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A Killing at Early Dawn
Can you really trust the one you love?
Lexie and William Grant's marriage was unshakable—a bond forged by love, trust, and shared dreams. But the arrival of a chilling danger changed everything.
Now, unspoken fears and hidden desires creep into their lives, and their once solid foundation crumbles.
In a cosmic chess game between forces beyond their comprehension, Lexie and William have become pawns in a battle of light and darkness. Every whisper of doubt, every act of defiance, and every secret shared or withheld tilts the scales in a deadly direction.
The Grants find themselves entangled in a web of mistrust, betrayal, and survival that shakes their world to its core, forcing them to confront the demons lurking within and around them.
Not everyone will make it out alive when dawn breaks. The line between right and wrong blurs as the stakes climb, and their choices will determine their fates and the outcome of a duel far greater than they could imagine.
Gripping and emotionally charged, A Killing at Early Dawn weaves together a haunting tale of love, deception, and the dangerous cost of keeping secrets. As the sun rises, one question remains: Who will be left standing when the truth finally comes to light?
Lexie and William Grant's marriage was unshakable—a bond forged by love, trust, and shared dreams. But the arrival of a chilling danger changed everything.
Now, unspoken fears and hidden desires creep into their lives, and their once solid foundation crumbles.
In a cosmic chess game between forces beyond their comprehension, Lexie and William have become pawns in a battle of light and darkness. Every whisper of doubt, every act of defiance, and every secret shared or withheld tilts the scales in a deadly direction.
The Grants find themselves entangled in a web of mistrust, betrayal, and survival that shakes their world to its core, forcing them to confront the demons lurking within and around them.
Not everyone will make it out alive when dawn breaks. The line between right and wrong blurs as the stakes climb, and their choices will determine their fates and the outcome of a duel far greater than they could imagine.
Gripping and emotionally charged, A Killing at Early Dawn weaves together a haunting tale of love, deception, and the dangerous cost of keeping secrets. As the sun rises, one question remains: Who will be left standing when the truth finally comes to light?
345 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2025
1 person is currently reading
846 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 27, 2025
This book is excruciatingly slow, I felt like I was reading the same thing chapter after chapter.
May 29, 2025
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book was very interesting.
It’s about the battle between good and bad and who you want to battle with, betrayal and the fact that you should not trust everyone you love.
It was really well written and the pace was very nice !
This book was very interesting.
It’s about the battle between good and bad and who you want to battle with, betrayal and the fact that you should not trust everyone you love.
It was really well written and the pace was very nice !
August 6, 2025
Oh, my gosh, I could not put this haunting, heart-pounding thriller down! Kathryn McGrady’s unflinching portrayal of a crumbling marriage cut me to the quick. Written with aching precision and a poet’s grasp of nuance, McGrady takes you deep into the fragmented psyche of a woman who no longer knows if she’s spiralling or seeing clearly for the first time.
Lexie and William’s relationship is the book’s tortured spine, a portrait of intimacy turned claustrophobic, tender moments curdled by emotional violence and suspicion.
Their slow car crash of a marriage emerges in scenes of chilling quiet. When Lexie gently covers a sleeping William with a blanket, love becomes an elegy mourned in real time. In others, rage and fear eclipse reason, culminating in terrifying confrontations. But A Killing at Early Dawn is more than domestic noir. A supernatural undercurrent elevates the narrative.
Cosmic forces pull strings on a chessboard where love and death are the pieces. The Devil’s hand, the whisper of divine love, and the inevitability of sacrifice pulse through the novel like a second heartbeat.
McGrady’s vivid, textured prose spills raw emotional truth into every scene. She captures the despair of being unseen, the fear of being wrong about the person you once trusted most, and the resilience it takes to reclaim your sense of self when survival depends on it.
Far more than a thriller, A Killing at Early Dawn is a deeply intimate exploration of how love can mask danger, how silence can scream louder than words, and how the soul fights hardest when it’s cornered. This is a tale that lingers like a prayer. Loved it!!!!!!!
Lexie and William’s relationship is the book’s tortured spine, a portrait of intimacy turned claustrophobic, tender moments curdled by emotional violence and suspicion.
Their slow car crash of a marriage emerges in scenes of chilling quiet. When Lexie gently covers a sleeping William with a blanket, love becomes an elegy mourned in real time. In others, rage and fear eclipse reason, culminating in terrifying confrontations. But A Killing at Early Dawn is more than domestic noir. A supernatural undercurrent elevates the narrative.
Cosmic forces pull strings on a chessboard where love and death are the pieces. The Devil’s hand, the whisper of divine love, and the inevitability of sacrifice pulse through the novel like a second heartbeat.
McGrady’s vivid, textured prose spills raw emotional truth into every scene. She captures the despair of being unseen, the fear of being wrong about the person you once trusted most, and the resilience it takes to reclaim your sense of self when survival depends on it.
Far more than a thriller, A Killing at Early Dawn is a deeply intimate exploration of how love can mask danger, how silence can scream louder than words, and how the soul fights hardest when it’s cornered. This is a tale that lingers like a prayer. Loved it!!!!!!!
August 10, 2025
the intention for making this book is commendable and i also think it was an essential read but it definitely reflects reality, however, this book can be so monotonous and so repetitive that i lost interest so fast.
i honestly think it needs a re-write. but i still think this is an essential read, because of the messages it contains.
i honestly think it needs a re-write. but i still think this is an essential read, because of the messages it contains.
September 22, 2025
God and the Devil make a deal - they will play a game of chess to determine the fate of a young couple. (To make it really clear Who is Who, God wears white gloves and the Devil wears red ones! This is NOT a subtle book.)
Unlike the Book of Job, which starts with a similar premise, this book is so poorly written that I had to quit after a couple of chapters. The characters are like cardboard cutouts and I couldn't make myself care about them at all. The young couple is introduced in a fairly graphic sex scene (okay, they were married to each other, but even so, do I really need to hear about the woman's nipple response in the first chapter? No, I do not!) I even skipped ahead to the end to make sure I hadn't missed something important. I hadn't. This is a religious polemic disguised as a "supernatural thriller."
The only reason I even tried to read this dreadful thing is because it was offered as an "instant giveaway" on Goodreads. A Killing at Early Dawn was described, in the Giveaway, as a contest between cosmic forces. I pictured something like "Lord of the Rings" or "StarGate SG1" because there was no mention of God, the Devil, or the fact that this was what is usually identified as "faith-based fiction." Silly me! I'm glad I didn't get suckered into paying for this with anything more than my time.
I do feel that I need to apologize for not writing this review until after the publication date. I have a long "to read" list. A Killing at Early Dawn fell through the cracks because I didn't have the reminder of either a physical book or a NetGalley prompt and so I forgot about it until yesterday when I happened to glance at my Goodreads bells. (Since most of these are "likes", friend requests, or suggestions to start a discussion, I usually don't bother reading them very often.) I suppose it doesn't really matter as my review would hardly boost sales, but I try to fulfill my obligations, which is the only reason I spent this much time on this book.
Unlike the Book of Job, which starts with a similar premise, this book is so poorly written that I had to quit after a couple of chapters. The characters are like cardboard cutouts and I couldn't make myself care about them at all. The young couple is introduced in a fairly graphic sex scene (okay, they were married to each other, but even so, do I really need to hear about the woman's nipple response in the first chapter? No, I do not!) I even skipped ahead to the end to make sure I hadn't missed something important. I hadn't. This is a religious polemic disguised as a "supernatural thriller."
The only reason I even tried to read this dreadful thing is because it was offered as an "instant giveaway" on Goodreads. A Killing at Early Dawn was described, in the Giveaway, as a contest between cosmic forces. I pictured something like "Lord of the Rings" or "StarGate SG1" because there was no mention of God, the Devil, or the fact that this was what is usually identified as "faith-based fiction." Silly me! I'm glad I didn't get suckered into paying for this with anything more than my time.
I do feel that I need to apologize for not writing this review until after the publication date. I have a long "to read" list. A Killing at Early Dawn fell through the cracks because I didn't have the reminder of either a physical book or a NetGalley prompt and so I forgot about it until yesterday when I happened to glance at my Goodreads bells. (Since most of these are "likes", friend requests, or suggestions to start a discussion, I usually don't bother reading them very often.) I suppose it doesn't really matter as my review would hardly boost sales, but I try to fulfill my obligations, which is the only reason I spent this much time on this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews