Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Published: August 3, 2021
Source: Personal copy
Summary:
Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.
A college reunion turns dark and deadly in this chilling and propulsive suspense novel about six friends, one unsolved murder, and the dark secrets they’ve been hiding from each other—and themselves—for a decade.
Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent—not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year. Ten years ago, everything fell apart, including the dreams she worked for her whole life—and her relationship with the one person she wasn’t supposed to love.
But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.
Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.
My thoughts:
I have been on a roll with amazing debut novels lately. I ended up buying a copy of this one after seeing all the rave reviews for this and just knew it would be the perfect read to include during Spooky Season…and let me just say I could not have loved it more! And I even found a buddy read group to read with which just enhanced my reading experience even more. We had such a great discussion about the book.
This is one of the most addicting reads I’ve read in a while and the fact that it has an academic setting just made it even more compelling. I loved how it moved back and forth between the past and the present – just the way it dropped hints as to what had happened keeps you glued to the pages as you desperately try to work out who the murderer is. So many times I thought I had figured it out only to be thwarted as new twists were thrown in and I couldn’t have loved that more.
This is the type of book where you might not love all the characters, but you find that you become involved in the drama that is going on and need to see where it all ends up. I loved the relationships between the characters and seeing all the different dynamics play out with them. Not also does it add to the richness of the book, but it also at times plays on levels of trust. There were so many instances where I wasn’t sure who was trustworthy and who wasn’t.
I loved how each character had their own secrets that somehow all played into their friend’s death. It really kept you guessing how everything tied together and just who was ultimately responsible. The pace was pitch-perfect and it moved back and forth between the present and the past at just the right time, leaving us with mini-cliffhangers so that you just could not read fast enough.
I am so glad I got myself a copy of this and will absolutely be recommending this one to anyone who has not yet read it. I devoured it and know that I will be keeping an eye out for what comes next from this author – I can’t wait to see what she writes next!
