When the bodies of two teen girls are discovered in a New York hotel, Detective Maria Miller and her partner Frankie are brought in to investigate. But this will not be a simple open and shut murder investigation. Both girls' feet have been cut off and are missing, and there are sinister parallels to past crimes at the hotel. At the hotel, Maria glimpses a woman in blue - is the woman real or a ghost? Is she friend or foe? After Maria herself starts to become affected by the mysteries of the murders and the hotel, she worries that she may be the unknown killer's next victim. Will Maria and Frankie be able to catch the killer in time? Helen Phifer's The Girls on Floor 13 (Detective Maria Miller #3) is an entertaining, easy read for fans of crime fiction, paranormal fiction, and especially paranormal crime fiction. I had not read the first two novels in the Maria Miller series and was admittedly worried that this would put me at a disadvantage, but in my opinion the novel stands on its own. Phifer does make references to Maria and Frankie's past paranormal crime adventures, but you will absolutely still have a fulsome reading experience whether or not you have read the prior two novels. If anything, I look forward to going back and reading them, having enjoyed the third one so much!

Two girls are found dead in their beds in a locked room on what seems to be a haunted 13th floor.

Maria and Franke set out to solve the mystery. The girls were supposed to be at a slumber party but it appears that they were lured there by a mysterious voice on their voice mails.

An old newspaper article emerges that shows a very similar murder took place years ago, and that the two sets might be linked.

This mystery had enough of a haunted theme that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are interesting and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat.

Thanks to netgalley for this good book

Gruesome and dark.

I haven't read the others in the series, but didn't feel that I was missing context.

Detective Maria Miller is called to a case of two teens murdered at a local hotel. The girls, from Boston, had snuck out to follow the obsession with the true crime stories they have seen and read about the hotel. With essentially no evidence/dna, it's quite the challenge to investigate.

After diving into the history of the hotel and its staff, she learns that a similar murder occurred many years ago. This story has a super creepy premise, and very disturbing link to the paranormal.

Thanks to NetGalley, Storm Publishing and Helen Phifer for the eARC.

I enjoyed this one, chock full of twists and turns. I read it very quickly as I couldn't wait to fi d out what happened next. Highly recommend this one. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

📚 Book Review 📚

An old, notorious hotel in NYC with a violent and disturbing past. Reports of people seeing and feeling things of a supernatural nature. A horrific discovery in room 1303 in the thirteenth floor of the Parker Hotel.

It appears that history is repeating itself in the worst ways and those that once walked the corridors of The Parker, still remain.

This is an easy, fun read which is the third book in a series involving Detective Maria Miller and her partner, Frankie who are responsible for investigating crimes of a paranormal nature. I haven’t read the previous two books, but this did not stop me enjoying this third instalment. If you enjoy the paranormal and a story which is easy to read and get into, then this is for you. I need to read the previous two now!

I’d like to thank Storm Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the arc and the fantastic opportunity, in exchange for my honest feedback 😊

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When the bodies of two teenage girls are discovered in a rundown New York City hotel room, Detective Maria Miller is called to the crime scene. The best friends were supposed to be at a sleepover miles away in the suburbs. With no record of the girls checking in and the room on the thirteenth floor closed off to guests, what were they doing there?

The Girls on Floor 13 is the third book in Phifer's Detective Maria Miller series. While all could potentially be read in any order - it is recommended that you start with The Haunting on West 10th Street. During this book, we not only have our paranormal investigation (with spooky links to previous hauntings), but we also get a little more of a glimpse into Maria's private life. One of my favourite parts of this series is the amazing banter between both Maria and Frankie and their perfect impression of Mulder and Scully! This one definitely felt inspired by other hotel murders, so if you're a fan of true crime and ghostly sightings and disappearances this one is a must to add to your list.

Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing and Helen Phifer for an advanced copy for review. The Girls on Floor 13 is set for release May 30th, 2024.

This book is centered around the investigation of the murder of two girls on the thirteenth floor of a haunted hotel. Detective Maria Miller is the lead investigator in this case, and is working together with Detective Frankie. While they are at the hotel, Detective Maria sees and learns about a lady dressed in blue. It is stated that the lady dressed in blue is a bad omen, and people who see her often will either end up dead, or someone else will die.

