I really wanted more from this book. "Tall Bones" by Anna Bailey starts off promising, with teenagers having a party and the mystery of what happened to Abi. Although this is explored and finally explained, you meet some unpleasant characters along the way and even the characters who are portrayed as likeable, don't really tug on the heart strings.

Tall Bones is a slow burn crime mystery with the author dropping crumbs and sowing seeds rousing intrigue and curiosity throughout. It’s well written with engaging prose with moments of excellent imagery and metaphors that lingered in the mind. At the heart of Tall Bones is the Blake family, and what a terrible environment their home is. The father, Samuel, is violent and an alcoholic. The mother, Dolly, is an abused housewife who feels so trapped she’s paralysed. The oldest son Noah is not accepted by his father due his homosexuality and is physically punished for it. The youngest son Jude is rejected by his father because he’s handicapped from an injury to his leg. And the only daughter, Abigail, is the apple of Samuel’s eye - and has blew everything up since going missing in the book’s opening chapter. Meanwhile, Abigail’s best friend, Emma Alvarez, is drinking away her grief in booze because some people believe Abigail’s disappearance is her fault for leaving Abigail in the woods. There’s also Rat - a Romanian immigrant on the outskirts of town in a trailer park. He supplies Emma with her booze and he’s secretly seeing Noah. I really liked Emma’s perspective as the world as she knew it is essentially turned on its head. First losing her friend and then as she tries to get to bottom of Abigail’s disappearance, she contemplates if they were really friends at all. Emma’s grief, confusion and loneliness were probably the most enjoyable parts of the entire story because I really wanted to give her a hug. The setting of Tall Bones, Whistling Ridge, was extremely oppressive and unnerving, made even more intimidating knowing it was secluded up in the mountains like another world altogether. The town has deeply religious roots and its community is prejudicial and unwelcoming toward “outsiders” and those who the Bible deem sinners. But the expression don’t throw stones in glass houses comes to mind... The pastor delivers demonising sermons, crosses adorn the walls, the congregation amalgamates to give judgement and gossip. As the story goes on, it became very suffocating imagining living in this place. Fair warning to prospective readers who may feel uncomfortable with such content: the town in this book is homophobic and racist in nature. For instance, the word f*ggot is used, and there was a sermon about how the internet encourages the acceptance of homosexuals and “love is love”, but the pastor commands the town to remember that God is God, and who is the woke internet to tell God what is what, instead of God guiding us. Moreover, Emma is subject to racial slurs and abuse like “get on a bus back to Mexico” and there’s also rhetoric like “don’t mix the races”. There was quite a few things I didn’t enjoy. I felt some of the subplots worked well like Noah’s sexuality and the influence of religion on the community, but other subplots didn’t compliment the story, like Vietnam and Emma’s parental subplots - they could have been completely erased from the book and it wouldn’t have changed anything. Something that confused me was the way sexual assault, sexual harassment and paedophilia was handled. I felt like the story and some characters only worked on the backbone of these events, yet I felt we were shied away from an actual discussion surrounding it. This just didn’t work for me. If it’s integral to the plot and characters, then it shouldn’t just be eluded to or vaguely covered. That’s just my personal feelings and so I found Tall Bones disappointing on that front. I was also rather frustrated with the jumping back and forward timelines. The “now” timeline unfolds in a linear way, but I eventually realised that the “then” timeline wasn’t linear but rather haphazard and jumbled. The timeline definitely confuses the narrative to misdirect the reader, which is clever, but it’s just not a style I enjoyed. Tall Bones is a decent debut that showcases the close nature of small town atmospheres. This reminded me of Long Bright River by Liz Moore in the way the story unfolded, so if you liked that maybe check this out (and vice versa). My personal recommendation for a small town murder mystery that has excellent setting and pace is The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel. Thank you kindly to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When teenage Abigail goes missing, the only one that seems to care is her best friend, Emma. Emma feels guilty for leaving Abigail in the woods that night, despite Abi’s insistence that she would be fine & Emma should go … Did Abigail want Emma out of the way? Did Emma abandon Abigail? Who was the dark figure lurking in the shadows? Emma is determined to uncover the truth about what happened to Abigail – but who can she trust? As she digs deeper, she uncovers more & more secrets. This is not small-town cosy, community focussed middle America, this is a small town that is full of prejudice, resentment, long-covered secrets and a pastor who preaches far more hatred than love. Anyone who doesn’t fit the “norm” (and by that we meet white, middle class, Christian) then life will be very tough for you. Everybody seems to have an opinion of what has happened to Abigail, but as she digs deeper she finds that Abi too had secrets … The plot is quite strong, and the writing style is good – descriptive & engaging. It is full of suspense and with challenging moments, however this is not an easy book to read. It is dark, depressive and there are some very difficult topics - it really does need a content warning. The characters are not likeable, but they are well described and their characters did come across. I was glad to finish the book & I did quite like the slightly ambiguous ending! Note: I read this book under the original title “Tall Bones” but I believe it will be released as “Where the truth lies” which does sum up the book. Disclosure: I received a copy of this book free via @ThePigeonHoleHQ. Whilst thanks go to the PigeonHoleHQ team, the author & the publisher for the opportunity to read it, all opinions are my own. @annafbailey @annabaileywrites #TallBones

What an absorbing, well written title this was! The characters are well rounded and fully described. This is a small town full of bigotry, secrets and bullying. The disappearance of Abigail sets off a chain of events which will affect everyone in the town to some degree. This is not a comfortable read, but a compelling one. Three and a half stars for me and I look forward to more by this author. Many thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

It took me a while to get into this book and I found the pace quite slow, until this picked up about half way through. I do feel this is a slow burning plot and liked how Bailey developed the characters throughout. Bailey writes from multiple characters points of view which definitely helped understand their motives. This book covers many difficult topics including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as alcoholism, sexuality and religion. In my opinion, Bailey incorporated these topics very well in a way that was both sensitive and raw, at times it was quite hard to read. I liked Bailey's writing style although this was quite dark because it added to the mystery behind Abi's disappearance and I was pleased I couldn't predict the ending. At times, I did find it difficult to connect to the characters and therefore, wasn't too concerned about their fate until nearer the end. I recommend this book if you enjoy a dark thriller, also if you like Gillian Flynn I think you would also like this book.