When carer Will hears what sounds like a murder confession from one of the residents in his care home, he is unsure what to do. Is this a misunderstanding of a dementia addled mind or is something more sinister about to be uncovered?

The blurb and premise for Remember Where You’ve Buried the Bodies is great, and I was really looking forward to reading it. I think part of the reason I struggled with this book is it’s marketing, the way the blurb is written makes it sound like a dark comedy (in-fact the phrase ‘darkly funny’ is used). However, the book is a complex crime thriller, with no real comedy involved. In fact, strangely, the murder confession and the elderly man at the centre of them seems to take a backseat to the drama going on with other characters in the plot.

The chapters alternate perspectives – there’s Will, the carer who initially hears the confession, but who also has a dark habit of his own and Jolene, another carer whose sister disappeared when she was younger. There’s also Rex, the police officer with a sick wife and his partner Cathy who loves musicals and fancies herself a forensic investigator. There’s then flashback chapters from the perspective of the victims of an unknown perpetrator. It’s a lot to keep track of and some of the characters seem to blur together at points as well. There’s also no-one to really root for – all of the main characters have some kind of secret which shows them as deeply flawed, but this comes at a detriment to being able to empathise with them.

When I finished the book, I wondered if I had been pushing myself too hard to finish it and missed something, as I found the entire plot to be very confusing. However, reading other reviews I am not the only one to feel this way. I was following it up until a point and then suddenly, lots of threads seemed to come out of nowhere and I still can’t really tell you what actually happened to most of the plot points. This isn’t helped by a narrative that seems intent on introducing lots of new characters and ideas, even right up to the end, when really an author should be wrapping up what we already know, and not presenting new things to the reader. Also, the writing style includes a lot of tangents throughout which made it hard to follow what was happening.

Overall, I sadly found Remember Where You’ve Buried the Bodies really hard to follow and confusing - and looking at other reviews I am not the only one to have this opinion. It’s a great premise but it needs a lot of editing and re-working to help in its execution. Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins UK – One More Chapter for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am finding myself having an incredibly difficult time trying to figure out how to review this book.
While I really enjoyed it, I also found it to be very confusing. There were a lot of characters and a lot of storylines to follow. I found myself being unsure who was narrating which chapter and having to flip back pages thinking I'd missed something.
The ending did not come together for me at all and was completely unsatisfying. I needed more closure than what was given.
This book had so much potential but unfortunately missed it's mark for me.

I'm not sure what genre you'd put this in. It's a bit of everything. It does involve a serial killer, but to be honest by the time I got to the end, there had been so many missing people and murders I was left wondering who had actually done what. But never mind, I like ambiguous endings.

There's a dry, dark humour all the way through and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. The story can feel quite disturbing at times so the humour gives it a bit of a lift. It was very different to how I anticipated the book might be. I thought it would mainly be set in the care home and the residents would play a much bigger part but it turns out to have a varied range of characters all with interesting back stories.

As well as a murder mystery, the story is also about loss, in all its forms. Children who've gone missing, never to be seen again. How their parents can never stop looking for them when there is no closure. Jolene's sister went missing when Jolene was still a child. It tells of the effects on Jolene. Her parents divorced, her mum can never stop looking for her missing daughter, as a result her mum is paranoid about losing Jolene and always wants to know where she is, when she'll be home from work. Jolene at times finds this stifling and resents her sister for the way her disappearance has affected Jolene's life and her relationship with her mum.

There's a lot to this book. Mystery, lots of twists and you're never quite sure who the abductor might be. But it also has an emotional depth to it too. I thought the setting within the care home was very reflective of the general atmosphere in these homes having experienced two myself last year where my father stayed.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, it kept me intrigued and gripped all the way through, even if I was left a little confused at the end.

A serial killer who doesn’t remember he’s a serial killer. Seemed like an awesome premise which I excited to read; unfortunately, it fell a bit short for me. At times confusing to follow between timeline & narrator, and appeared to drag a lot in the beginning. While the end def picked up a bit, I still just couldn’t get fully invested.

