It's Not Her

A summer vacation at a lake front resort turns deadly. And everyone is a suspect.

This book starts with a blood curdling scream from a child and the discovery of a horrific scene. Two dead, one missing, all in the first chapter. From there this book takes off, slowly revealing the events of the vacation. Told in alternating voices: the Aunt, Courtney, who vows to do everything to find her niece and the killer, and Reese, the teenage niece. From both we get the back story of two families on the brink of imploding, and see what transpired before the murder, moving thru to the shocking conclusion. The suspense slowly builds which made me question someone different in each chapter. Throw in a cold case too. Atmospheric, sketchy characters, show more attention to details and a story that I couldn’t put down. I’m taking the lake vacation off my summer list!

Thanks to Mary Kubica, HTP books, HTP Hive, Park Row Books for this ARC. This is my honest opinion. show less

It's Not Her by Mary Kubica is a very highly recommended murder mystery/thriller. Don't miss this un-put-downable twisty thriller.

Courtney and Elliot Gray with their daughter Cass, 10, are staying in a lakeside cabin at a Wisconsin resort. Staying in a cabin up the hill are her brother Nolan and his wife and her best friend Emily, along with their children Reese, 17, Wyatt, 14, and Mae, 10. After Cass and Mae have a fun sleepover in the Gray's cabin, Mae heads up the hill the next morning. Courtney and Cass hear her scream and she runs back to Courtney. Courtney investigates and finds both Emily and Nolan murdered. The police are contacted and find the bodies along with Wyatt sleeping upstairs in the cabin. Reese is missing. This begins show more the investigation into who murdered Emily and Nolan and the search for Reese.

This fast-paced, well-written murder mystery will grab your attention immediately with Mae's scream and hold it throughout right to the twisty ending. The narrative is told in chapters from the point-of view of Courtney and Reese. Reese's viewpoint starts in the past, from the beginning of the vacation leading up to the murder and her disappearance, while Courtney's is present day, from the murder and through the investigation.

Reese is a teenage girl who does not want to go on a vacation with her family. She is a fully realized character and we quickly learn her strengths and weaknesses. Reese also provides plenty of insight into her family. We know, through her, that Emily and Nolan are constantly fighting. We know Wyatt has gambling/betting problems. Reese's narrative provides plenty of character background and clues. Courtney is also a well-developed character and we can see her struggling and searching for clues concerning both the murders and Reese's disappearance.

Kubica does an exceptional job giving readers several suspects and casting doubt over almost everyone. The exceptional writing, isolated setting, unpredictability, twists, locked-room setting, overwhelming sense of foreboding, along with the mystery made this an engrossing thriller you will want to read. Thanks to Park Row Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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This is both mystery and domestic drama.

Courtney Gray’s family vacation at a Wisconsin lake resort turns into a nightmare when she finds her brother and sister-in-law brutally murdered in their cottage. While her nephew, Wyatt, is found upstairs in his room unharmed, her 17-year-old niece, Reese, has disappeared.

The story alternates between Courtney’s frantic search in present time and Reese’s perspective in the days leading up to brutal crime.

Fully of really icky people, terrible behavior, and a definite need to suspend disbelief at times, the book mostly suffered from a bloated teenage narrative with its typical angst, inappropriate use of social media, drama, and a super sketchy romance. I didn’t like the flip between the show more adult and teen points of view and never have been a fan of a mystery where an amateur protagonist is off trying to solve the case. Courtney spends a lot of time doing things she shouldn’t and the author throws up a lot of red herrings on the way to what I’d call a ridiculous ending. Come on. Sometimes there is just that twist too far.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC provided by the publisher. The narrators, especially the females, were just too melodramatic and theatrically overwrought. I almost stopped listening because it got on my nerves, but stayed on til the end. show less

This is a mystery-thriller that jumps right in. The writing is clear and bingeable, not weighed down by fluff, mostly just moving the plot forward or building backstory. It’s gripping the whole way, having me constantly second-guessing and side-eyeing every character. There are definitely some icky moments where I hoped what I was thinking wasn’t what happened. It doesn’t feel groundbreaking for the genre, but it managed to pull off a few surprises. The characters felt real enough, sometimes relatable, sometimes infuriating. There were a couple of decisions I absolutely did not agree with, but that’s also what keeps things moving. The relationships worked for me. If this is your genre, it’s an easy one to recommend!

Thanks to show more NetGalley and Park Row for access to this book. show less

A family vacation goes horribly wrong when Courtney finds her young niece Mae covered in blood and finds her brother Nolan and sister in law Emily murdered.

Her nephew Wyatt is unharmed and her teenage niece Reese is missing. At various points in the story Courtney suspects her husband Elliot and Reese of the murders. Elliot because he’s exhibiting odd behavior and Reese because she had a horrible fight with her mother the night before. Another suspect is a worker at the lodge who befriends Reese.

The ending where the killer was revealed was jaw dropping and very well done.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable thriller; Mary Kubica kept me guessing to the end. I loved the alternating points of view and how the timelines are offset then intersect. Mary Kubica wrote these characters so well that I truly disliked some of them and I didn't necessarily want them to have a happy ending.

Jennifer Jill Araya, Brittany Pressley, and Gary Tiedemann did a great job bringing this story to life.

Two families go on vacation together to neighboring rustic cottages. When Courtney Gray's little niece runs back from her family's cottage screaming, Courtney runs over and finds her brother and sister-in-law dead and her teenage niece, Reese, is nowhere to be found, while her nephew, Wyatt, lies asleep upstairs, unharmed. There's a lot to unpack here! It's non-stop action and who actually did what! Read it straight through and enjoyed every minute!