Patch Lane

by S.F. Barkley

Sarah Hastings is a rookie cop who works the night shift in Amber Forest, a small rural town nestled in the Western Pennsylvania mountains. After repeatedly responding to an abandoned and allegedly haunted farmhouse for 911 hang up calls, she discovers a dead body in a secret room. The forensic investigators determine that the body has only been dead for three to four days, but the case takes an unexpected turn when Sarah runs the victim's fingerprints and learns that her Jane Doe actually died 20 years ago.


When the investigation intersects with a larger confidential case, Sarah finds herself caught between the FBI and US Marshals and realizes that she may be closer to the victim than she thought. As Sarah’s involvement in the case deepens, she finds her career is not the only thing at stake…


Someone wants her dead.

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Mystery Thriller

172 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

S.F. Barkley is a former police officer who uses her law enforcement knowledge and experience along with her love for all things creepy to create short stories and novels. She had several eerie experiences as a cop, including having discovered secret underground tunnels and responding to 911 hang up calls to an abandoned industrial building. She has published short horror stories in various anthologies and is publishing her debut mystery novel, Patch Lane, in October 2019. She was raised in Western Pennsylvania and currently resides in Maryland with her husband and their rescue pup.

Reviews

[Annie Castaneda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but I just think there was a little more action missing.

[Maddie butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a rookie cop Sarah Gets all the crap calls. Every night gets dispatched to the same address for 911 hang ups. When Sarah discovers a dead body in the house she discovers she has a history with the the victim, but how. The more she digs into this case the more she discovers. Her life is threatened when a pig head is left on her door cautioning her to keep her nose out of the murders business. But threatening her doesn’t faze her it only pushes her more to find out how she knows the victim and who killed the victim and why.

I enjoyed this book as a light read coming off of a hefty 550 page book. Only reason I gave it a 4/5 star rating was because of the language. I can see a few curse words here and there but when there is a curse word on almost every page it’s a no from me.

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this Mystery quite intriguing, admiring the strong female heroine who combines intuition with determined perseverance. I really hope this will become a series: I'd like to read more about Officer Sarah Hastings, and I'd really like to learn more about the historical backdrop of the eponymous farmhouse on Patch Lane.

[Tori Halteman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Matthew Burroughs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patch Lane by S.F. Barkley introduces us to Officer Sarah Hastings of the Amber Forest Police department. Hastings is a good young cop, and despite the ankle weights of working a small town police force with some old world thinking, she’s developing into a pretty well respected officer of the law. Most trouble on her beat comes from the odd drunk driving arrest or traffic accident, save for one insanely creepy property on Patch Lane. This particular property is not a quaint suburban dream home, but instead is a decades long abandoned farm house. The supposed ghost stories about this place alone would be enough to ward off most trespassers, but a new wrinkle comes from repeated 9-1-1 hangups coming from that property. Officer Hastings is sent to investigate, and the creep factor immediately sets in for both the main character and reader. Mysterious calls, a hidden dead body, and some heinous criminal activity. Can Officer Hastings crack the case and keep her loved ones safe?

The novel is told solely from the first person prospective of Officer Hastings, and the bulk of the proceedings read like a police procedural. As a decades long fan of television shows narrated from this angle, I appreciate the effort and style within this genre. Hastings’ tone is welcoming and friendly, however we were given a lot more of her personal thoughts and anecdotes than I was expecting from a story told in this way. As Hastings slowly uncovers the mystery of an improbable murder, there is a good balance between clue discovery and some good old fashioned police work. The personal touch of the MC’s perspective is best seen through her work with an FBI agent who becomes her pseudo partner as the mystery unravels into a sophisticated criminal undertaking. Maybe let’s not call it sexual tension as that’s not explored in any great detail, but these two make a great pair and their feelings for each other show some true professional chemistry.

No matter what new wrinkle to the story is added from the latest clue or lead, it all seems to circle back to Hastings in some way. It’s intriguing to have a main character so ingrained into the fabric of the good and evil elements of a crime story, however it grew a bit perplexing for me. It’s perfectly natural for a main character to be the most important person in a story, however with the level of detail added to the novel by the police procedural experience, I was expecting more of a “cog in the system” approach. Officer Hastings is a great cop, but at some points she appears like the full unquestioning protagonist of reality, only held back by being in a police system that is making her do things by the book. It’s not egregious, and it certainly doesn’t rob from the overall mystery, it just feels like a bit of an unexpected compromise. In the end, Hastings saves the day, so I guess we can all get on board with her being the woman of the hour, she’s earned that much.

Verdict: Patch Lane by S.F. Barkley is an exciting police procedural inspired murder mystery novel that tells a truly interesting story. With a full range of twists and turns, the mystery is engaging and will keep most readers guessing all the way through to the conclusion. The protagonist may be a bit more ingrained in the fabric of the plot elements than I was expecting, but the chilling mystery hits its stride though the secondary characters with which the MC engages. For all the novels that champion the renegade criminal or deranged anti-hero, it’s refreshing to have an exciting story with a hero worth looking up to. I’d like to see more of this main character, she’s welcome on my beat any time.

