The #Vanlife Murders

by Taylor Cluster

Losing her job and facing heartbreak soon after, Hailey Andrews watched as her life was quickly falling apart and knew it was time to make a significant change. After making the decision to hit the open road full-time in her newly converted van, it wasn’t long before Hailey began to connect the dots between the suspicious disappearances of other young #vanlife women who had traveled along her same route up the west coast. With a hope to break into a career as an investigative reporter, Hailey soon found herself on a collision course with a serial killer.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

About the author

Taylor Cluster has always had a passion for writing and creating. She is captivated by true crime, suspense novels, and murder mysteries.

A self-described adventure enthusiast, in 2019 Taylor left her “anchored life” in Phoenix to hit the open road and live full-time in an RV to travel and explore North America. She can still be found rolling through the mountains, forests, beaches, and campgrounds hunting out experiences to serve as inspiration in her upcoming novels.

Apart from writing, Taylor loves to hike, travel, sip cocktails in the sun, and of course, read!

Reviews

[Guylou (Two Dogs and a Book) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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📚 Hello Book Friends! Holy Moly!! THE #VANLIFE MURDERS by Taylor Cluster gave me all the heebie-jeebies. This is a story of “murders” (I am sure you guess that one from the title), but not any kind of murders… murders of Instagram influencers!!!! Do I have your attention now? I will reassure you by saying that the influencers were not bookstagrammers, but young ladies who travel alone in their cool vans. It was quite eery to read that plot. I love the way the author weaved the story and delivered a surprising jaw-dropping ending. I enjoyed it and I recommend it to all the murder mystery lovers out there. This is a fresh story with a contemporary and relevant feel.

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[Sarah Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am going to give this 3.5 stars.. you can definitely tell it’s the authors first book. I dont mean that in a bad way, but let me start with what I liked. I LOVED the plot and had to keep reading till the very end. The story flowed really well and was easy to read. BUT.. I struggled a bit with the main character. I try not to judge a book based on the characters but.. good lord, she was dumb. There were so many times I thought, “no one can be this stupid?!”. Like I said, the story was good and I would definitely give the author another shot. (But please don’t make female characters look so bad!!)

[Gare Billings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyable but the reveal seemed a little out of nowhere and not believable for me.

[Wulfwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a page turner for me. I have long dreamt of traveling the country living in an RV or a converted van. I have always loved camping and the woods. This book was a perfect draw for me.

I have a like/dislike relationship with Hailey. She seems like someone I would be friends with. But she also made a lot of stupid decisions that I wanted to smack her over. I don’t understand how someone so smart could be so dumb. However it did make for good reading as I kept turning pages while rolling my eyes. Haha. There were several suspects and at one point I even suspected one of the vanlife girls of being the killer.

If you are a reader who likes to know all the gory details you probably won’t be excited over this story. While the author does describe the horrifying injuries that were found on the victim, she doesn’t glorify or rely on the violence for her story. The tension is more in the investigation and the suspect list. The atmosphere of the loneliness of the woods, especially the dark, also plays a big part. I enjoyed this. I like when an author gives us enough to start our imagination going and then builds on that. I feel that is what this author did.

I haven’t read anything else by this author but I am looking forward to more by her. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy crime and RV travel. It didn’t take me long to read it as it was fairly fast paced. It would be a fun read for camping trips.

[inkspillreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

#vanlife murders by @placestaylorgoes , was easily one of the best books I have read this year. I usually get through books quickly but this one I needed to soak in every possible detail on every page. The entire book from cover to cover played out like a movie.
Making a life changing decision, Hailey decides to revamp a van and travel. On the road, she meets mysterious strangers, and lifelong friends. Along her travels, she starts an Instagram page to document her journey and starts finding strange things happening. With three #vanlife girls found murdered, Hailey dives head first into finding out who is committing these crimes. While she is in danger herself, as the killer is targeting solo vampire women, she races to find out who is behind this, before another girl is taken. And the killer? Is someone you’ll NEVER guess.
Taylor has such a way with words that is so realistic and relatable to the world, I enjoyed every second of this twisting mystery. It’s a MUST read, from me.

[Amanda Arndt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this is one sitting. The book keeps you on your toes. I couldn't put it down.

