ARC Review: No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams

No Rest for the Wicked
Author: Rachel Louise Adams
Publication: Minotaur Books (September 16, 2025)

Description: With an expert hand, Rachel Louise Adams’s debut No Rest for the Wicked reads like an edge of your seat, heart-pounding scary movie.

In one Halloween obsessed Midwestern town, everyone’s on red alert after a local politician goes missing. Little do they know it’s only the beginning.

It’s been close to twenty years since forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne left her hometown of Little Horton, Wisconsin. The town is famous for its Halloween celebrations, but also its history of violent deaths linked to the holiday. To Dolores, it’s the place she fled, family, bad memories, and all. Until the FBI calls to tell her that her father--the former mayor turned US Senator--is missing under mysterious circumstances.

Some people count to ten to wake up from a nightmare. Dolores always counts the bones of her head instead: sphenoid, frontal, lacrimal. But no matter how many times she counts them, it doesn’t change the fact that her father is missing, that his final words of warning to her were to trust no one, and that now, the rest of her family is giving Dolores a chilling welcome. With Halloween fast approaching, Dolores must face the past she left behind before it’s too late.

My Thoughts: Forensic pathologist Dolores Diaz is called home to Little Horton, Wisconsin, when her father goes missing. She left town at eighteen and hasn't been back or communicated with her family for about 16 years. She left because of an incident that she has blocked from her memory and isn't eager to uncover what she has forgotten.

Dolores' father left a note telling her not to trust anyone and the FBI in the persons of FBI Special Agents Wyatt Holt and Paul Turner want to know why. Dolores has to face the past she left behind and uncover long-buried memories to survive because her father's death is just the first. 

I enjoyed this twisty mystery with an intriguing main character who counts skull bones rather than to ten when she needs to regain control. I liked the flashbacks to 2003 where the cause of her memory lapse begins. 

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