Special thanks to S.F. Barkley and Between the Line Publishing for supplying an Advance Review Copy of Patch Lane to TehBen.com for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[LignjaHal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5.0
Another story I heard from the CreepCast podcast.
This story isn't entirely bad, but it relies heavily on tropes of the cop drama genre, which bring down the story. The ending doesn't feel earned as a result, because you can see it a mile away. And the final supernatural twist? Another thing that slips and falls on a donut.
There is an opening for a good story here, I just wish the author stepped out from behind the tropes of the genre and found a new story to be told.

[K.T. Egan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! What a debut! S.F. Barkley's debut novel, about rookie cop Sarah Hastings, was a thriller that I definitely needed in my life. While it would have been a quicker read had I had the time to give it my full attention, the book is a fast paced thriller that, at times, left chills for hours after reading. I will also never be able to look at a pig again the same way, thank you Betty Ann.

Sarah was a refreshing heroine - I am also enthralled when I come across a woman in a book who does not have her stuff all together. I don't mean to say that Sarah is a hot mess - she is just a super relatable, career oriented young woman with a lot of passion, and family commitment that was refreshing and warmed my soul. She reminds me of me, despite two very different career choices, which was also refreshing. I had a very easy time connecting to Sarah on an emotional level, aside from the shared paternal dynamics, because she is dedicated, strong willed, and incredibly intelligent. Her work with the Marshalls and her local police department to solve Michelle's murder was genius and Barkley totally played to her strengths as an ex-cop when writing the whole department.

I was also a huge fan of Amber Forest. As a small, NEPA town girl myself, I was instantly transported back to my childhood from Hasting's descriptions of the world around her. Even the creepy Patch Lane, and the house in questions, took me right back to being a kid and avoiding the abandoned house up the road because there was certainly something amiss with it. Barkley did an amazing job of capturing that small town feel, and really shaking it with a cross-law enforcement investigation. The whole time, I could only imagine how my small town would have reacted similar circumstances. Which was amazing to me because Barkley really made me feel like I was home again - a sign of very good writing on her part.

All in all, Barkley's debut novel was a resounding success. I cannot wait to read more of her work in the future.

[Claire Self · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I have given Patch Lane by S. F. Barkley four out of five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am such a huge fan of murder mystery thrillers and this one definitely hit the spot! I found myself hooked from the very beginning. Barkley has created a fantastic fast-paced book filled with twists and turns throughout.
Let's start with the main character we learn about in this story. Sarah Hastings, a rookie cop, is our main character and the story is told through the perspective of Sarah throughout the book. I thought she was very likeable, brave and a very hard working police officer. We welcome a U.S. Marshal called Matthew Sloan whom for a long time in the story I found to be a little dubious about, however towards the end I found myself drawn to him and would've loved to have read more about Hastings and Sloan together romantically but that wasn't the main sole purpose of this book so I shall have to put those thoughts to rest. (They would make such a great couple though!)
I really liked Barkley's style of writing; her descriptive writing was detailed which helped set the scene well, I really appreciated the amount of research and effort she had put into this book, in regards to the police procedures and the realistic feel to what I would believe these protocols are carried out like.
I enjoyed the plot of the story and definitely had no idea who was going to turn out to be the main suspect until when events start to unravel in the book. I had my guesses but didn't think of the person it turn out to be once, so thank you Barkley for leading me astray from the big reveal! This book had a paranormal feel to it as well, which kept me close to the edge of my seat as I didn't know what way this book was going to go at first.
I hope to read more of S. F. Barkley's material in the future and would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of crime thriller fiction stories.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I apologize in advance for this brutal review.

I did not finish this book. I struggled through almost 80 pages, and finally gave up on reading it.

The book was written in first person, but she used past tense. I typically don’t read first person books unless the writing style is fantastic. This book was not one of those.

As most writers learn, the key is to show not tell. This book did not do that. Rather than showing a conversation between two people, the author summed it up in a few short sentences. When there is dialogue, it’s mediocre and choppy.

I couldn’t tell if it was written by a middle schooler experiencing writing for the first time or if it was written for middle schoolers to read. Patch Lane was written by an ex cop, maybe she should’ve stuck to her original job.

Initially I was interested after reading the reddit version, and was excited about an expansion of the story. Come to find out, it seems she deleted detail rather than adding it. The story has a brilliant set up, very interesting, but to tell it in just over 200 pages? Yikes.

“I was impressed with my lying, because I’d never been good at it before. Again, I used the preconceived notion of being a ditsy woman to my advantage.” (Pg 35).

The idea would be to use italics as thoughts, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with this book, at least not a consistent one. Many things that are written should have been written as a thought rather than an action.

If I were a creative writing or English professor I would use this book to teach my student how not to write.

I’m sorry, I did want to finish reading to know what happened, but with the way it’s written I’d rather someone just tell me.

