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The Chosen: A Ritual Serial Killer Psychological Thriller
195 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 8, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 13, 2026
The Ritual Already Knows Your Name
Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ARC Review: Some thrillers sneak up on you. This one? It prowls, studies, and then decides you’re part of the pattern. 😈 The setup? Purely deliciously ominous. Rituals. Patterns. Weaponized beliefs. And New Orleans—a city steeped in history and spiritual undercurrents—makes the perfect breeding ground for something ancient and calculated to crawl into the light. Add in symbolic clues and a serial killer with a calendar, and suddenly I’m feral! Damon Harper’s The Chosen: A Ritual Serial Killer Psychological Thriller grabbed me from the very first page!
This is dark, tense psychological crime thriller territory with occult and ritualistic undertones. The mood is electric—sharp, cerebral, and quietly menacing. The violence isn’t reckless; it’s deliberate—timed, meaningful, impactful. The murders follow a symbolic countdown, structured and precise. That’s when the dread shifts from loud screams to a whispering menace. Each chapter intensifies the pattern and tightens the suspense. The writing is engaging and pulse-pounding, with tension never letting up.
The pacing moves fast but never sloppily. Dropping breadcrumbs, another symbol, another detail that feels small until it absolutely isn’t. Multiple POVs deepen paranoia and add depth. Minor characters leave an impact, and subtle details—scents, remarks, symbols—silently morph into vital clues. Nothing is random; everything is chosen.
This is a heart-pounding, breath-stealing whodunit that digs into trauma, resilience, and the terrifying grip of belief. “That sometimes survival is the first chapter, not the last.” That line alone encapsulates the book’s core.
The premise chills to the bone: couples are abducted and murdered according to a symbolic timeline. Enter Maggie Lawson—a cult survivor turned academic speaker—whose past gives her a dangerous edge. She recognizes belief systems turned lethal. She understands how ritual builds control. But that insight comes at a price. As she says, “You don’t know at first… Trauma teaches your body to react before your mind can explain why.” The question lingers: Is she deciphering truth or reliving it?
Her partnership with Detective Broussard keeps the investigation grounded, but the real villain isn’t just a killer—it’s the ideology itself. Conviction. Structure. The crimes appear meticulously planned, not impulsive. And when the pattern fractures, introducing doubt and the possibility of something more complex, the tension spikes.
Themes hit hard: survival isn’t the end—sometimes it’s just the prologue. Maggie isn’t just trying to stop a killer—she’s fighting to prove that the belief system she escaped still has claws.
The ending delivers, but I’m greedy! I wanted more! More pages, more layers, more psychological unraveling, more time inside this haunting maze. If you love smart, ritual-heavy serial killer thrillers with psychological depth and atmosphere thick with menace, this book will have you side-eyeing every coincidence in your life.
Because in this city, belief isn’t harmless. No one is ever truly random. And if you think you haven’t been chosen... You probably just haven’t seen the pattern yet. And someone is always next. 😈
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ARC Review: Some thrillers sneak up on you. This one? It prowls, studies, and then decides you’re part of the pattern. 😈 The setup? Purely deliciously ominous. Rituals. Patterns. Weaponized beliefs. And New Orleans—a city steeped in history and spiritual undercurrents—makes the perfect breeding ground for something ancient and calculated to crawl into the light. Add in symbolic clues and a serial killer with a calendar, and suddenly I’m feral! Damon Harper’s The Chosen: A Ritual Serial Killer Psychological Thriller grabbed me from the very first page!
This is dark, tense psychological crime thriller territory with occult and ritualistic undertones. The mood is electric—sharp, cerebral, and quietly menacing. The violence isn’t reckless; it’s deliberate—timed, meaningful, impactful. The murders follow a symbolic countdown, structured and precise. That’s when the dread shifts from loud screams to a whispering menace. Each chapter intensifies the pattern and tightens the suspense. The writing is engaging and pulse-pounding, with tension never letting up.
The pacing moves fast but never sloppily. Dropping breadcrumbs, another symbol, another detail that feels small until it absolutely isn’t. Multiple POVs deepen paranoia and add depth. Minor characters leave an impact, and subtle details—scents, remarks, symbols—silently morph into vital clues. Nothing is random; everything is chosen.
This is a heart-pounding, breath-stealing whodunit that digs into trauma, resilience, and the terrifying grip of belief. “That sometimes survival is the first chapter, not the last.” That line alone encapsulates the book’s core.
The premise chills to the bone: couples are abducted and murdered according to a symbolic timeline. Enter Maggie Lawson—a cult survivor turned academic speaker—whose past gives her a dangerous edge. She recognizes belief systems turned lethal. She understands how ritual builds control. But that insight comes at a price. As she says, “You don’t know at first… Trauma teaches your body to react before your mind can explain why.” The question lingers: Is she deciphering truth or reliving it?
Her partnership with Detective Broussard keeps the investigation grounded, but the real villain isn’t just a killer—it’s the ideology itself. Conviction. Structure. The crimes appear meticulously planned, not impulsive. And when the pattern fractures, introducing doubt and the possibility of something more complex, the tension spikes.
Themes hit hard: survival isn’t the end—sometimes it’s just the prologue. Maggie isn’t just trying to stop a killer—she’s fighting to prove that the belief system she escaped still has claws.
The ending delivers, but I’m greedy! I wanted more! More pages, more layers, more psychological unraveling, more time inside this haunting maze. If you love smart, ritual-heavy serial killer thrillers with psychological depth and atmosphere thick with menace, this book will have you side-eyeing every coincidence in your life.
Because in this city, belief isn’t harmless. No one is ever truly random. And if you think you haven’t been chosen... You probably just haven’t seen the pattern yet. And someone is always next. 😈
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
February 15, 2026
Maggie Lawson goes to a conference—to speak about the cult she survived and her own experiences.
When people start going missing the detective on the case Detective Broussard thinks it is not the same situations but Maggie sees a pattern. Every five days it is ritualistic
As the investigation tightens, Maggie is pulled back into a world where each moment is measured.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
When people start going missing the detective on the case Detective Broussard thinks it is not the same situations but Maggie sees a pattern. Every five days it is ritualistic
As the investigation tightens, Maggie is pulled back into a world where each moment is measured.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
February 15, 2026
Wow, this book really pulled me in. I was so engrossed in wanting to find out what was going on. Who was doing it, and why…I found myself binging this story. The ritualistic and voodoo was so well done. The description in this was amazing. It was so hard to be patient about finding out who was committing these crimes. This was intense and had me on the edge of my seat. Every time I thought I knew why it was, I was wrong. So well written and suspenseful. That ending!
February 16, 2026
I received this as an ARC. Once again, Damon Harper writes a book that keeps me reading! I was literally holding my breath and leaning forward towards the end! Good characters and great story. A good quote from the book: The city loved a ghost story the way some people loved a second drink.
You don't have to have read Vanished Into Darkness, but you'll get where Maggie Lawson is coming from and what she's been through.
Great book!
You don't have to have read Vanished Into Darkness, but you'll get where Maggie Lawson is coming from and what she's been through.
Great book!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews