“A higher level than the standard thriller. Readers will enjoy this book for the suspense…[and] love it for the skill and mastery Moretti has for her craft.” –New York Journal of Books “Morbid…Moretti pulls some tricky tricks.” –The New York Times New York Times bestselling author Kate Moretti’s next “exceptional…emotionally astute, [and] deliciously sinister” (Kirkus Reviews, starred … “exceptional…emotionally astute, [and] deliciously sinister” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) thriller follows the daughter of a convicted serial killer who finds herself at the center of a murder investigation.
Fifteen years ago, Lilith Wade was arrested for the brutal murder of six women. After a death row conviction, media frenzy, and the release of an unauthorized biography, her thirty-year-old daughter Edie Beckett is just trying to survive out of the spotlight. She’s a recovering alcoholic with a dead-end city job and an unhealthy codependent relationship with her brother.
Edie also has a disturbing secret: a growing obsession with the families of Lilith’s victims. She’s desperate to see how they’ve managed–or failed–to move on. While her escalating fixation is a problem, she’s careful to keep her distance. That is, until she crosses a line and a man is found murdered.
Edie quickly becomes the prime suspect–and while she can’t remember everything that happened the night of the murder, she’d surely remember killing someone. With the detective who arrested her mother hot on her trail, Edie goes into hiding. She’s must get to the truth of what happened that night before the police–or the real killer–find her.
Unless, of course, she has more in common with her mother than she’s willing to admit…
Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware, In Her Bones features Moretti’s “riveting and insightful” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) prose and “chillingly satisfying” (Publishers Weekly) twists, and will leave you questioning the nature of guilt, obsession, and the toxicity of familial ties.
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In Her Bones by author Kate Moretti is a suspenseful psychological thriller. Edie Beckett has secrets, but her secrets are not harmful. Edie has lived since childhood with the overshadowing horror of her mother, Lilith being arrested and imprisoned for killing six women. The way Edie dealt with the trauma of the media circus surrounding her family and trying to live her life, she journaled every day. She kept notebooks of her thoughts and the conversations she had during the day. It was a way of putting life into perspective. Edie and her brother Dylan are close and both have had problems since their mothers trial. She has made some mistakes, is a recovering alcoholic, and is now working in the courthouse basement as a clerk. She has become obsessed with the families of the women her mother killed. She runs confidential checks on them and keeps a notebook on each person. Edie wants to know how far reaching the sorrow, grief, and loss of the women shaped the lives of the children who grew up knowing their mother had been murdered. She stalks their media pages and steals identities online, just for her obsessive curiosity.
Edie crosses a line between an unreasonable curiosity and feeling a compulsion to interact with the husband of one of the victims, Peter Lipsky. She goes home with him and spends the night. By evening the next day, she is wanted for questioning into the murder of Peter Lipsky! Edie goes on the run to find answers of who killed Peter and why. She doesn’t’ trust the police and assumes that because her mother was found guilty of murder, then she will be considered a murderer, too.
There are twists and turns in the plot of this book. I didn’t like the character of Edie. I could not feel compassion for her due to her lies and obsession with cyber-stalking these people. The ending was a bit contrived, but by that time I just wanted to be through with Edie.
Publication Date September 4, 2018
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
I really enjoyed “The Vanishing Year” by this author and was anxious to read her newest book, I was a bit disappointed.
30 year old Edie Beckett is trying to get her life together. Fifteen years previously her mother, Lilith, was arrested for the deaths of six women. She was obviously very traumatized by this event and the media frenzy. Now there is an unauthorized biography of her mother and she is just trying to stay out of the limelight. She is a recovering alcoholic and has an unhealthy co-dependence on her brother. She has a city job that is unfulfilling but allows her to continue with her obsession, which is trying to discover how the families of her mother’s victims have survived and continued on with their lives. She uses the computer and resources at her job to follow these family members.
For the most part she stays away from them physically until she meets someone. Then there is a murder and Edie is the prime suspect, she can’t remember much of the night in question. The police officer who arrested her mother is hot on her trail and the book revolves a lot around what happens after this.
This book had so much promise but I have to be honest in saying that I didn’t really feel that “tense, taut” feeling that a psychological thriller should have. I felt that it slowed down in the middle and I felt myself skimming pages to get to the ending. I also had already figured out the plot by then and so for me the ending was a little predictable. I would also have liked some of the other characters, her brother, the police officer, more well defined and “fleshed out”.
There are many 5 star reviews for this book so it might just be that I expect a lot out of a book. I will still watch for further books by this talented author. A three star from me means that it is a good book, just not great for me.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
When Edie, the daughter of a serial killer, becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation, she abandons her carefully constructed life and becomes a fugitive. Edie is constantly looking for cracks in her veneer which might allow the legacy of her mother to leak through, so her internal torment amplifies the very real dangers surrounding her. Edie is a fascinating heroine and as her history and that of her mother unfolded, I flipped the pages faster and faster, slowing only for the hairpin plot twists and bulls-eye insights. Driven by Moretti’s signature pulsating prose, IN HER BONES is emotionally nuanced and wickedly clever. I dare you to guess the ending.
Suspense at its best: A chilling voice, an unlikely heroine, a haunting story. IN HER BONES is Kate Moretti at the top of her game. Don’t miss this one!