Harrowing loss, psychological trauma, and a deadly mystery test the human will to survive in this electrifying novel from award-winning author Brian Freeman.Lisa Power is a tortured ghost of her former self. The author of a bestselling thriller called Thief River Falls, named after her rural Minnesota hometown, Lisa is secluded in her remote house as she struggles with the loss of her entire … loss of her entire family: a series of tragedies she calls the “Dark Star.”
Then a nameless runaway boy shows up at her door with a terrifying story: he’s just escaped death after witnessing a brutal murder—a crime the police want to cover up. Obsessed with the boy’s safety, Lisa resolves to expose this crime, but powerful men in Thief River Falls are desperate to get the boy back, and now they want her too.
Lisa and her young visitor have nowhere to go as the trap closes around them. Still under the strange, unforgiving threat of the Dark Star, Lisa must find a way to save them both, or they’ll become the victims of another shocking tragedy she can’t foresee.
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This book drew me in and held me delightfully-captive from beginning to end. The palpable tension held me in thrall. The plot kept me guessing. The characters were realistic, likable and identifiable. And, every setting was described in such a way as to make me feel like I was an actual bystander in that scene. Once I started reading this story, I knew this was a book I wasn’t going to be able to put down!
#ThiefRiverFalls #NetGalley
The twist in THIEF RIVER FALLS by Brian Freeman took me completely by surprise. The storyline is phenomenal before that turn, becoming exquisite after—not easy to pull off, but Freeman does it with grace. I highly recommend this book.
I first discovered Brian Freeman through his Frost Easton series and quickly became a fan of his thrillers. He’s one of the writers who I know to rely on for a riveting, unputdownable story, so as soon as I saw his newest creation, I not only picked it up at once but read it literally in one sitting. Yes, it was that good.
This time, the central character is female and one that I connected with instantly. More than anything I love level-headed protagonists, who don’t lose their presence of the mind even in the most extreme situations and don’t make it even worse for themselves through rushed decisions, and Lisa Power was just that kind of a protagonist. When she has just discovered an injured boy on her property, she could have taken the easy way out and called the police despite the boy’s protests (I mean, how many adults in a similar situation would have believed a child claiming that the police are the ones who would harm him?); yet, Lisa decides to listen to the boy and investigate his claims about the police being involved in something sinister. What starts off as an innocent inquiry, soon turns into a veritable cat and mouse game with Lisa and little Purdue (as she nicknamed him) in its center. From that point on, I couldn’t turn pages fast enough – the deeper Lisa was digging, the more she realized that the boy wasn’t imagining things and some tragedy indeed occurred which he had the misfortune to witness. The creepiest part about this entire mystery was the fact that what happened to the boy basically imitated what Lisa described in her latest bestseller – seriously, I couldn’t imagine suspense getting better than that!
The small town full of secrets; the ghosts of the past that come alive to haunt Lisa; the murderer who could be someone familiar; a totally unexpected ending that you’ll never see coming – all this made “Thief River Falls” a truly fascinating read! Dark and haunting, this psychological thriller/suspense is a perfect choice for all fans of the genre. Highly recommended!
This is a story like no other I have read–it does not have a very happy ending. It is the story of a tortured woman who has lost her entire family. She is an author who wrote a book–but life is starting to imitate art–or is it? I will not say another word–except to read this one!!
Any reader who has progressed beyond Dick and Jane knows narrators are unreliable. Given the tragedies that Lisa Power has survived, expecting a high degree of unreliability is a given. Yet the author writes with such skill and power that it is very easy to get sucked into believing every thing that happens–or appears to happen–in this fast-paced and complex story. I enjoyed the book immensely, always alert to clues that supported my given. A few I picked up early on … namely the arrival of Perdue. I also suspended credulity in the plot when Lisa wrangles an airplane ride with her best friend’s husband. I didn’t quite buy that her friend didn’t notify Lisa’s brother immediately following the spoiler plot point I won’t describe. That said, I liked the book a lot and plan to read more of this author!
Tight suspense and good writing pulls you in right away. Once I was sucked in, I found it hard to stop, except when it got too suspenseful and I had to look away. The book finishes up with an ending much more emotional than standard thriller fare. It was great!
I love the Frost Easton books by this author, so I thought I’d give this one a try. It was an emotional twisty tale about a writer that lives her own story. Even though Lisa’s life is a very sad one, she has managed to write a best seller using her hometown as the focal point for her book. Then strangely, one night she finds herself caught up in a mystery where a ten-year-old boy is being hunted by very bad people. Lisa decides to protect him and literally steps into her own novel. I did not see the end coming but the author did a good job making everything come together. I don’t think this book was quite as good as the Frost Easton books, but it was pretty close. Good job, Brian Freeman.
I almost quit on this one!! Thank God I didn’t!! The ending!!!!!
A mind-bending twisty thriller–the kind of thing I expect from a Brian Freeman book. What I didn’t expect was the emotional force this one had and how it actually had me in tears at the end. Highly recommended.
Wow, I have been reading Freeman’s books for as long as I can remember and this one is a bit different then his usual thrillers! This is a thriller wrapped up in loss, emotions and a big bunch of feels!