**Thank you NetGalley & Harper Collins UK for the ARC**

I’m sorry to say that I really struggled with this book. It seemed to be trying to weave too many plot lines and characters together until it just became a tangled mess and left the reader with no idea of what’s going on. It’s a nice premise, but poorly executed, I felt. However, I thank the publisher for giving me access to this ARC in return for an honest review.

3.5⭐️

I loved the premise of this novel, a resident in a care home with dementia starts talking about having “killed” several different women and the dilemma of his carers as to how to deal with this information. And I liked the extra dimension added by one of his carers being someone whose own sister had gone missing many years previously and how this affected the way she dealt with everything happening.

I also enjoyed the flashes back to the past and getting the serial pov and motivations, following him through glances into his life and slowly gathering the threads together of what had happened.

However, I did struggle somewhat with the general unlikeability of almost all the characters, even those we should have been able to feel some sympathy for. And there were just too many crisscrossing paths and unrelated back stories that seemed unnecessary, with almost every character having some past crime/dark secret. And what could have been one or two satisfying red herrings turned into a more frustrating fully stocked pond of them!

I did feel there was a resolution to most of the storylines, but others it felt like were just left hanging which is possibly more realistic but didn’t leave me feeling as satisfied as I would’ve hoped for.

My thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the ARC ebook for Remember Where You've Buried the Bodies.

This had a very unique premise that didn't take a lot to get me interested. A serial killer forgets that he was a serial killer...oh this will be good. There is a nice variety of serious moments and humor. It does tend to be very British so if you aren't into British Humor, you9 may not enjoy it as much. This is a well written book that is very entertaining and worth a read.

This story comes up with a really good concept - namely, what might happen to key information once a person can no longer control what they are saying, which though tragic, does provide considerable material for a writer to mine - and applies it to the potential confessions of a murderer.

But is Gilbert actually a killer, or is he simply confused about something when he refers to killing someone? Care worker Jolene faces the unfortunate task of determining the truth.

This novel is based on an interesting idea, but falls a bit short with respect to implementation - most of the characters are not particularly likeable, but a bigger problem is the fact that it is sometimes confusing to make out who is doing what. Nevertheless the book does offer some entertainment, if not quite the dark humour that it promises. Definitely worth checking out, if the premise appeals to you.

The blurb for this book describes it as “darkly humorous.” It is nothing of the sort. It advertises it as good for fans of The Thursday Murder Club. Where that series of books is humorous, witty, and at times heartwarming, this book has none of those attributes. The characters are, for the most part, unlikable. The story is confusing at times, contains unnecessary diversions, and is ultimately unsatisfying. It reads like a manuscript for a good concept that hasn’t been professionally scrutinized or edited. There’s the kernel of a good story here, but the execution was mediocre.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A very intriguing premise, with a fairly good execution. This book kept me engaged from start to finish. I didn’t find the characters ‘lovable’ exactly, but they were fleshed out and unique, and likability isn’t something important in this kind of book. The characters SHOULD be questionable, they’re stalkers and thieves and murderers.

The main flaw for me, however, was that at times I was left confused and had to flip back a few pages to orient myself. There were so many storylines, in addition to different timelines, and I wish there was more variety in the character names. Jolene, Janette, Joanne - too many J names, then Angela, Angelina mentioned just a few pages apart. This may be a personal issue, but I struggle a lot with similar names and kept characters straight when they’re too similar.

Overall, a very entertaining read that gets the brain working to try to figure out what’s going on and who the hell is the serial killer. I definitely didn’t guess who it was until the very end; which is always nice.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for the advance review copy.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars

What happens when a serial killer forgets they are a serial killer? Gilbert, a resident at the Sunset House care home, suddenly proclaims "she wasn't laughing when I killed her." A confession? Or just the dementia talking?