I enjoyed this book and the pace of the story. It wasn't too overwhelming or underwhelming at all. I originally wasn't sure if I liked the paranormal aspect of this story since I wasn't expecting it (since this book is only labeled as a thriller book on Goodreads and the only mentions of the possibility of it being a paranormal thriller is the mention of hauntings in the synopsis), but it grew on me and added an extra layer to the story, and made it more interesting.

The only complaint that I have is the constant obsession with feet from the point of view of the killer...... just not my thing and feet gross me out.

If you haven’t figured it out yet I love books with old houses and old buildings that are potentially haunted. So it was a no brainer for me to read this. I would classify this as a YA book.

The story is gripping and challenging from the first page. I wanted to learn the backstories of each incident and characters. The characters are so much fun to follow around as they solve the mystery.

However, I kept feeling like Im missing out on things because I haven’t read the previous books about the main protagonist so I’m missing a big part of the story.

The build up is stunning but the ending left me confused and with a million questions. I’m still wondering about the backstory of the ghosts. I wish there was more information about it.

Thrilling, twisty and ALMOST got me but I figured out the twist in the end. I would still recommend this book to a friend! A great mystery.

Um I’m a fan….Just now….My heart is still racing. My nerves gone. I finally can take a breath. Wow.

So these two teenage girls, Dory and Melissa, skip school to visit this specific hotel room (1303) in the most haunted hotel in NY. They tell their parents they are sleeping over at each other houses. (Typical lie for teenagers when they doing something they ain’t got no business doing!)

Fast forward - a maid from the hotel finds the girls in the bed dead. Something about their death and how they were found just doesn’t sit right. It ain’t normal. Somebody got a fetish! 👀

Detective Frankie and Maria from the Strange Case Review Team take over the case to find the killer.
Look, the way I was playing detective along with them. 🧐🔎This my first and last case because NOPE! So much is packed into this book with it being a supernatural thriller/mystery. I couldn’t put it down. Now got to read or watch something light and airy 😂

We did that team! Thankful to the guardian angels in our lives on Earth and in spirit.

Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC read.

This book is a dark, haunting detective thriller.

Detective Maria is called to help solve the murder of two young girls who are on the 13th floor of a New York hotel. There is strange things happening at the hotel and quite a lot of dead people.

This is personally is not a book I’d usually read, it’s too scary for me and wasn’t read after dark. It is well written though and enjoyed the mystery around the murders, but not the paranormal behaviors. A spooky 3.5 read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

Supernatural and spooky aren’t usually my thing at all but I liked the look of this book. I never read the blurb or reviews before i start reading a book so had no idea what to expect. I loved this book, I couldn’t put it down and I had to find out what happened.

Detective Maria Miller and her partner Frankie worked on strange cases. They took a call for the homicide team one evening and ended up embroiled in a case at the Parker hotel in New York. It wasn’t long before they realised that this case was more suited to ‘strange cases’ than homicide. They fought to keep the case.

Things kept happening and when they looked at the history of the hotel and previous police incidents there Maria felt like she never wanted to go back to the hotel again. Horrible things happened there and nothing seemed to make any sense.

This was a great book and one I’m definitely going to purchase on release day for someone that I know would love to read it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy for an honest review.

The girls on floor 13 by Helen Phifer is the third book in the Detective Maria Miller series and maybe the last one.
The Parker hotel in New York used to a be a prestigious hotel but these days it is now run down after its history of murders and people committing suicide and supernatural goings on. Two teenage girls discovering about the hotel’s history decides to visit. But this decision has disastrous consequences when they found dead in one of the hotels rooms.
Detective Maria and Frankie don’t usually deal with live cases. But as they are in the area, they are sent to the hotel only to find the dead bodies of the two girls with their feet missing. The pair usually take on cases with supernatural element. But this hotel is known for a woman to walk around the 13th floor and who ever sees her ends up either in danger or dead. Maria puts herself in danger to investigate. Is this a serial killer or is there a more supernatural element involved.
Thank you, Helen Phifer, for getting me out of a reading slump. This another great episode in this spooky supernatural series. I love the character of Maria is feisty and not scared of anything and with Frankie they make a great team. I like the premise because of the mixture of the Police procedural and Supernatural elements. It different from others that I have read, and it gripped me throughout. I will be sorry to see this series go if it anything to go by the end of this story. 5 stars from me.

