A fatal car crash. The sole survivor. And the dark hooded stranger that wants her dead.
When a terrible accident—not accident—stole my parents’ lives, my whole perfect life changed. My memories are hazy, and there are scars on my wrists. I’ve been locked away for my own protection…until I prove my sanity, until I lie. There was no hooded figure on the road that day, no one standing over me as I lay paralyzed watching my parents burn.
I am Cassidy Lockheart…20-year-old orphan.
Determined to free my caged mind, I find myself far away on an unexpected trip to help return my forgotten past. The snow was part of my life before, but now it’s like a blank slate, until an avalanche changes everything. But I’m not alone. These other ‘lucky’ trip winners may not be the strangers they pretend to be. And my hooded attacker…I see him everywhere.
Is this real? Or delusion caused by head trauma?
Either way, I’m being watched. I can sense it. I can feel it. Someone is after me; maybe they’re after us all. The avalanche was no accident. It was staged to deliver us to this abandoned place. A place where the walls whisper dark secrets of a sinister past…a past no one can escape. Trapped, this snow won’t let up…it won’t let us leave. My lost memories hold clues, but they’re buried so deep, polluted and twisted in my every waking nightmare. What is real? I don’t have the answers. But I need them. Time is ticking and if I don’t figure this all out soon it will be too late.
The past is coming for us all…and it wants blood.
I beta read this book but I swore to always be honest in my reviews, be it ARCs , beta read or « bought » books so I can honestly say that this book is worth 5 stars for me !
For once I’ll take some time to “set the scene” and explain how I came to read this book whereas mysteries are not my usual genre.
I fell in love with JL Myers fantasy series “Blood Bound”. I’ve been truly amazed by the intricate plot. She was a mastermind at imagining very complex plot without ever losing the reader. Events happened in the fourth book that she planned right from the start leaving some crumbs for the reader and suddenly everything made sense. I was “Wow! Of course! How did I not see it?”. By the end of the series I told her that her brain must be fried! She told me that indeed she wanted to write something simpler and would next write a standalone to rest her brain.
So when she asked me if I wanted to beta read her next book I agreed immediately even if it was not my typical read.
Well let me tell you that her brain is certainly not rested right now.It may be a standalone but it’s far from simple!
I don’t want to spoil your fun and being a mystery I can’t tell you many things about the plot so I’ll go with analogies:
-I felt like a mouse in a trap or in a labyrinth. The hooded killer was waiting, lurking in a dark corner and I never knew when he would strike or who he would kill. I felt hunted!;
-If you can imagine how a fish out of the water must feel you have a pretty good idea of how I felt. I was not only totally out of my comfort zone rarely reading mysteries but I was also literally panting seated at the edge of my chair. Totally out of breath as it was riveting!
-you see the flight simulator astronauts have to experience? The one with the seat going in every direction so fast you can no longer tell up from down? Well that was me in the seat with my brain cells pushed in every direction to try to understand what was happening and who the killer might be!
-now I’ll use Tom Thumb analogy. You know how he leaves a trail of crumbles to try finding his way back home? Well that’s what J.L Myers did with her clues. She left a trail of clues to help the reader find the killer. Only I never found my way either, except by the end of the book.
And I hurt So MUCH for that poor girl and what she went through. Be warned the book is closer to very, very dark read sometimes!
So in a few words it was: confusing, riveting, breathtaking and pure genius! I was left speechless and open mouthed!
And now yes I will fangirl one last time for JL Myers and no she does not pay me to say this: maybe I have special tastes but I really think she should be on your “writers you think deserve to be better known” shelf.
Nerve Damage by JL Myers will be published in a few days on July 30 but you can already pre-order at only 0,99 USD -> http://amzn.to/2uSS5ff
This sounds awesome. I don’t normally read books like this (books that aren’t romance) but I may have to try this one!!
You would really make me happy Trisy 😉 Jess is an incredibly gifted writer that I work my behind off to make better known. I don’t read many mysteries but I was hooked. <3