From the Publisher
"Of all the books this month, this one, plot-driven to the max, is the supreme page turner; When I’m Dead is nigh-on impossible to put down." —BookPage (starred)
"A visceral thriller." —Kirkus Reviews
"When I’m Dead is bone-chilling. Read it while hugging a pillow to your chest." —Crime Reads
"A well-crafted, heart pounding thriller sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats." —Mystery & Suspense
"This haunting murder mystery has everything: gothic overtones, gruesome murders, a psycho killer, dysfunctional families, teen angst, sex, and plenty of shocking twists." —Booklist
"A dark and twisted tale of love, loss, regret and revenge, When I'm Dead is Hannah Morrissey at her best." —Stacy Willingham, New York Times bestselling author
"When I'm Dead is a must-read from the dark and emotionally compelling Black Harbor series." —Vanessa Lillie
Kirkus Reviews
2023-08-26
In a sleepy Wisconsin town, one girl is gone, two more brutally murdered.
As medical examiner Rowan Winthorp scrutinizes the corpse of teenager Madison Caldwell, she reflects on her 18 years in the “purgatory” of grim Black Harbor, Wisconsin. Madison, the best friend of Rowan’s daughter, Chloe, has been found strangled to death in a gully. Repeated attempts to contact Chloe fail, and Rowan comes to the slow realization that her daughter is missing. Morrissey’s second Black Harbor thriller drops the gothic trappings of her debut and goes straight for the jugular, with gruesome twists and intimations of menace from every quarter. Libby Lucas, a strange teenager who dabbles in taxidermy, harbors several secrets related to the murder. Ditto neighborhood hottie Reeves Singh, who was Madison’s boyfriend. Chloe’s father, Axel, a veteran homicide detective in Black Harbor’s police department, angrily charges into the probe of his daughter’s disappearance. The investigation takes a deeply unsettling turn when it appears that Chloe was being bullied by Madison and may have had an affair with her drama teacher, Mark Cutler, who’s also gone AWOL. Both parents are left to reflect on the recent changes in Chloe’s personality they’ve mostly ignored. A second teen victim raises the specter of a serial killer. The deeper Rowan and Axel dig, the more creepy characters they unearth on their way to a grisly solution. While the core crime thriller packs a chilling wallop, the anxiety and soul-searching of the parents lacks both depth and verisimilitude, comporting uneasily with the serial killer’s extreme violence.
Familiar tropes folded into a visceral thriller.
