You always check under your bed for monsters before you go to sleep. You never think to look right across the dinner table. Detective Margot Phalen has spent over a year hunting San Francisco’s most elusive predator, the Redwood Killer, who leaves his victims alongside the scenic trails of Muir Woods. Each murdered woman connects to the city’s most powerful families and the corruption leads straight to Margot’s own police department! Wow fantastic book and series!! So sorry to see it end! Can’t wait for the new series though! This book had chilling suspense, gruesome murders, mystery, intrigue, action, and some jaw dropping twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting! I highly recommend reading this book and series! They’re well worth reading! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me! Can’t wait for more!

Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of Out of the Woods by Kate Wiley due to be published August 20, 2025.

Detective Margot Phalen is hunting the Redwood Killer. When her father, and former serial killer, wants to be released to show the graves of his final victim, Margot feels she can’t say no. Will this be the end of her dealings with her father?

I love this series because it is so easy to fall back into the characters of Margot, Wes, her partner, and Ed, her father. They are easy to read, keep me on the edge of my seat and guessing, and a true delight to read! This one was probably the best of all five in the series. It brought several stories to a conclusion (no spoilers), and I was sad to see the series end. The good news is there will be another series with Margot and Wes – can’t wait to read it!
#NetGalley #KateWiley #OutOfTheWoods #StormPublishing

What a way to end a series, I loved it! When I saw this book was available I dropped everything. I devoured this book to find out how all the slow-burn plot threads would resolve. Too often I think series become formulaic and predictable, but this series is refreshingly not that.

I really love that Kate Wiley has allowed her series to move forward with each book, especially with Margot's personal growth over the series. She's gone from being a fearful loner, brittle and self medicating to cope with her PTSD, to someone slowly dipping her toe to deal with her emotions and opening herself up to trusting others so she can create a better life for herself. Importantly, this book tackles the slow-burn 'will they/won't they' between the skittish Margot and Wes, her steady rock of a partner, who understands what she needs. It represents a huge step forward and I really hope that the next series builds upon that because she deserves happiness given all she's overcome.

I can't wait for the next Margot series, the wait is already killing me. I am looking forward to also getting my hands on the audiobook.

Thanks to Storm and NetGalley for the ARC.

What a delightful conclusion to this wonderful series.
This is a collection of spoilers, so I am simply going
to suggest that fans read this book with the excitement
we have for each book, knowing that the Author took
care to wrap things up perfectly.
My thanks to Storm Publishing for the download copy
of the book for review purposes.

!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH !!!! This was a perfect conclusion to one of my favorite series! All of the loose ends were satisfyingly tied up, and (even more exciting) Margot will be back (!!!!!) in a new series!

This book features two storylines that are fast-paced. One storyline is engaging though somewhat exaggerated, while the other seems implausible and lacks thorough research.
The series concludes with a dramatic ending.
Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to read this complimentary advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Book review: Kate Wiley’s Out Of The Woods. Thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

I’ve followed Detective Margot Phalen from the beginning, and this fifth installment absolutely wrecked me—in the best way. Out Of The Woods is raw, relentless, and emotionally charged. Wiley brings us full circle, and Margot has never been more layered, more human, or more on the edge. The Redwood Killer case has been the slow-burning fuse at the heart of this series, and here it explodes. The stakes aren’t just professional anymore—they’re personal, brutal, and final. Margot isn’t just chasing a killer. She’s chasing ghosts, legacy, and some version of peace she may never fully reach.

As someone who lives in Northern California, I have a soft spot for any story set here—and Wiley nails the atmosphere. The foggy trails of Muir Woods, the tension of San Francisco’s elite circles, the undercurrent of corruption in places that feel all too familiar—it all hits differently when it’s close to home. She captures the beauty and danger of this place with a sharp eye and just the right amount of grit.

What really hit me in this book was how Wiley writes about trauma—not as a theme, but as a weight Margot carries in every scene. She’s exhausted, frayed, furious—and still, she fights. There’s a moment when Margot says, “Some monsters make you; some you make. And sometimes, you look in the mirror and can’t tell the difference.” That line gutted me. It’s not just about her father, Ed Finch—it’s about the system, the lies she’s uncovered, and the way survival demands transformation.

The pacing is razor-sharp. I read this in two sittings because every chapter ends like a blade twist. The tension between Margot and Wes? Finally, something real breaks through the surface. Their bond has been slow-burning for so long, but now there’s no more room for half-truths. They’re all in—or they’re dead. Wiley doesn’t give her characters easy outs, and I respect the hell out of that.

This finale delivers everything: closure, consequence, and that tight-throated rush you only get from high-stakes fiction that refuses to play it safe. It’s not just a thriller—it’s a reckoning.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5* Everything the finale of this series needed. And it's not the end for Margot and Wes, professionally or personally. Yay on the first, kind of meh on the latter.

This series was a bit of a slow burner over the first couple of books, making me wonder if I'd missed seeing Margot in another book by the author. I hadn't, but she had so many issues and had been living with mistrust and fear for so long, that this book was slowly in the making even back then. I'm so grateful to Storm Publishing letting me know as soon as book after book was ready, and for the author being so prolific, and today I dropped everything to read this in under 2 hours.

What. A. Book. A perfect ending to the Ed arc and the serial killer storyline, because of courage on Margot's part for the former and plain good detecting from a character introduced in this last book as a minor character and junior detective, which worked perfectly for the latter. Nothing planted, nothing out of place, just the perfect plum falling into their collective laps, plus a stroke of luck, plus a strong woman fighting back, to deny the killer the notoriety he sought. By the sounds of it, he was probably both MAGA and an incel, a disciple of that obnoxious Tate guy - I really liked how the author brought IRL stuff into the hook without sensationalism, just plausibility.

As for the Ed arc? A bit of a blinder on his part, though everyone should've expected something along the lines of what happened from him. Was it suicide by cop? Was it his crushed ego crushing him? Was it him releasing Margot from his prison? Maybe all of it?

The book ends in new life for Margot, personally and professionally. The tiniest critique that I have is that her self-professed bisexuality was all mouth and no trousers, which niggled a little over the last couple of books. Still, the tale ends well for her and Wes, though I'm not sure their rush to 'those words' and talk of a future rang that true. But, onwards and to the FBI for her, which according to the author, should see the light of day shortly.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure.