Author: Ashley Winstead
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date Published: March 25, 2025
I was blown away by the way that Winstead captured the capacity for people to band together for a common cause.
The Internet has given birth to the burgeoning “internet sleuth/true crime” business, and thousands of forums and podcasts have sprung up around this theme. While I wasn’t aware of the real Idaho murders this book is based on, it was hard to step out of the story enough to remember – the book is a work of fiction. But because the dialogue rings so true, and the story is so compelling, I had to keep reminding myself that it (probably) was not (it isn’t).
And yet we still feel compassion for Jane, who has recently lost her father and is clinging to her found family to help her through her grief. We feel it for the others in the forum, regardless of why they are there – “a place for hopeless, helpless people to raise their tiny swords against the sky”. And maybe we even skate past whether what they do is morally right or wrong – because of the potential to save lives. But real life is not always so black and white, and neither was this story. But it was quick-paced, intelligent, and heart wrenching.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for introducing me to Ashley Winstead through an advance reader’s copy. Now to check out her backlist!
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