EXCERPT: . . . his voice faded before he inhaled sharply, choking on his own spit. 'Is that a body?'
I nodded, curt. 'I saw it when I was rowing. It was just . . . there. Floating.'
He looked from me to the lake and back to me again. 'Are you okay? That must have been terrifying, especially after everything you've been through these last few months.'
I swallowed the last part of that sentence, burying it with all the other trauma, and focused on what was at stake now, in the moment. Suddenly, I whipped back to the lake. 'Ralph, if there's a body in our lake, then that means someone put it there.' Though it wasn't a question, he nodded, seeming to make an instantaneous judgement.
'Maybe, but we have to figure out the facts first.'
This couldn't have been an accidental drowning. Not when the body was wrapped up that. I thought of Cottage Grove's obsession with true crime. There were thriller book clubs and 'whodunnit' crime nights, where we 'solved' cold murder cases in under three hours. We called ourselves the Murderlings. At first, I'd been hesitant to join, but once I solved my first case, I was hooked. Now with a murder in our own backyard, they were going to have a field day with this.

ABOUT 'DON'T FORGET ME': When a body is presumed to be her missing husband’s, a woman must unravel the secrets of her own past to clear her name, find the truth, and put her conscience to rest once and for all.

All Ruby wanted was a fresh start. But after an early retirement and a relocation to a tight-knit community with her husband, Tom, and her daughter, Lily, her new beginning takes a turn.

First her troubled daughter and then her husband disappear without a trace. Unsure how to cope, grief-ridden Ruby turns to her neighborhood friends to find a way forward with new hobbies, including a murder club where they try to solve cold cases.

But just as unexpectedly as her family vanished, a body floats to the surface of the nearby lake.

And everyone is sure the body belongs to Tom…everyone except Ruby.

Determined to find out what happened to her family once and for all, Ruby digs into her neighbors’ lives, and her own, only to uncover secrets that raise more questions than they answer. And the biggest question of all—why doesn’t she recognize the body?

MY THOUGHTS: Rea Frey has done it again! This is the second (out of three) five-star book I have read by this author. Taut, twisty and surprising.

Told in alternating timelines of 'NOW' and "THEN' with snippets from a community online chat thread interspersed, Don't Forget Me is full of secrets slowly being exposed, along with a good helping of domestic abuse, childhood trauma, a murder or three and some missing persons. I recommend you go into this cold, suspend your belief and just enjoy the fast-paced and riveting ride. Oh yes, and trust no one!

Don't Forget Me has an ending I never saw coming. It is deliciously chilling, but not as chilling as the very last line - which sent a shiver up my spine.

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#DontForgetMe #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: I never thought I would become an author.
Growing up, I believed the false story that writing was a hobby; it wasn’t a job. But I’ve always d a challenge.
Known as The Book Doula, Rea also helps other writers birth their books into the world.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Don't Forget Me by Rea Frey for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...2024 2024-netgalley-challenge 5-star ...more88 s14 comments Linzie (suspenseisthrillingme)442 287

When Ruby’s husband, Tom, decided relocating to the suburbs to build their dream house was their next move, she didn’t exactly put up a fight. Cottage Grove seems the perfect community—both friendly and safe as well as idyllically picturesque. Besides, after years as a trauma nurse, Ruby’s recent retirement means she no longer needs to be in the city center, so a new start might be just what she, Tom, and their daughter, Lily, need.

Just months after arriving in their new home, however, Lily and then Tom disappear. Ruby knows that her daughter has plenty of problems, but to vanish seems rather dramatic. Suddenly alone in a big, empty house, she turns to the neighborhood true crime group as a distraction. Known as the Murderlings, they get together regularly and dig into cold cases. If nothing else, it’s something Ruby shows a definite knack for.

Until, that is, crime comes knocking on Ruby’s door. While out rowing one morning, a body floats to the surface of the Cottage Grove lake. Shocked and confused, she immediately calls the police. It doesn’t take long, however, for the attention to land directly on Ruby. It seems that all of her neighbors have identified the victim as Tom—a ness that Ruby can’t see. Is she kidding herself? Or is there something decidedly more sinister going on?

As the police set their sights firmly on Ruby as their prime suspect, she decides she must search out the truth for herself. But with every turn Ruby seems to uncover new secrets. Secrets that only raise more questions than answers. After all, her friends aren’t the only ones hiding things behind their opulent doors. Ruby has her own skeletons buried in her past. Several, in fact, that she’d do almost anything to keep shrouded from view. Is Tom really the dead man in the lake? And why does everyone think she is the killer?