[Dre Scott-Urichen · Rating 2 out of 5]

not only was it not a ghost story but it was also just all over the place I wanted to pull my hair out

[Alma Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Hastings is a rookie cop who works the night shift in Amber Forest, a small rural town nestled in the Western Pennsylvania mountains. After repeatedly responding to an abandoned and allegedly haunted farmhouse for 911 hang up calls, she discovers a dead body in a secret room. The forensic investigators determine that the body has only been dead for three to four days, but the case takes an unexpected turn when Sarah runs the victim's fingerprints and learns that her Jane Doe actually died 20 years ago.

I really enjoyed this book! It was just the right amount of creepy without being over the top. I love stories with female police/detective in them. I would love Sarah Hasting's story to continue along with all the main characters. Thank you S.F. Barkley!

[Taylor Seiverd · Rating 2 out of 5]

i don’t want to be hard on this because as a debut, this is good. it just did not match my reading & writing style.

the exposition dump at the end was a bit cheap. it just felt too short. to wrap up a story of this magnitude in less than 200 pages is crazy. the plot was good, if it was expanded on. i just wish that there was more. i understand she wanted to do a twist with it not being paranormal as the set up comes across as much. but honestly, i think it would have been better if it was🤷🏻‍♀️

now, you could definitely tell that the author has experience as an officer & in law enforcement. that was refreshing to see.

regardless, this could have been so good. it just really let me down at the end.

[Emily Kapchinski · Rating 1 out of 5]

to sum up: this reads like it was written by A.I.

this whole book is written immaturely, uncaring plot with several noticeable plot holes, characters with less dimension than flat stanley, making everything is so dry. absolutely nothing happens. there is the illusion of suspense but it is comical most of the time. if this book wanted to be considered good it should have gone through way more editing. i love a good cop solving the crime but this is done so poorly. there is so much cop propaganda throughout this book is not only sickening but more than the other books that fall into this genre.

[Peggy Kindt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read! Especially those that thrive on the genre of murder and paranormal.

Fast pace plot with depth immersion seemingly with all characters. Plot was well tied together throughout 'til the end. Loads of so wonderfully different active paths; all tied together nicely. There were grammatical errors, but brought those to the attention of the writer and/or editor. But don't let those few slights put you, the reader, off reading this very engaging book. Thank you S. F. Barkley for an splendid fascinating read with a little red wine on the side. PottsvillePA_TUE; 03152022.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. It was a nice, quick read. Slightly predictable but enjoyable. If you're a fan of short stories, this will be just your cup of tea. The language is, in a few instances, rather strong so parents and young readers should be aware of this. There are some unanswered questions that kind of bother me, but they didn't really impact the plot. (Example: more information about Sarah's mother).

[Andrea Esparza · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting at the start, but then things went sort of downhill, especially after talking with the medical examiner... I can see where they were going, but it was sort of reading more & more like a fanfic as the story progressed? like the type you find on wattpad.... especially with that ending... nonetheless, the commentary that the boys over on creepcast provided had me laughing lol

[Melissatober · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous debut! After listening to the authors stories on the No Sleep Podcast, I really thought this was going to be a paranormal story, and hey, intuition often feels like that, but turned out to be an awesome crime thriller! I really enjoyed this book.

[Connie Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

not recommend

I disliked the profanity in this manuscript. It was a good plot that would have been just as successful without it. Although the story moved forward, the content was too procedural.

[Bill Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story!

I really enjoyed this imaginative story.
And look forward to reading more of her tales. Just one question, how did Betty Ann cross her arms when she was in handcuffs? LOL

[Alysun85 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed this book! The author clearly has law enforcement experience and it was highlighted throughout the book in unique but distinct ways. Great debut by the author and I look forward to reading others by her.

[Jubilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enthralling. Suspenseful. Exciting and satisfying! I followed this story as it was being published on the nosleep subreddit and each installment was excellent, so I knew I had to own the book when it was published!

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn’t necessarily bad, there just weren’t any redeeming qualities about it. Nothing made my jaw drop. I did, however, appreciate that it was a short and quick read! The beginning was pretty creepy but it all fizzled out and became pretty predictable with a silly ending.

[Ellen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah a rookie cop with the jobs no one else wants to take she gets. Things turn worse when she finds a dead body .she is

[Chris Jarvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag. Not terribly sophisticated story. Not terribly interesting characters.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed this book. Kept me on my toes the whole time.

[lynn mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Book

Loved this storyline. Was very interesting, lots of twists and turns, all the way through. Lots of them totally unexpected.

[Ginny Forestal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

I loved the story. Kept me in grossed and staying up late to finish it. Not too much procedural detail to bore me.

[Emma Thingsted · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out really great and spooky, but eventually it started feeling like the author was trying to cram everything into this story, and I also feel that the writing was quite clunky

[Michael Conforti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some paranormal elements but ultimately was a thriller that had a good ending.

[FINAL GIRL · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked the realism in terms of terminology/aspects of being a cop (it felt authentic) but i did not enjoy some of the parts of the book that felt unrealistic or an information dump