Lisa Powers, the MC, is a tortured ghost of her former self! She has suffered so much loss, her entire family through a series of tragedies she named the “Dark Star”! She is an author of a bestselling thriller called Thief River Falls, named after her hometown. I must say I had an inkling around page 48 where this was going but it didn’t distract from my enjoyment of this story! Lisa Powers gets lost in her own book/story! Can’t say more because I don’t want to ruin this for future readers!
Wow, wow, wow. I did not see that coming. This great book keeps you moving through to see what happens next when, BAM!, the ending offers up a surprise that you really didn’t see coming. I highly recommend this – one of the best books I’ve read in a long time and I read A LOT!
I couldn’t put this book down once I started it. Exciting read.
A Writer’s Nightmare – When Fiction Becomes Reality
Mature Teen – Adult
Some violence
Intense
Limited harsh language
No sex
Lisa, who writes thriller novels, discovers a runaway child approaching her home. After gaining his trust, she determines that much like a character in her latest best seller, he is being hunted down because he witnessed a murder. Furthermore, individuals in high places are the perpetrators, so much to her horror, she cannot trust anyone in her small town to help her help him escape.
At times I questioned the dialogue: is it realistic? Also, why doesn’t she just….
But, there are reasons for everything, and in the end, trust me, it all comes together.
Recommended.
OMG……read this book if you love a stand alone mystery, with equal parts love story, trauma, loss and the will to keep moving on.
Meet Lisa Powers a writer known for a scary book about a boy being buried alive but also known as that writer with tragic life. First her mom, then dad and then three brothers are taken away from her. And her boyfriend left her to follow on in his father’s footsteps in law but came back to Lisa, only to also die young. Lisa has a twin brother. Noah, but he left the area as so much grief and loss was just too hard.
Lisa lives alone out in a remote area, does podcasts about her bestseller and stays close to a few friends. During a talk with a bookclub, one of the husband accuses Lisa of promoting violence with her book and the question of what would you do or feel if the book inspired a person to repeat the crime in the book.
This is a psychological study of Lisa, trying to cope with so much loss. It lets you peek from behind a curtain into her life, not the fantasy life of being rich or famous. The trauma has taken away so much…..the death of her dad and why and how, just add to the grief. And then her siblings, as if she is being punished.
The dark star. You’ll see the dark star and what it means to her.
Upset by the comment that night, she awakens and finds a boy, dirty from head to toe, as if he’d been buried. Lisa names him Purdue and discovers he is in extreme danger.
Lisa makes it her mission to save him at all costs and doesn’t trust her friends or the police as she investigates. You see everything through her eyes and it is a shocker when the truth comes out. The fear, mistrust, confusion, lying, all have you feeling her pain. And little by little the truth shines out but only in the shadows till Purdue opens it up wide and it hits you. The young boy will stay with you.
This is a great read but some people go back and take it apart to say the clues were wrong but this is through Lisa’s eyes and in her mind. They say God lets you handle all the good, bad and tragic…….but then there is suicide and depression and a mind that just can’t handle it. This is not a depressing book but a moving book about loss and love and living.
I enjoyed the twists and turns in this book. Being from MN, I can relate to the cold and the land. I enjoyed the ending because the reader is planning for one thing to happen, and that is not the way it ends at all. It has that Flannery O’Connor twist that makes reading interesting!
Had me hooked on page one and the pace never let up. Unpredictable and twisted. It was a great read!
A writer struggling with life changes faces down a home town welcoming on the surface, then seemingly menacing. Who betrays her, and who is the mysterious boy who motivates her? Why does the sheriff, her father-in-law, pursue her? A compelling mystery resolved after many twists and turns.
Lisa Powers is the well-known local author of a bestselling thriller Thief River Falls, named after her hometown.
Lisa has lost her parents, three brothers, her fiancee all within several years. Her twin brother still lives, although they haven’t spoken in over a year.
One night she finds a young boy standing in her yard … he says he doesn’t remember his name, where he’s been, how he got there, or where he was hiding. The one thing he does remember is that he witnessed a murder… one that involved cops.
Lisa becomes obsessed with the boy’s safety … she can’t turn to the cops because they are involved. While trying to keep the boy under cover, her best friend betrays her. They want the boy and will stop at nothing to get him … he is a witness that needs silencing.
BOOK BLURB: Lisa must find a way to save them both, or they’ll become the victims of another shocking tragedy she can’t foresee.
WOW! This is a powerful story that reaches all emotions. It had me gripped from the very first page … it’s a real page-turner. This is one of my favorite authors and I love his Stride series … but he has upped his skill in story-telling. There are twists and turns leading to an unpredictable ending.
Many thanks to the author / Amazon First Reads for the advanced digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Very hard to read about heroine who doesn’t eat, sleep or protect her charge. Deflated ending. Maybe better as a fairy tale.
Smart, wickedly suspenseful and full of truly shocking twists, Thief River Falls is also a moving tale about family — and with a thriller writer at its center. How could I help but love it?