Author: Nichole Severn

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Publication Date: May 6, 2024

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)

In The Girl Who Survived, FBI agent Leigh Brody is called in to look at a case in her hometown of Lebanon, New Hampshire, a place she had sworn to never visit again after the murder of her younger brother, the arrest of her father for the crime, and the suicide of her mother. When a murder too similar to that of her brother takes place, the BAU sends for Leigh to lend her expertise on the original crimes, which she has studied obsessively. She has limited time, and limited help, to figure out if the original killer is back in business, if her dad will finally be freed from what she is certain is his wrongful conviction, and if the real killer of her brother Troy will finally be held accountable.

I really enjoyed this book, until I didn’t. The writing is wonderful, the dialogue is detailed, the descriptions of people and places are descriptive enough that you can picture them in your head as you read. The twist near the end was surprising (in a good way), but the second twist at the very end almost ruined this book for me. Without giving anything away, the final surprise took everything about Leigh and her work to put her brother’s killer behind bars and turned it on its head, but in a way that made most of the build up in the book make no sense. This would have been a 4.5 or 5 star read for me if not for the conclusion. I think the author has a lot of talent, but I hope future books in the series don’t try to pull off such a sensationalized twist that significantly detracts from the story rather than adding to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.