Kindly sent from the publishing team for an honest review. I was accepted for a physical copy which didn't come so happy with next best thing.

Everyone was after this proof in book blogging world so I felt a bit apprehensive to read as I thought would it be overhyped but I was so wrong.

I enjoyed that you got to see the characters almost as soon as and they developed along with the story. It had plenty twists, red herrings, character narrative. I really like the structure of this book as at the end of each chapter you gain another piece of the puzzle until it fits perfectly at the end.

This would be an amazing buddy read or book club read as it has so many discussion points.

Whistling Ridge is like any small insular town in America but when Abigail Blake goes missing after a party in the woods all the towns secrets slowly come to light. Anna bailey's debut is both haunting and captivating; the claustrophobic atmosphere of the town and the cast of characters were brilliantly brought to life. 5 Stars and I will certainly be reading anything else that Anna Bailey writes

This was a book like no other, it’s a thriller and family drama rolled into one.
When Emma leaves her friend Abi at a party in the woods she doesn’t think there’s any risk but Abi never returns. What follows is a small town investigation which reveals far more secrets than the town ever wanted. Abi tries to investigate what happened to Abi but this ends up possibly involving her own family who also have secrets.
Didn’t have a clue where the story was going but I loved finding out.
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow... this left me speechless and I can still visualise the town, the characters and just the feel of the place. All of the characters are complex, you cannot separate your hatred into any one person, you empathise and hurt and feel alongside them apart from Sam and the pastor..... it’s also about being able to make a stand even if you think it’s too late to do that and that sometimes all it takes is one word or even one action to fight back. It’s also about how secrets can devastate a small town and that sometimes freedoms come in many forms. I love the falsity and hypocrisy that’s filters towards the outsider and how people have a lot to hide. Brilliant.

Tall Bones by Anna Bailey. Pub Date 1 Apr 2021
When seventeen-year-old Emma leaves her best friend Abigail at a party in the woods, she thinks that their lives are just beginning like most girls her age. Many things will happen that night, but Emma will never see her friend again.
Abi's disappearance cracks open the façade of the small town of Whistling Ridge, its intimate history of long-held grudges and resentment.
In this pleasing, solid and well-written debut novel by Anna Bailey, we meet many well-portrayed characters that I enjoyed getting to know. Hard-hitting themes are touched on, including domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, homophobia, closeted sexuality and racism—all well researched and expertly entwined throughout the story.
Well done, Anna Bailey. I look forward to reading more from you.
A highly recommend read.
I want to thank NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and author Anna Bailey for a pre-publication copy to review.

Abigail Blake disappears one night during a party. Her friend Emma cannot forgive herself for letting her go into the woods alone. Has Abigail run away, or has something happened to her? As we meet the rest of her family, and the community of Whispering Ridge either seem possible.

Whistling Ridge is a tight knit, God fearing town in Colorado. Outsiders are not welcome and the many unpleasant and illegal practises of its citizens are tolerated as long as they can be condoned by God’s teaching as interpreted by their Pastor. Punish your wife and children for not obeying you? Sure. Practise homosexuality? Not in this town. It’s not going to take much for this community to take the law into their own hands.

Anna Bailey has written an astonishing debut novel. The tension ratchets up as the book develops, the characters are brilliantly drawn and you get a real feeling for the small town life of Whistling Ridge and it’s inhabitants. When you finally find out why Abigail disappeared it is genuinely shocking and upsetting. I will be recommending this far and wide.
Thank you to #netgalley and #randomhouse for allowing me to review this advance copy.

Emma leaves her best friend Abi one night at a party in the woods. Abi assures Emma that everything will be OK and she can make her own way home - neither girl were to know that they would never see each other again.

This is a coming of age tale with a mystery twist and a thoroughly enjoyable read. I loved how the story and the interconnectedness of all the characters of the small town slowly built up, as names and details were added gradually revealing more connections and deeper back stories.

Although I can't imagine the story will stay with me long, I did really enjoy the read and puzzling over how all the characters related to each other and the disappearance of Abi.

I am so pleased I’ve been quiet at work as I’ve been sneaking in chapters of this since I picked it up!

It grabbed me at the start and just kept hold of me. It really captured what I imagine a small rural American town could easily be - intolerant of strangers, racist, where the law has no real power, and everyone fears god.

The main characters were all given a good background, and I felt like I knew them all by th end. I truly felt for poor Dolly the most....

No spoilers anyway...this is an excellent book, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it!

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

After a party one night, Abi disappears and her best friend Emma has no idea what happened to her and wishes she’d never left her on her own.
She turns to alcohol as she tries to find out what happened to her friend.
This one was a slow burner and lots of detail for only a handful of characters. The police investigation only played a small part and it skipped between before Abi disappeared and present time.
I can’t say it was the best book I’ve read but it certainly had an interesting premise for a thriller/mystery

Having read a lot of the other reviews I realise that my thoughts are not the majority but this is a book that I think had massive potential to be a real page turner but the author got bogged down in intricate details and pages and pages where nothing really happens. The first 20% is interesting and then there is a middle section that is about 40+% of the book which is slow and at times dull. It is a book that feels like it has to explain EVERYTHING to you rather than assuming that the reader can fit things together. The final about 15% of the book is definitely much more gripping although the end does seem a bit flat too.

