Author: Hannah Mary McKinnon
Publisher: MIRA
Released: May 24, 2022
Received: NetGalley
Warnings: Terminal cancer, alcoholism, graphic violence, torture, drug overdose

Time to dive into another thriller novel! Never Coming Home, written by Hannah Mary McKinnon, immediately caught my attention. I love the cover, especially the colors. The description further pulled me in.

Lucas Forester is what some may call a black widower – though they don’t know that yet. He married his wife, Michelle, intending to get access to her fortune. Now he’s biding his time for it to all be his.

For a moment there, he thought his plan had succeeded. Then a note changed the name of the game, turning him into the target. An ironic twist, given what he’d just done.

Man, I do love it when thriller novels start in media res. There’s something so dramatic about an introduction like that, don’t you think? Never Coming Home starts with Lucas having spent quite a lot of time planning his wife’s death, forcing readers to get up to speed quickly, or else they risk missing what happens next.

In truth, this novel starts a little further along than that, but I don’t want to spoil it all for you. You’ll have to check out that introduction (and the whole story) yourself. I enjoyed it, even while I was immediately rooting for Lucas to fail (who wouldn’t?).

I was a little surprised to find myself almost like Lucas at times. Almost. He’s still a jerk, but he’s got a sense of humor; I’ll give him that. Hannah Mary McKinnon did a good job portraying two sides of his character here.

Unfortunately, those moments didn’t make up for everything Lucas did and planned. It made it easier to be a neutral party to the tension he was dealing with, though I’m not sure if that was the intention.

Thanks to MIRA and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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