This was a quick and easy read although it is a slow burn. It is pretty twisty but a little predictable in places. Overall it was an entertaining read.

This was fun. The main reveal was clear very early on but there is enough other stuff going on so that doesn’t really matter as there’s still plenty to think about.

It was nice and light but with a real sense of dread so was well done for what it is. How some of the relationships evolved was well observed.

This was a quick and easy read that drew me in from the very start and I couldn't put it down. There was a good level of suspense and atmosphere that kept me guessing all the way through

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Michele Fleming’s The Psychopathy Project is a cerebral thriller that dares to ask: what happens when those who study psychopaths become targets themselves? Set within the cloistered halls of Burley Griffin University, the novel follows Dr. Emilia Dalton, a young psychology academic whose research into psychopathy takes a deadly turn when her mentor is murdered—and then another colleague. As suspicion coils around the lab, Emilia must navigate a minefield of academic ambition, buried secrets, and the chilling possibility that the killer is one of their own.

Fleming, a former university professor with a background in psychology, brings authenticity to the academic setting and a nuanced understanding of the psychological terrain. The novel is steeped in tension, but it’s not just a whodunnit—it’s a whydunnit. The murders are not random; they’re methodical, almost clinical, and the deeper Emilia digs, the more the line between researcher and subject begins to blur.

What makes The Psychopathy Project stand out is its layered approach to suspense. It’s a murder mystery, yes, but also a meditation on trust, power, and the ethics of psychological inquiry. The characters are sharply drawn, particularly Emilia, whose evolution from cautious academic to reluctant investigator is both believable and compelling.

Fleming’s prose is clean and deliberate, with just enough emotional undercurrent to keep the reader tethered to Emilia’s unraveling world. The pacing is brisk, the twists well-timed, and the final reveal—while shocking—feels earned.

An excellent, enjoyable read.

Typical murder mystery with a twist. Not sure I loved the writing style of this author. It was a quick read with a lot of action.

Thank you NetGalley! I really wanted to like this one and I did enjoy parts of it. It was definitely a slow burn but a little too slow. And it unfortunately fell flat and did live up to my expectations

Twisty academia murder mystery with just enough emotional chaos to keep me hooked.

This one surprised me (in a good way). The Psychopathy Project is part campus thriller, part psychological puzzle, part slow-burn emotional unraveling, and I was into it. Emilia makes for a solid lead—she’s smart, relatable, and just unhinged enough to start suspecting everyone (same, girl). The academic psychopathy research angle gives it a fun, nerdy edge, and the tension builds steadily as lab members start dropping like flies.

Is it a little extra at times? Sure. But I like my murder plots messy and my red herrings plentiful. The romance subplot was surprisingly tender too, which helped balance out the darkness. The pacing drags just a bit in the middle, and I saw one of the twists coming—but there was enough misdirection to keep me second-guessing myself until the very end.

It’s not trying to reinvent the murder mystery wheel, but it is trying to make you wonder if you could be working next to a psychopath. (Spoiler alert: you probably already are.)

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review—and for the existential dread.

I really enjoyed the plot behind this book, begging the question, what is or what makes a psychopath? The book follows a student when two of her classmates are murdered, to find the answer to that question before she is possibly the next target. Murder mystery to it's fullest. However, I felt this read lacked thrill, shock, suspense and that psychological thriller vibe that I was expecting from not only the genre, but the title as well. The positive feedback from me was the transitions throughout from the main character and the others and all loose ends are tied up at the ending. Overall, I gave this one a 3.5. Great plot, smooth transitions, and I overall liked the characters.

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc!

Unfortunately, this fell flat for me as a thriller. I was very intrigued for about the first 25%. It had so much potential, but the “thrill” never really came. So much plot time was taken up with Emilia talking to her coworkers and colleagues. Which was understandable for the first portion of the book, but it took away from the aspects I look for in a thriller and/or mystery.

Although this was a bit slow at first, once the plot picked up I was interested to see it to the end. Staff at a university are working on a psychopathy project, until they start dying. Essentially everyone is sleeping together murking the investigation further.

I actually really loved this one! I’d set my book down for awhile and found I kept thinking about the story. I mostly liked the main character until closer til the end and then she got on my nerves BIG time. Trying to leave a review without spoiling anything but I had my suspicions about a few characters from the start, but couldn’t place why. It all ties together very nicely at the end.

How do you identify a psychopath? That’s the question Dr Emilia Dalton, a young psychology academic, and her colleagues are trying to answer! Good book! This book had good suspense, mystery, murder, intriguing, and a few shocking moments! The story was interesting, it wasn’t one of my all time favorite but still worth reading! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

"Show, don't tell": sadly this book is a great example of what happens when there's no show anywhere. All they do is talk, about the murders, about relationships, about work...
It had a great premise, but it was poorly written.

The premise of this was interesting, as psychopaths do live among us and being an academic the setting and description of that was good. The pacing could be improved in this story as some parts there was a lot packed in and others not a lot happened in a lot of words.

(1.5 stars, rounded down)

I think the story had a lot of potential, but unfortunately the execution was really, really poor.

The Psychopathy Project follows Dr. Emilia Dalton, a psychology academic, who studies the defining characteristics used to identify psychopaths. When two members of the research team are murdered, it becomes clear that everyone involved in the project could be in danger, and everyone on the team becomes a suspect.

I really liked the idea of a murder mystery in an academic setting; I am myself in academia and am always excited to see how these sorts of relationships can be dramatized in fiction. I was also really intrigued by the psychopathy elements.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel like the book delivered on any of the promises it made in the blurb, and I found it to be very poorly written. The book is listed as a thriller, but literally nothing thrilling happened; 95% of the book is Emilia having conversations with her colleagues, and the entire mystery is constructed and solved through gossipy dialogue. The academic setting was important to the plot but it barely added anything to the story besides the general premise (and frankly, the all of the academic jargon in the first third was distracting). The dialogue was extremely unnatural and awkward and there was way too much of it. The thing I was most intrigued by (an exploration of psychopathy) was barely touched upon other than being name dropped over and over again.

I think the idea was great but there are a lot of issues that prevent me from recommending this book.

I didn’t see the twists and turns coming and I really enjoyed the first 30% the most.

I think the pacing felt oddly timed from 30-70% as things got very chaotic but there would be stretches of calm as well. This might be preferred for many readers but for me it felt a bit clonky and it felt like filler combined with the meat of the book.

In other words the twists and turns are intense but the pacing felt weird. It’s hard to explain and might simply be because it’s the ARC on my ereader versus the physical book as I can’t pin point an exact element.

With that being said, this is still a great twisty turner.

There are heavy references to a lab project as well as entries while working on this study so be aware that the formatting is varied throughout the book and there are a lot of details on the study.

While I personally feel this thriller wasn’t for me, I think it’s still a good twisty thriller and it’s got a great cover. 3.5 rounding up to 4.

Thank you for the eARC. I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.

so much exciting and tense moments in this book. way more than i was expecting. a great whodunit with extra spins in between.you are trying to link also the whys to the who and Michele makes you feel almost everything and anything. and when i think ive got to grips with where this might go it delights me again with a new intriguing plot point. was this to do with their research and oh the dark irony if people researching psychopaths are being killed by one.