ARC Review: The Reaping by Jess Lourey

The Reaping
Author: Jess Lourey
Series: Steinbeck and Reed (Book 2)
Publication: Thomas & Mercer (September 3, 2024)

Description: By-the-book forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck and rogue BCA agent Van Reed must catch a cold-case killer who’s returned to abduct a small town’s children one by one in this heart-stopping novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.

In 1998 an Alku, Minnesota, family of five was brutally murdered in their sleep. The event shook the insulated community but, without any solid leads, was relegated to the cold case files, where it moldered for twenty-five years. Until today.

Agent Harry Steinbeck hoped never to return to the northland, a place that holds terrible memories of his sister’s abduction. But when a recent homicide is connected to Alku’s unsolved mass murder, he and cold case agent Evangeline Reed have no choice but to investigate.

The case grows impossibly darker as, one by one, the children of Alku begin disappearing. And Harry and Van can’t shake the sensation that someone is watching every move they make.

As an elusive killer’s trail leads to a truth more sinister than either imagined, Harry knows there’s only one way to crack this case: he must finally face the secrets of his own past―even if doing so will cost him everything.

My Thoughts: When BCA agents Harry Steinbeck and Van Reed are called to Northern Minnesota to look into a case that mirrors a cold case from twenty-five years earlier, Harry feats that he will have to reopen terrible events from the past. 

A gruesome murder has taken place in the small, isolated town of Alku. It mirrors the deaths of a man, woman, and their three children which took place in Alku twenty-five years earlier. First the victims are shot with a shotgun and then their heads are crushed.

Alku is not a welcoming place. Settled by Finns who escaped Finland ahead of a mob who wanted them dead, the town is insular in the extreme. Their only source of income is the nursing home for felons that they run in a school/sanitorium that has had many purposes over the years. Since one of the inmates was convicted of similar crimes, he becomes Harry and Van's first suspect. However, his physical disabilities make it impossible to be the perpetrator. 

As Van and Harry look into the cold case, they find that there were a series of other suspicious events that happened at the same time. Two hikers attacked by bears and the disappearance of a local resident all happened within days of the murder. 

Now, children are disappearing and Van and Harry wonder if it connects somehow with those old murders. 

This was an interesting mystery. I especially like that both of the main characters have issues from their pasts that need dealing with. Harry's guilt over the disappearance of his younger sister - also twenty-five years ago - has driven his life choices ever since that day. Now, he has to confront them and the mother he blames for his sister's disappearance.

I liked the setting which is my hometown - Duluth, Minnesota - even though the author takes some liberties with the geography. 

Favorite Quote:

"My mom can be...overbearing. She's always been that way. Don't take it personally. Oh, and the estate she lives in is huge."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.