Remember Where You've Buried the Bodies is a great mystery novel that kept me guessing the entire way through, always throwing you off the trail when you think you've figured it out. While it kept my attention the entire time and I wanted nothing more than to find out more information on all the murders Gilbert may or may not have committed, I unfortunately don't think I agree with it being classified a thriller OR humorous. The humor may just be a personal preference and it didn't connect with me, but the "thriller" portion of the story didn't occur until very late into the book. It felt more like a novice detective and a seemingly random bystander's story got intertwined with a serial killer's, which was still interesting nonetheless.

If you are a fan of mystery novels and want an interesting spin on the serial killer drama genre, I'd definitely give this novel a read.

Set in a care home with the main suspect a patient with dementia, Remember Where You’ve Buried the Bodies, promised to be an interesting read. Unfortunately I didn't find it to be so. I found it disjointed and going nowhere very slowly. It was trying hard to be funny when it wasn't. Making fun of people with dementia and in care homes is not amusing it is triggering and insulting. I chose this book as I was interested in the storyline of a possible serial killer who has forgotten he is a serial killer, however for the reasons stated above I could not continue to complete my reading of this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Great story with some brilliant characters and some laugh out loud moments. Highly recommended
Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC in return for an honest review

Gilbert, a resident of Sunset House care home, makes a startling claim: ‘when I killed her’, leaving employee Jolene unsure whether it’s the ramblings of an older gentleman or something to be taken seriously. Of course, it’s not the only suspicious thing to be said or discovered during the duration of this clever read…

This book was twisty, dark and filled with humour. I was hooked from beginning to end.

The characters were likable and the plot flowed beautifully

This was an easy and fun read and for me i finished it in one sitting as I didn't want to disturb my reading time. the author did a good job at engaging me and the writing style is easy to follow.

brilliant

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. This book was gripping from the off. Lancaster uses multiple narrators well, and the story was interesting. However, I felt the ending was too rushed and there were too many loose ends and unanswered questions. It didn't particularly make sense, and the conclusion left me feeling unsatisfied. Jolene was the most interesting character, with Lancaster carefully showing the different sides to her.

*Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This was such an amazing premise - a serial killer with vascular dementia who begins alluding to his crimes around his carers.

But unfortunately the dark humour just wasn’t humouring and there ended up being so many characters and subtle story lines and timelines that it all got a bit confusing and I spent a good part of the book confused and flicking back for explanations

I loved the concept of this book. A serial killer who has dementia and forgets he's a killer. What's not to love? I will admit I was confused at the beginning of this book and didn't really get what was going on with all the multiple characters POV and timelines, but it picked up in the middle and then I just had to finish it! There were a lot of twists and red herrings and dark humour. I would recommend this book to others with the caveat of, if confused in the initial chapters, just keep reading and trust the process.

Julie Lancaster’s Remember Where You’ve Buried the Bodies offers a darkly humorous and suspenseful thriller set in an unusual backdrop—a retirement home. The story centers on Gilbert, a resident who blurts out a chilling confession, and Will, an assistant torn between disbelief and growing suspicion. This unique setting brings a fresh twist to the serial killer genre.

The narrative cleverly plays with unreliable characters and timelines, keeping readers guessing about who to trust. For example, Will’s investigation into Gilbert’s claim and Jolene’s personal connection to a missing woman add depth and tension to the plot. The blend of humor and serious themes like dementia and loss is well handled, adding emotional layers beneath the mystery.

Though the pacing can feel uneven and some plot threads remain unresolved, the book’s originality and sharp dialogue make it an engaging read for fans of dark comedy and thrillers.

I found Remember Where You've Buried The Bodies to be an intriguing read, the mixture of the alternating past and present got some getting used to but I found it added so much knowledge to the storyline. The authors style of writing was great and I felt the sense of humour shone through the novel. The mystery felt unique and different to what I've read before, it was an enjoyable read