This was an ok book. It does involve supernatural activity, so if that's not your thing, skip it. It wasn't scary, just spooky. It may have just been me, but it bored me and got hard to finish it. It was written well so I think this was a me thing.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. These opinions are my own.

📚 ARC Book Review 📚

🔖 The Girls on Floor 13 by Helen Phifer
Genre : General fiction | True crime | Mystery/Thriller
Pub date : May 30th, 2024

𝓐 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓯𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓴𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓻𝓸𝓸𝓶. 𝓢𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓫𝔂 𝓼𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝔀𝓲𝓷 𝓫𝓮𝓭𝓼, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵𝓼 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓮 𝓼𝓵𝓮𝓮𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓮𝔁𝓬𝓮𝓹𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓹𝓪𝓵𝓮 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓷 𝓲𝓼 𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓵𝓭, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓬𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓭 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓷 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷…

Detective Maria Miller is called to a New York City hotel room where the bodies of two teenage girls are found. Sinister messages on their phones suggest they were lured there using the hotel's haunted reputation as bait. With no DNA evidence, Maria suspects the killer is an employee. As she investigates, she uncovers a connection to a past murder and a chilling discovery in the room. Maria must solve the case before she becomes the next victim.

📖 : This is the third book in the 'Detective Maria Miller' series. The title piqued my curiosity, and I was eager to read it so I requested for it.

The book gave off an eerie atmosphere, with a plot that surrounded the investigation of de@ths that revolved around the supernatural realm. I must admit, it managed to spook me a couple of times, as I am easily spooked by such themes 😅. Nevertheless, I was determined to see it through to the end.

The plot itself was easy to follow and comprehend, though at times it became incredibly intense, that I had to resist checking for spoilers. On other occasions, it seemed to drag a bit. I really liked the characters in this book, everything just gave off ‘movie’

All in all, I enjoyed reading this book. It's a perfect choice if you're in the mood for something mildly spooky 😅. While it's not necessary to have read the previous books in the series, doing so may help your understanding of certain aspects.

Rating:⭐️ 8/10

This book brought together crime investigation, a gripping mystery and even some supernatural elements that kept me guessing what would happen next. The end did a great job of wrapping the various characters and plot twists up leaving me very satisfied - a fantastic reading experience! If you’re a fan of mysteries and thrillers with a touch of the supernatural, this book is a must-read.

Two bodies are found in room 1303 of a run down motel, the victims are teenagers and both are missing their feet. Detective Maria Miller and her partner are charged with finding who or what murdered them. They are going to need all the help they can get. Years before another murder had taken place in this same room and the same MO. Maria has to determine if they are connected before more bodies turn up.
Although not my usual genre I enjoyed this story . It was fast paced and tense reading. The pages flew by in my need to find out what was going to happen next and it didn't disappoint. If you like suspenseful. page turning, scares read this book.

Fantastic blend of the supernatural and a gore fest murder mystery with lots going on. I loved that it was set in a hotel as they already have a mysterious behind the scenes world going on already so it’s easy to link this to the more sinister events in this book. The ghost appearing as a warning to tragedy is a great time tested concept but gives a great edge of suspense and terror.
The goriest part of the book (no spoilers) made me audibly gasp out loud a few times much to the bemusement of my family. This is actually praise indeed as I normally consider myself quite hardened to the macabre partly due to my love of crime fiction but also my forensics degree, great writing!
The detectives and main characters were very likeable and engaging, so overall this book has a lot to love. Recommend.

Thanks netgalley for this ARC!
I've read alot of Helen Phifer's books and this one did not disappoint!
Extremely gripping right from the prologue!
Highly recommend.

This is part of a series that is referenced quite a bit. You get the gist of it but you'll probably enjoy this more if you read the series (I haven't) bc an investment in the characters will take you a long way in enjoying this book.

There were just too many elements missing for me to fully like this. I wish less air time had been given to all the ppl telling Maria that her rich boyfriend loved her and she should give love a chance and we spent a little more time with the victims (ie the girls that kickstart the story). We literally don't get anything about them (the little detective work into them was strangely overlooked). The ghost that looks in the beginning - her story makes no sense and I don't know what happened or why (also never explained in detail that rounds out her story) and the death that takes place outside of the main murders was unnecessary to the story.

If you can overlook that, it has Evil (the show) vibes. I just felt like things were missing, and I may have skipped them, so kept going back to re-read but it took me out of the story.