Oh. My. God. Don’t Forget Me was one truly brilliant mind f*** of a book. Starting off as one thing and slowly morphing first in one direction and then another, the final reveal quite literally took my breath away few others have. Action-packed yet also filled with plenty of gritty topicswell-written premise and ingeniously linked subplots. Ultimately, despite a few tiny flaws, my eyes were riveted to the pages as my thumb swiped left at what was record speed.

The plot on this one was, for the most part, an absolute hole in one. Finely layered as the past intertwined with the present, the storyline had plenty of twists and turns—none of which I was able to see through. Add in the heaps of red herrings and the possible unreliable narrator and my mind was well and truly blown. Told in dual timelines of then and now, the shifting plot kept me firmly in suspense until the timely—and shocking—reveal.

As for those characters, Ruby was a dynamite hit. Potentially an unreliable narrator since she even doubted herself, she was hard to pin down. At the same time, I could absolutely relate to some of her actions. Others, well, they went a little beyond what I could see myself doing. As for the rest of the cast of characters, most were only vaguely described. I would’ve loved to learn more about Daisy and the rest of the Murderlings as how often do you find a group of true crime fanatics within a murder mystery plot?

The biggest bee in my bonnet, however, was the very over-the-top turn that the story took as the bodies began to pile up. Requiring quite the suspension of disbelief, the first and second halves of the book were hard to tally together. After all, what was a certain five star beginning quickly went off the rails. In the end, though, I still was utterly spellbound as I raced through the pages, so, ultimately, I guess my hang up was relatively minor.

All said and done, this domestic thriller had me gasping out loud—especially when I reached that thrilling last page. Ending with quite the bang, I’m praying this is just book one of a series. After all, there are just so many delicious directions in which this one could go. Stuffed to the brim with long held secrets, well-perfected lies, and all-consuming guilt, this is not one to be missed. How I overlooked Rea Frey until now is the ultimate question. All I know is, I’m overjoyed at the prospect of digging into her backlist ASAP. Rating of 4 stars.

Thank you to Rea Frey, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley, and Thriller Book Lovers Promotions for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

PUB DATE: March 1, 2024

Trigger warning: domestic abuse, mental health problems, drug addiction, mention of: infidelity, hit-and-run car accident, suicideadvanced-reader-copy domestic-thriller thriller-book-lovers-the-pulse79 s6 comments Bharath728 545

A story with good pace, but a convoluted plot which gets worse in terms of plausibility and logic with each added twist.

This is a story told in current and past timelines. In the present timeline, Ruby is an ex-trauma nurse who is out rowing early and finds a body in the lake. Detective Katherine Ellis oversees the investigation and shortly after tells Ruby that the neighbours have all identified the body as being her husband, Tom. As per Ruby, Tom had left her a few weeks prior. Her daughter Lily is also missing but Ruby tells Ellis that she is studying at MIT. There is a local online forum which discusses Ruby being disturbed after Tom and Lily left. More murders follow. As the investigation proceeds it turns out that Ruby has been hiding secrets, which increasingly make her the prime suspect. The past timeline covers the family relationship, and Ruby’s past.

There are a lot of revelations as the story progresses. This makes the story lose its coherence and plausibility. At the end it simply falls apart. There are also simple aspects which make no sense, nor are they explained - Ruby’s failure to recognize Tom’s body, and many lies told which are easily verifiable and serve no purpose. The online forum chats were distracting and the role in the resolution of the plot felt silly.

If you want an easy read with lots of twist and revelations, unmindful of soundness of plot, this might work for you.

Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer publications and the author for a free electronic review copy. 66 s10 comments Kaceey1,249 3,954

New Beginnings! That’s what Ruby needs. Well actually, that’s what her husband Tom wants. So Ruby, Tom and daughter Lily move to a suburban neighborhood where everyone knows your business.

To say things didn’t exactly go as planned would be a vast understatement.
First…her daughter is missing.
Next…Tom vanishes.
Soon followed by…Ruby discovering a body in the community lake.

The neighborhood forum is on fire with standard–issue gossip and questions:
Who was killed and dumped in the lake?
Who’s responsible?
And of course, are we the residents in the community safe?

I enjoyed the feed from the neighborhood app. Reminded me a bit of my own.
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