And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling is a dark and disturbing police procedural novel.
Synopsis
On a frigid, rainy night, two teens attempt to break into what they believe is an unsuspecting senior’s home. What they do not know is that Emmett Burr has decades-old secrets. Secrets he would kill to keep. The lines of who is the victim and who is the abuser become completely blurred.
So, it is up to acting Sheriff Ben Packard to find these teens as quickly as possible. He is relatively new to town, and is trying to do his job while keeping his head down.
Review of And There He Kept Her
This suspenseful and well-written thriller shifts perspectives between Emmett and Packard. After the first few chapters, there are no shocking reveals. The reader merely has to wait for Packard to piece all the clues together, which he does smartly and intuitively. There is a nice buildup of tension as the story progresses. Even though there are no big twists, the story never felt boring.
It was refreshing to see a detective-type main character that was not the usual cishet male that typically saturates this genre.
Also, I’ll give the author brownie points for briefly touching on issues that affect Indigenous communities. But minus many brownie points for making the only Indigenous character in the book a sex offender. But I’m willing to move past it.
Overall, I did enjoy this, and I hope to see more of Sheriff Packard in the future. I can easily see this as the beginning of a new series.
So, I recommend this novel if you want a fresh spin on a police procedural/thriller.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Expected Publication: 14 June 2022
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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