to be the first in a series, I am interested to see how she reacts and recovers from the events in this book. This is one not to miss!

Not only did this book have one solid mystery, it had three, and Blanchard did a GREAT job of maintaining and tying them all together in different ways. I was wholly invested in finding out who killed Daisy, what happened to the Missing 9, and who it was that was haunting Natalie's own traumatic past. Blanchard laid the clues out and had just enough red herrings that I was caught completely off guard by the solutions. But along with the great mystery, we get a really interesting and complex protagonist in Natalie, as her past trauma's involving her own attack at the murder of her older sister have shaped her in ways that give her a bit of angsty darkness that gives her edge without being too filled with bleakness. And the icing on the cake is that Blanchard brings in some teenage witchcraft elements that are reminiscent of THE CRAFT, one of my favorite witch movies of all time. I really, really loved this book because it felt hand tailored to me and my interests.

I cannot wait to see what Alice Blanchard does with Natalie Lockhart. After all, this is the first in a series, and I just know it's one I'm going to be obsessed with.

5 out of 5 stars


I would first like to thank NetGalley and St. Martins press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really have had a great year of reading and "Trace of Evil" has kept the streak going. Natalie Lockhart is a cop in the sleepy town of Burning Lake in upstate New York. Burning Lake is a tourist town that tends to make most of it's money from the history of killing witches. There are magic shops everywhere and graveyard tours for those interested, Heck, the police cars even used to have a witch riding a broom painted on them. The town is always full of teenagers in covens and it also tends to attract satanists as well. While people often want to leave their small towns behind Natalie has no desire to ever leave. She loves the town and the people that live there. She even became a cop so she could follow in her Father's footsteps to protect the people of the town.

We first meet Natalie, her sister Grace and her niece Ellie as they gathered to pay their respects to Willow, their older sister who was murdered as a teen by her boyfriend. That night as Natalie give a ride home to one of her coworkers they find his newly pregnant wife Daisy dead on the kitchen floor. Even though Natalie is covering a cold case of "The Missing Nine" (nine people who have vanished over the years) she is assigned the case of Daisy's murder along with a childhood friend/boss. As they begin to put the clues together they find that they did not know their friends as well as they thought because everyone in Burning Lake has a secret.

This is very well written with characters. Natalie is a very strong, smart lead and the people in Burning Lake are all interesting. I really hope this becomes a series because I would love to find out what happens to Natalie and the town after the events of this novel.

If you love creepy mysteries I think you would really enjoy this book.

This one blew my mind because it’s mystery wrapped in more mystery!

Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an ARC of this one in exchange for an honest review.

Trace of Evil follows Natalie Lockhart, a rookie detective in a small town that is haunted by a dark past of witchcraft. Not only has she had to live with the scars left by her sisters murder 20 years ago, but now a beloved school teacher has been found murdered! While Natalie starts to try to solve the mystery of the teacher death, she stumbles upon something much more sinister.

This book was a great thriller because it contains so many elements! We learn a great deal about Natalie and how the death of her sister affected her. We have an addicting; quick paced murder of the school teacher and we have a surprisingly sinister other mystery added in! There is so much happening it’s impossible to put down!

While usually I’m not a fan of the mystic stuff in my books, here it just added even more drama to the story! It adds to the setting by having so many of the towns landmarks part of a dark magic past.

I love a good mystery that blows my mind and this one did a fantastic job at that! This is the start of a series of books following Natalie. She’s a great character so expect me to be keeping up with this series to get more of Alice Blanchard’s writing!

This one comes out December 3rd 2019

Wow what an ending this book was! This book was creepy but intriguing. I couldn't wait to find out who the killer was! Never guessed! I can't wait to read the rest of the series!!

Does Burning Lake have more secrets than other small towns- especially small towns that are dependent to a certain degree on tourist dollars? Well, Natalie Lockhart is about to discover how many there are. She's been assigned a cold case involving the disappearance of nine people over the years, her own sister's murder has never been solved, and now Daisy, who was her sister's friend, has been murdered. Oh, and there's a witchcraft thing since one (the main) reason tourists come is that it is where three witches were killed during that hysteria. The teens in town muddle around with the occult, the adults have their own issues, and Natalie's just trying to figure it all out. It's a well done mystery with an intriguing heroine in Natalie. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Try this one for novel set in a town with a lingering sense of unease.

‘Death was like a secret. You could bury it deep underground, but it wouldn’t stay buried for long. Eventually, our secrets—like old bones—had a way of knuckling out of the earth and into the sunlight.’

TRACE OF EVIL is the first book that I have read by Alice Blanchard, and I’m excited to delve into more of novels. I like Blanchard’s writing style; there’s a scene towards the end with imagery that, to me, felt creepy as hell – Loved it!

Thank you, NetGalley and Minotaur Books, for letting borrow an advanced copy (eBook) of TRACE OF EVIL in exchange for an honest review.

Available for pre-order now, release date: December 3, 2019

Wow...it's hard to categorize this book! Natalie is a rookie detective in the police department of Burning Lake NY, a small town in the Adirondacks. She's tasked with working on a series of cold cases, 8 transients have been killed in the area going back many years. Then a beloved teacher, who is her sister's best friend, is murdered and she's the lead in the new case. Complicating matters is the fact that the murdered woman's husband is also a member of the Burning Lake PD. She also is having to deal with a group of teenage witches...The town of Burning Lake is an important character in this book. It's history is full of superstition and witches. Black magic, spells and hexes. And hovering in the background is the murder of Natalie's oldest sister Willow years ago. There's alot going on but the author does a great job bringing everything together in the end and giving us not one but two shocking conclusions. If you enjoy good crime fiction, well developed characters, a strong sense of place and an ending that will blow you away this is the book for you.
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book. I really liked this book! The main character, Natalie Lockhart, not only solved a current murder-she kept going and she solved several murders that had occurred over the years. Unfortunately, one of the murders was her older sister Willow. The author tied all of the crimes together and gave the reader a very believable ending. This book also got better as I got into the book-I found myself reading faster just to find out what had happened and how everything was connected. I can't wait until the next installment in this series! Highly recommend!