[Ankita · Rating 5 out of 5]

The #Vanlife Murders by Taylor Cluster is a cozy mystery that follows Hailey as she tries to reinvent herself after losing her job and a breakup. When her life stopped making sense, and she feared sinking into nothingness, she decided to sell everything and live out her days in a van traveling up the west coast. Soon, she realized that there was a large community of influencers who were living a similar lifestyle. This community was known as #vanlifers and the lifestyle as #vanlife. Before she even had the time to enjoy her newfound lifestyle and realize its cons, she came through the story of a missing #vanlifer, Hannah. The missing-report of this young woman triggered Hailey’s childhood dream of becoming an investigative reporter. In the hopes of finding a clue, she started following Hannah’s story and going through her Instagram account. The missing investigation converted into a murder investigation as the cops found Hannah’s dead body. Before Hailey could even digest the shock of her murder, more news of #vanlifers being found dead started coming out. With each new murder story, Hailey sped up her investigation to find the clues or, better yet, hunt the serial killer.

For the full review, click here.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like a Lifetime movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I definitely enjoyed it more once I figured that out.
I nearly stopped reading about a third of the way in, because this book badly needed a once-over by an editor. There were sentences ended in prepositions and there were redundancies, but I could get over those. This is a debut novel, after all. My biggest complaint, however, was that this author was less about show and more about tell. It took some getting used to, but again, I forgave it. It came across as though the author was so excited to get the story out, that they didn't worry about trivial things like that.
Overall this was an enjoyable book. The plot was fun and if there are subsequent novels, there is plenty of room to flesh out the characters more. I'm pretty sure that I know what other characters look like, but not Hailey. Unsure if this was on purpose or not.
I personally caught on to the twist as soon as those characters were introduced, but it didn't make the read any less enjoyable. My heart was pounding toward the end, which is extremely rare.
I think this book is worth a read, and if there are more to come, I suspect that I will try them out as well.

[Darcie Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book thinking it was going to be just as cheesy as #vanlife itself. I couldn't have been more wrong! This is one of the best thrillers I've read so far this year. The format of the short chapters kept me eager to keep pushing toward the end and I found myself totally engulfed by figuring out the mystery. I agree with everyone else who has said that this book could easily be a Lifetime movie, but I do think Taylor Cluster's words stand on their own. I did feel like some of the details in the story fit together almost too neatly to be truly believable which is where Cluster lost me a few times. Overall, I feel like this book got lost last year and I will definitely be recommending it in my circles.

I received a Goodreads Giveaway digital copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Bethany C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has a really great premise and I was very excited to read it, but it's a bit uninspiring. The author did pretty well for her debut, but she started off strong and petered off toward the end. Maybe she was rushing? I couldn't even remember who the villain was when we was introduced, so what was the point? And the speech between characters was not very nuanced or natural. I feel like she didn't give anyone a "thing", like how one character maybe asks too many questions, or gets excited and interrupts or anything quirky that makes them feel like real people. I would have liked more character development and a stronger villain motivation. Maybe if we discovered bits of their motive earlier?

[Emily E3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part this book was enjoyable but I wish it had been edited again. The writing felt a little all over the place at times and the author did a lot of telling instead of showing. I liked the mystery of what was going on with the Vanlife murders but I felt that the main character came across answers too easily. Without trying to spoil this I’m just going to say this was cheesy and entertaining but if you want something more higher quality don’t pick this up. But if you want a quick and fun read then this is a good book to pick up.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was well-paced and exciting. It definitely kept me wanting to keep reading to see how the story ended. I thought the book did a good job not making the killer obvious, so I was kept wondering the whole time--which adds to the deliciousness of reading of mystery. I received this book from a giveaway in exchange for a review, but this did not influence my review. I was genuinely hooked!

[Karen R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much. In the beginning, I though I had figured out who the killer was, but boy was I wrong. I didn’t give it five starts because Hailey did annoyed me at times. She was such an air head in so many occasions that if the story was real she definitely would of got kidnapped. Lol

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a full-time RVer, I was intrigued by the premise and looking forward to reading this book. Sadly, the writing was quite amateurish. The main characters and their actions were pretty unbelievable and the dialog was stilted and unnatural. The plot felt contrived - way too many coincidences. 2 stars for effort / zero stars for execution.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. From the fist page to the last. The last 70 pages or so I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Easy to read, great story and a wonderful author in my opinion. Hope she writes more thriller’s.

[presley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping story

This story sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. I was transformed into the story and felt the fear of the characters until the end! Great read.

[Kaylee Carrier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a fun ride and so full of twists! I am highly impressed that this is a debut novel and would definitely recommend, especially if van life intrigues you!

[Jessi Broadwater · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly couldn’t stop reading because I wanted to figure out who was the murderer, but was a little disappointed with who it turned out to be. Still a great page turner though!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Great for anyone who likes a good mystery and loves to go camping.