I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Graveyard Girls by Rita Herron Also by this author: The Silent Dolls, Wildflower Graves, The Burning Girls, Frozen Souls
Series: Detective Ellie Reeves #11
Also in this series: The Silent Dolls, Wildflower Graves, The Burning Girls, Frozen Souls
Published by Bookouture on 14th August 2024
Genres: Crime, Suspense, Thriller
Format: eARC
Source: from Netgalley
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A shrill scream pierced the night air. She caught the fluttering bedroom curtain and held it aside. Her little sister stared over her shoulder, trembling. A figure they knew, in a dark coat and ski hat, emerged from the bushes and stared at the window. If they tried to stop him, they’d end up in the ground…
When the skeletal remains of a teenage girl are discovered buried in a deserted graveyard it’s a chilling case for Detective Ellie Reeves. Her heart catches with emotion as she examines the grave for clues and uncovers a haunting detail. One red shoe lies in the dirt, just like the one sixteen-year-old Ruth Higgins was wearing when she disappeared years earlier. Everyone in the town mourned beautiful golden girl Ruth, but her suspected killer, gravedigger Earl Bramble, escaped from police custody and hasn’t been seen since.
Ellie knows she must work fast, and then a call comes in that turns the blood in her veins to ice. Another teenage girl, a recent runaway, has been found buried with one red shoe. The evidence suggests that Earl must be back. But when Ellie goes to the old clapboard house where Earl’s daughters still live, they claim to know nothing about their father…
Ellie needs her team on side to help her solve this shocking case. But just as she begins to make headway, she discovers a connection from the past between one of her most trusted colleagues and the gravedigger’s daughters that throws everything she thought into disarray. With parents terrified, girls in danger and a cold-hearted killer stealing innocent lives, can Ellie find him, and make him pay, before it is too late?
A completely pulse-pounding crime thriller for fans of Lisa Regan, Rachel Caine and Melinda Leigh that will have you racing through the pages all night long. Prepare to start sleeping with the lights on after tearing through The Graveyard Girls.
Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. This is the 11th book in the Detective Ellie Reeves series but could easily be read as a standalone.
Set a few months after book 10, Ellie has been enjoying a period of quiet time. Ellie has been non stop on big case after big case but has finally had a period where she has caught a break. This next case though is quite a tough one. There are lots of seemingly unconnected threads that start to weave together as the story progresses. It’s one of those cases that make no sense at the beginning but Ellie is determined and will bring justice to the killer.
I really love Rita’s writing style. Each chapter is very short so it makes it extremely easy to read just one more chapter, and then another and another! I find it is very easy to speed through half the book without realising it.
This was a gripping and thrilling story that I struggled to put down.
About Rita Herron
USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Rita Herron fell in love with books at the ripe age of eight when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. But she didn’t think real people grew up to be writers, so she became a teacher instead. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job.
With over ninety books to her credit, she’s penned romantic suspense, romantic comedy, and YA novels, but she especially likes writing dark romantic suspense and crime fiction set in small southern towns.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2025 Netgalley Challenge
- 2025 Reading Challenge
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