Audiobook Review: Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot

Her First Mistake
Author: Kendra Elliot
Narrator: Stephanie Nemeth-Parker
Series: Noelle Marshall (Book 1)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (June 10, 2025)
Length: 10 hours and 7 minutes

Description: When a very personal cold case murder is reopened, a detective’s secrets come to light in a novel of shocking twists and suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten.

Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

As past and present and leads and misleads collide, one thing is frighteningly clear. Derrick’s murder wasn’t just unsolved. It’s unfinished. And only the truth—no matter the risk—can save the next victim.

My Thoughts: A side character from the author's Mercy Kilpatrick series gets her own story in this new series starter. Noelle Marshall is a Deschutes County sheriff's detective who has a hidden past that is now being revealed.

Thirteen years earlier, Noelle was the wife of politician Derrick Bell. Bell was murdered in his home and Noelle severely injured. She doesn't remember what happened when her husband was killed and she was attacked. She still has memory issues to the present day. Those past memories have never surfaced. 

Now the FBI is reinvestigating the case in the hopes of finally being able to solve it. FBI special agent Max Rhodes and his partner have come to reinterview Noelle, her sisters, her brother-in-law, and her great aunt who had all moved to the area from Sacramento where the crime was committed. 

Much of the story is told in flashbacks from the time of the murder of Derrick Bell and for the five years preceding it charting the relationship between Noelle and Derrick. It's a story of a hardworking, poor woman who meets a rich man with political ambitions. They fall in love and Noelle finds herself in a relationship where she can never be accepted by her in-laws and Derrick's siblings and where she finds herself compromising herself for her husband's sake. It was sad watching the hopeful new romance devolve into a situation where Noelle becomes an emotionally abused wife. 

These flashbacks are in direct contrast to Noelle's present life where she is a successful woman and detective even though she is wary about any new relationship. 

I enjoyed this story very much and look forward to more in the series. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.