At the River by Kendra Elliot

The mystery of three missing teens and a traumatizing murder unearths decades of buried secrets in a shocking novel of suspense by a Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author.

Twenty years ago, five teenage campers disappeared. Two eventually turned up, bound and left for dead on the Columbia River’s rocky shore. Only Devin Bonner miraculously survived, but with no memories of what happened in the Oregon forest.

After decades, the cold case generates heat for FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick and her husband, Police Chief Truman Daly. They’re investigating the murder of a true-crime podcaster found at the river’s edge in the same location, and with the exact same manner of death. With the discovery, Devin’s nightmares return. His only real friend is Ollie Smith, Truman’s orphaned ward, whose own search for the truth sucks Ollie into a mystery far greater and more dangerous than anyone imagined.

Following a trail of fresh blood and an escalating series of murders, Mercy and Truman must work fast to unlock whatever traumas are buried in Devin’s memories before the secrets of the past claim another victim.

Don’t miss our reviews of other books in the Columbia River series!
For book one, The Last Sister, click HERE.
For book two, The Silence, click HERE.
For book three, In the Pines, click HERE.

 

 

Book 5
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
Audiobook (US) Narrated by Teri Schnaubelt & Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Hardcover (US)  ~  Paperback (US)
~ Also Available with KindleUnlimited ~

 

 

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Mystery

I really enjoy these Mercy Kilpatrick books. They are intriguing and engaging.

This one is a mystery of the past and present. The story does start a little slow, but I loved how Elliot was able to pull it all together.

Ollie is older now and helps with tracking due to his unique skills. Mercy is still doing her FBI thing and then there is Truman, the local sheriff and Mercy's husband.

Together, their small town is rocked to the core with murders and past murders that have become relevant again. Kids who were murdered and went missing, a blogger who wants to know the truth, and a community that might not be okay with what truths are out there. This is a twisted tale of betrayal, love, friendship, and family.

I loved this story. It did take me a little bit to get into it, but once you're sucked in, you're in to the end. You won't be disappointed in this story. It's gripping. I can't wait for more.


Mary Jo – ☆☆☆☆
Kendra Elliot has once again brought mystery to life in the eighth installment of the Mercy Kilpatrick series.

Mercy has been called out to help work a grisly scene where a podcaster has been discovered missing by his wife and the cabin they are renting is full of blood. Miles away, a body has been found in the exact location where two people were found almost 20 years ago. Both of the teens were left for dead, but one miraculously survived but with cognitive deficits.

Are the two crimes related?

Mercy finds out that the podcaster was once a high school classmate of the two teenagers and has come to town to investigate the disappearance of the five teenagers from that fateful camping trip almost 20 years ago. Was he getting too close and that's what lead to this death?

As more and more details come to light, it's clear that the disappearance of the five teens is more than just a urban myth of kids running off to the big city never to be heard from again.

Join Mercy and Truman as they navigate two interwoven crimes and in the strange and odd way it affects their family.

 

 

KENDRA ELLIOT has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, the Mercy Kilpatrick novels, and the Columbia River novels. She’s a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born and raised in the rainy Pacific Northwest but now lives in flip-flops.

Connect with Kendra Elliot!

Facebook  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

 

 

ARC provided by

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided with a free copy of At the River (Columbia River #5; Mercy Kilpatrick #8) by Kendra Elliot to read and review.

In the Pines by Kendra Elliot

Clues to a hidden treasure. Clues to a family secret. Both lead to murder in a twisting novel of suspense by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kendra Elliot.

A national treasure hunt with a $2 million prize has driven obsessed fortune seekers to overrun the small town of Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. The hunt’s cryptic clues and the lure of wealth have exposed the desperate side of human greed: theft, fights, trespassing—and even the motive to kill. Police chief Truman Daly craves peace in his town but has a murder on his hands instead. Now the big prize isn’t the only thing hiding in the pines. So is a killer.

When a young boy walks into the local café and claims his mother and baby sister have been missing for weeks, FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick investigates and exposes a disturbing twist in his story. Deep family secrets and lies that started sixty years ago have burst into the present, bringing with them deadly consequences.

Mercy’s and Truman’s investigations lead down a path of murder, revenge, and buried secrets to uncover two intertwined mysteries as dark as an Oregon forest.

Don’t miss our reviews of the rest of the Columbia River series!
For book one, The Last Sister, click HERE.
For book two, The Silence, click HERE.

 

 

Book 3
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
Audiobook (US)  ~  Hardcover (US)  ~  Paperback (US)
~ Also Available to Read & Listen with KindleUnlimited ~

 

 

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Mystery
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

In the Pines is the seventh book in the series and Mercy, Truman, and Evan are at it again. This time, there is an elusive treasure hunt located in their ideal town. Tourists are hellbent on finding the treasure and with those tourists, a whole host of trouble follows.

With a fight breaking out over notes regarding the treasure, a couple of murders, and some kids who have been abandoned, it will take all three of them to figure out how to calm the tourists and find the murderers.

This story kept you reading and wanting to figure out what happened. Elliot wrote some good twists and turns. You won't be sorry that you went on this treasure hunt.


Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is another great book with Mercy Kilpatrick as the lead character, along with her now husband, Truman Daly.

Hitting close to home, the young boy and his sister remind Mercy of her prepper family roots, and she understands all too well how carefully they need to deal with the situation. It also makes her realise that she is no longer in that place, and her new family is far more important than her need to survive. She finds that insight both liberating and incredibly unexpected. I loved that we got to see her value her place in her family, and their importance to her.

The mystery is fast-paced, clever, and full of twists – you should expect nothing less from Kendra Elliot! I am already looking forward to the next book.


Mary Jo – ☆☆☆☆
3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4 stars

I really like the Mercy Kilpatrick series and her adventures. This story isn't the strongest of the series, but it did keep me interested.

In this installment, Mercy is tasked with finding a missing mother and an 18-month-old toddler who have vanished after leaving her teenagers home alone to go find their father. Digging deeper into this mystery, Mercy finds out that the missing mom is, in fact, the long missing sister of the sheriff's deputy Evan Bolton, whom she's worked with before.

Fourteen years ago, Bridget Kerr, aka Bethany Bolton, ran off with her boyfriend, Victor Kerr, and was never heard from again. Now, Evan has taken custody of his teenage niece and nephew and has learned that they have been living off the grid all these years. Growing up as a child of preppers, Mercy understands this lifestyle and why Bridget would feel comfortable leaving her teens home alone for a week.

Kendra Elliot brought the subject matter to life, and I loved that the author included Kaylie and Ollie as major characters in this book. I would like to see more of them in future books, as well as how Mercy teaches them to always be prepared in accordance with her prepper upbringing.

 

 

KENDRA ELLIOT has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, the Mercy Kilpatrick novels, and the Columbia River novels. She’s a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born and raised in the rainy Pacific Northwest but now lives in flip-flops.

Connect with Kendra Elliot

Facebook  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

 

 

ARC provided by

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of In the Pines (Columbia River #3; Mercy Kilpatrick #7) by Kendra Elliot to read and review.

The Silence by Kendra Elliot

A dead conspiracy theorist. A mass murderer. Two cases collide for Callahan and McLane in a pulse-pounding thriller by Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author Kendra Elliot.

A man is savagely murdered outside Portland, and Detective Mason Callahan finds blood-spatter evidence that tells a troubling story. Files reveal the murder victim, Reuben Braswell, was a radical conspiracist. In his home, investigators find pages of diatribes against law enforcement as well as ties to Mason’s fiancée, FBI special agent Ava McLane. The victim was her informant—and had strong reasons to be paranoid.

To Ava, Braswell’s rants were those of a wearying and harmless man… until they collide with her investigation into the murders of police officers and finding the connection becomes urgent. Meanwhile, Braswell’s brother and Ava’s twin sister both disappear, and disturbing acts of sabotage target Ava’s personal life.

For Mason and Ava, the brutal crimes and escalating mysteries create a perfect storm for a terrorist conspiracy that becomes dangerously personal—one that has yet to claim its last victim.

Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~ Also Available with KindleUnlimited ~

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller

Ava is an FBI agent who has been seeing a CI for a while now. She's not quite sure he's a true CI as he never really has ever given information that is worth anything. When her CI is found to have been killed, but left behind strange bomb references, Ava is called in to see if there could be any credibility to the threat.

Mason is Ava's fiancé, but he is also a police officer himself. When he realizes that Ava is semi-implicated in his case, he knows that she'll want to be a part of it. Mason is trying to figure out why there might be a bombing and trying to keep Ava out of harm's way.

While these two race against the ticking clock to find out where the bomb might be happening and why, the twists and turns this story take are very fun. You also get to glimpse into Ava's home life and family life. Both Ava and Mason are used to dealing with Ava's sister, but this time, it comes at the most inopportune time. I really enjoyed seeing other characters from Elliot's other stories too. This won't disappoint if you like a mystery with a little romance thrown in.


Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
We start with Mason at a pretty gruesome crime scene where an informant of Ava’s has been murdered. A manifesto found at the crime scene leads to a bomb threat which leads to an even more devastating crime. While Mason works on the homicide investigation, Ava is assigned to the task force looking into the fallout from the bomb scare. More crimes take place that may or may not be connected to the investigations Ava and Mason are working on and it was exciting watching it unfold and trying to figure out who did what and how various crimes were connected, if at all.

The Silence flowed really well and had a good pace. Not so slow that you get bogged down in details and not so fast that you can’t keep up with the story. During all the crime solving and action, Mason and Ava are preparing for their upcoming wedding and dealing with the disappearance of Ava’s misbehaving twin sister.

This is a really good, easy-to-read story for those of us that like good crime solving and a little bit of love story mixed together. The action is really good too and as I read, I couldn’t help thinking that this would make a great movie or TV series. The Silence gets a solid 4 stars from me.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This is a huge, confusing jigsaw puzzle of a murder mystery. Kendra Elliott fans will remember Mason and Ava from previous books. Here, the state police detective and the FBI agent are thrown into overlapping cases weeks before their wedding. As Mason attempts to solve a homicide, Ava is appointed to the task force for a related mass shooting.

