Thank you Celadon Books, #partner for the advanced copy of Granite Harbor in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Celadon Books
Published: April 30, 2024
Summary:
A small town in coastal Maine is under threat from a serial killer in this crime novel from Peter Nichols – bestselling author of The Rocks
In scenic Granite Harbor on the coast of Maine, life has continued on–quiet and serene–for decades. That is until a local teenager’s body is found brutally murdered and hung in The Settlement, the town’s historic archaeological site. The way the body is displayed, hung from a handmade wooden structure, and the singular gruesome clue left inside the corpse, signal that this might not have been the killer’s first victim.
Alex Brangwen is adjusting to life as a single father and the town’s sole detective after a failed career as a novelist. This is his first murder case, and as both a parent and detective, Alex knows the people of Granite Harbor are looking to him to catch the killer and temper the fear that has descended over the town. But his skills as a detective are rudimentary, and he worries that they are more novelist’s intuition than investigator’s expertise.
Isabel, a single mother attempting to support her family while healing from her own demons, finds herself in the middle of the case when she begins working at The Settlement. Her son Ethan, and Alex’s daughter Sophie, were best friends with the victim. When another teenager is found murdered, the body left with the same gruesome detail, both parents are terrified that their child may be next.
As Alex and Isabel race to find the killer in their midst, the town’s secrets, past and present, begin bubbling to the surface, threatening to unravel the tight-knit community. At once a page-turning thriller and a captivating portrait of the social fabric of a small town, Granite Harbor evokes the place and atmosphere of a Jane Harper mystery with a terrifying villain reminiscent of Thomas Harris’s Buffalo Bill.
My thoughts:
This is a dark, grisly thriller with hints of horror and a supernatural element that comes into play. I wasn’t expecting it to be so gruesome, yet I found myself completely immersed in the story. While I’m not usually one for giving trigger warnings as I find them to border on spoilers, I will say there is a scene with animal cruelty here and I know that is a hard no for some people, so message me if you want details.
This book is incredibly atmospheric and that plays into the storyline so well. Set in a small-town, you really see and feel the connections between all the characters, and I loved how this naturally lends itself to the possibility that many could have been the killer. We meet so many of the townsfolk, really getting a feel for who they are, yet we get deep into the minds of only a few of the main characters, seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is these characters who are really well-developed, flushed out characters that drive the story.
I also loved how we see the evolution of the serial killer. This was particularly creepy, yet I couldn’t wait to get back to these sections, desperately trying to work out just who it was and what the connection to the killings would end up being. This really kept me turning those pages and despite the gruesome scenes, I was completely hooked. It’s unsettling and eerie but I couldn’t stop reading until I knew who and why and I didn’t not figure it out until it was revealed!
This book will not be for everyone, but if you like Lars Kepler or Silence of the Lambs, then I recommend picking this one up.
