Title: Every Last Fear
Author: Alex Finlay
Publication: March 2, 2021
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 368

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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.”

So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison—putting his own life in peril—and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

REVIEW:

Book Club has rolled around as my current/just finished read.  This time I was the one who suggested the book since it was already on my bookshelf.  One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to read books that I currently own and are taking up space in my house and to purchase less books just because they look good.  Add them to your Amazon Wish-List and A: watch the price and B: keep them for a gift giving holiday as a suggestion.  So far I am doing pretty good.  All my reads this year aside from the one my significant other got me as a Valentines Gift have been books off my shelf that have been collecting dust and taking up space. Not that having a house full of books is a bad thing but when you have an extensive TBR list like I do (cough over 1000) they need to be whittled down.  So I was rather excited that we agreed on it for the month of March.

Matt Pine is devastated.  He has gotten word that his family, Dad, Mom, Sister and little Brother have been found dead in their rental house in Tulum, Mexico.  He and his family have already suffered so much loss with the arrest and imprisonment of his older brother Danny for the murder of Danny’s girlfriend Charlotte several years prior.  The FBI come to tell Matt about his family and to ask him to go to Mexico to sign the release for his family since Mexico won’t release the bodies for anyone other than that for some reason.  What erupts next for Matt is things about his family that he didn’t even think were possible. Was Matt’s family who were obsessed over finding new leads and clues to Danny’s case, anger the wrong people or was it just a bit of bad luck?  First off this book does a lot of back and forth, like present and the past.  So if those types of books are not your favorite or they are ones that get you all confused you have been warned. Second, this book gave me the biggest twist.  I was not expecting the twist.  I had several ideas in my head over what happened with Danny and the family and none of them were the bombshell that the author dropped in the LAST 3 CHAPTERS, yes you read that right.  I spent probably 60% of the book working ideas over and over in my head with what happened and not one of them landed to that conclusion.  Bravo to the author!!

This book gave you so much.  Things that you probably wouldn’t normally get from a mystery book.  Life is short.  You need to work things out with your family.  You need to answer those texts, you need to tell your family that you love them regardless of the deep end that they may have dropped off.  Tomorrow is never promised.  Matt learned those things the hard way.  He was so incredibly guilty over the message he received from his sister probably moments before her death, but he didn’t know that he just set it aside and said he would come back to it later. By then it was too late. His anger toward his brother ruined the chance of actually finding out who his brother is. He just face-value accepted that his brother killed that person without a second glance back.  Then he was tasked with telling him the whole family was dead. This book has it all sort of.  There is teenage angst, mystery, sit on the edge of your seat trying to figure out the plot line before you reach the end.  There is the discovery of yourself after something horrific happens with your family. You have a family that broke apart after a Netflix documentary came out about your brother and the murder of his girlfriend.  It literally split a family apart.  The author did an amazing job of weaving this story together that made you wanting more.  However, what I was also left wanting more of is more books with the FBI Agent Keller in them.  I thought her story arc was good but it was left in a way that has me wondering if there are more books by this author with her in them. I may have to go do some research.