I so nearly gave up on this book because I was mostly bored but I did want to find out what happened to Abigail. It was fairly obvious from early on who had done it though as no one else really seemed to have any motive despite the author trying to get you to think they did but that is the problem when you explain everything that is happening, you cut off your false leads very early on.

If you like a slow burn and lots of character and environment descriptions then this is the book for you. If you like something a bit more fast paced then this is probably not for you.

Unfortunately I was unable to get to this book before it was archived it’s definitely one I will be reading and will leave a review once I have .

It was refreshing to read Tall Bones by Anna Bailey after a few “lightweight” reads. This one hooked me in with a great storyline and enough red herrings to keep me guessing. Very unpleasant and flawed characters were well developed and brought to life through the storyline, which brought home the very real issues of domestic violence, coercive control and mob mentality. Small town prejudice and abuse of power run throughout. Alongside that it’s so reassuring to see genuine friendships and decent human beings who sometimes step up! Well written and developed with chapters you feel you know. A very good four star read

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.
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, 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”.

However, there was also 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 covered. 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 Emma leaves her friend, Abigail, at a party in the woods, she is worried. She tries to convince Abigail to return with her, but her friend refuses and Emma is correct to be concerned, as her friend seemingly vanishes that evening…

Of course, this is a plot device that has been used before and you would think people would know by now that parties in woods are a recipe for disaster! However, Anna Bailey creates a very realistic cast of characters and sense of place in the small town of Whistling Ridge, which makes this novel a cut above the usual mystery.

As news of Abigail’s disappearance spreads, her mother, Dolly, is aware that their neighbours are questioning her family, while Emma retreats into alcohol and tears at school. From the creepy Pastor Lewis, through the various other inhabitants of the town, everyone has secrets and many are ready to use events for their own ends.

This novel is about outsiders, blame, guilt, fear, intolerance and insularity. It is an atmospheric, literary mystery, which paints a dark picture of a provincial small town. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

US small town drama following a local girl going missing. Everyone has secrets and everyone wants them to stay that way. But if you really start digging? Gripping and tension building as the youngsters try to work out the web of secrets and powerplay in a small mountain town where church and position controls all. We constructed and a good read.

Oh my!! How is this a debut novel this is absolutely fantastic from beginning to end and should be on everyone's TBR.

This is a well written novel which has been engaging from the very beginning. In this one, we are taken to a small town setting where everyone knows everything and the other's business and goings on.

I have really had haunting vibes from this one and as secrets become clear I have definitely been gripped and both unwilling and unable to put this down.

This is a read which is tense and unpredictable. I have found that this is a plot with many layers to delve into as well as being fantastically well-crafted.

I love the characters in this book, they have added to the book. I have been so shocked to find that this is a debut novel. It is definitely an author to watch out for and I have been converted as a fan.

A definite five star read.

While I’m not a fan of thrillers, I love small town drama so I knew this would be up my street.

Tall Bones is the story of Abi, who goes missing after a party, and the impact of her disappearance on her small town. It focuses predominantly on her best friend, Emma, her Latina best friend who has never really fitted in, and Emma’s realisation that perhaps she didn’t know Abi as well as she thought.

I liked a lot about this. I love small town stories, i loved the host of characters in the town and how well-realised they all were. I enjoyed the chapters jumping between different perspectives and time periods.

This is a 3.5 star for me as towards the end as the plot was coming together I just started to lose interest, but I would definitely recommend this as an intriguing read for people who love small town mysteries.

Seventeen-year-old Abi has disappeared. Left behind is her family, her best friend, and a lot of questions. Someone must know something about what happened to her, but Whistling Ridge is a town full of secrets, and the smallest spark could set off a mighty explosion.

Tall Bones is a much grittier mystery than I was expecting. The small town of Whistling Ridge is filled to the brim with homophobes, racists and abusers, making it a not entirely pleasant read, but also providing a whole host of possible suspects in Abi’s disappearance, ranging from the gypsy outsider, to the town sheriff, to her own father. Despite some of the characters being outrageously unlikeable, they’re also entirely believable.

Thanks to all the potential suspects and quite a few red herrings, it was impossible to do anything but guess who was really behind Abi’s disappearance. Bailey’s writing really complimented the intense plot, creating a dark and suspenseful atmosphere that had me truly gripped.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

a darkly disturbing book with not one likeable character in it....i did struggle with this one as its not easy to read with the theme running through it...

I’ll be honest, I nearly gave up on this book. It took me a long time to get into it and a long time to read. It was very slow and I wondered where it was going. About half way through though the pace picked up. Everyone has an element of guilt for what happened to Abi and each individual characters story becomes really interesting and insightful. It is quite disturbing at times with graphic descriptions of abuse, domestic violence, drug use and homophobic abuse but that all adds to what turns out to be a tragic story. I’m glad I persevered with this. A good read, even if it does start off a little slow.