This story is complicated, moving quickly between Ava and Mason’s investigations. I really like the interplay between the couple and their partners. Many of the characters are familiar from the author’s earlier books and I enjoyed seeing them in a different context.

This story moves quickly, and I like the way all the plot threads eventually meet up. I don’t feel like Mason and Ava are quite as developed as some of my favourite Kendra Elliott characters, but the storylines involving Ava’s family add depth and complexity to her character. This isn’t necessarily a murder mystery that readers can solve alongside Ava and Mason. I enjoyed following the twists and turns of their investigations, but I usually like to be able to put the pieces together for myself. I enjoyed the fast pace of the investigations and I love that there are a couple of revelations that took me completely by surprise.

Fans of the author will enjoy this book but I think new readers might be thrown by the many characters we’re expected to know from previous books and series. I’m fairly sure the book could work as a standalone but I’ve read too many of the author’s books to know this with any certainty.


Shannan – ☆☆☆☆
The Silence is the second book in the Columbia River series. You should read book one to completely understand the storyline.

Ava and Mason are planning their wedding until a murderer forces them to put their plans on hold. Mason finds out his murder victim is tied to Ava. While they work together, they face many obstacles, both on the job and with family. As always, Kendra Elliot leads you on a suspenseful page-turning journey. The Silence does tie up some lose ends that were hanging from book one, bringing their story to a natural ending.

I was intrigued by this read. It had me invested throughout.

Also Available in the Columbia River Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Also Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our The Last Sister post.

Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series and the Mercy Kilpatrick novels. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and three daughters but looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops.

Connect with Kendra

Facebook  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Silence (Columbia River #2) by Kendra Elliot to read and review.

The Last Sister by Kendra Elliot

Three sisters’ secrets collide in a shocking novel of suspense by the Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author of the Mercy Kilpatrick series.

Twenty years ago Emily Mills’s father was murdered, and she found his body hanging in the backyard. Her younger sister, Madison, claims she was asleep in her room. Her older sister, Tara, claims she was out with friends. The tragedy drove their mother to suicide and Tara to leave town forever. The killer was caught. The case closed.

Ever since, Emily and Madison have tried to forget what happened that night—until an eerily similar murder brings it all back. It also brings FBI special agent Zander Wells to the Oregon logging town. As eager as he is to solve the brutal double slaying, he is just as intrigued with the mystery of Emily’s and her sisters’ past.

When more blood is shed, Zander suspects there’s a secret buried in this town no one wants unearthed. Is it something Emily and Madison don’t know? Or aren’t telling? And Tara? Maybe Emily can’t bear to find her. Because when Tara disappeared, she took a secret of her own with her.

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Also Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
I stayed up way too late finishing this book. It’s a fabulous story about two grisly murders in the same small town. It’s a story about a family torn apart by secrets and lies – and it’s also a story about the same family pulling together and rebuilding after a series of unthinkable tragedies. The FBI must untangle years of Bartonville history before they can put an end to the town’s terrible history.

I like the FBI agents, Zander and Ava, but I’m still a bit frustrated that even though this is advertised as the first book in the series, the agents are actually introduced in Vanished. I feel like we’re expected to know them before this book starts and we don’t get too much character development from them in this story. The story is saved only because the Mills sisters are actually more interesting than the agents and they are wonderfully complex and secretive women that keep readers guessing until the end.

This story is a puzzle but it’s one that readers can solve alongside Zander and Ava. I enjoyed piecing together the many fragments from various points in time and I like that while I didn’t guess the whodunnit straight away, it makes perfect sense and provides a satisfying ending. I love the suspense in this story. It’s a gory read, full of action, blood, and bodies and there is one especially terrifying scene at the end that suspense fans will love.

I’m really excited to start a new series from Kendra Elliott but I hope we get to see more character from Zander and Ava in the next installment.


Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

Emily knows that something is terribly wrong when she finds her employee, Lindsay, dead in her home. What makes the situation worse is that Lindsay's husband is found hanging in the backyard, just like how Emily's father was killed. When she calls the local sheriff, she knows that they are going to need more help, so she calls the FBI too.

Zander Wells is an FBI agent who shows up to try and figure out why this new crime is so eerily similar to the death of Emily's father. He and his partner are as close as partners can be, but one look at Emily, and Zander is intrigued not only by the woman, but by her family.

Emily's family has kept secrets for her entire life. Her sister Madison, her aunts, and her long-lost sister, Tara. All of them have something they've kept hidden, but since nobody talks about it, it will take Zander digging around to uncover who is behind these crimes and why.

This is filled with a great mystery. I really like how it was woven around. I do think that the strange romance was a distraction. The story might have been slightly stronger without that. But I did like how it came together. It's not as good as the Mercy Kilpatrick stories, but it's along those lines.

Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series and the Mercy Kilpatrick novels. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and three daughters but looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops.

Connect with Kendra

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Last Sister (Columbia River #1) by Kendra Elliot to read and review.