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Detective Megan Carpenter #1
Snow Creek
From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a gripping story where Detective Megan Carpenter must put a stop to a dangerous killer—but not before discovering the secrets of her own dark past.
Footprints were scattered about like fallen leaves. She looked down into the ravine, and once more her lungs filled with fear. A body lay silent and unmoving in the bushes. When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office in Jefferson County’s Port Townsend claiming her sister Ida Wheaton has been missing for over a month, Detective Megan Carpenter’s instincts tell her that she needs to do more than just file a report. Racing over to Ida’s secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek, Megan finds Ida’s teenage children alone and frightened. She can’t help but notice there’s no TV. No video games. Nothing of the outside world. Something about the Wheaton family doesn’t add up and triggers a painful childhood memory for Megan – when one day, in a flash, both her parents were gone. Then the body of a woman is discovered in an abandoned pickup truck close to the Wheatons’ home and Megan’s convinced the cases are connected. If she has any chance of catching the killer, Megan must first unravel the secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community. But Megan has dark secrets of her own… Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions over thirteen years ago. Can she finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out? And will reliving her own painful story help her solve the complex case unravelling in the hills above Snow Creek before another innocent life is lost?
Footprints were scattered about like fallen leaves. She looked down into the ravine, and once more her lungs filled with fear. A body lay silent and unmoving in the bushes. When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office in Jefferson County’s Port Townsend claiming her sister Ida Wheaton has been missing for over a month, Detective Megan Carpenter’s instincts tell her that she needs to do more than just file a report. Racing over to Ida’s secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek, Megan finds Ida’s teenage children alone and frightened. She can’t help but notice there’s no TV. No video games. Nothing of the outside world. Something about the Wheaton family doesn’t add up and triggers a painful childhood memory for Megan – when one day, in a flash, both her parents were gone. Then the body of a woman is discovered in an abandoned pickup truck close to the Wheatons’ home and Megan’s convinced the cases are connected. If she has any chance of catching the killer, Megan must first unravel the secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community. But Megan has dark secrets of her own… Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions over thirteen years ago. Can she finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out? And will reliving her own painful story help her solve the complex case unravelling in the hills above Snow Creek before another innocent life is lost?
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2019
17873 people are currently reading
9708 people want to read
About the author
Gregg Olsen
116 books7,089 followersThroughout his career, Gregg Olsen has demonstrated an ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances.
A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Olsen has written ten nonfiction books, ten novels, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
The award-winning author has been a guest on dozens of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. He has also appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Today Show, FOX News; CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight, CBS 48 Hours, Oxygen’s Snapped, Court TV’s Crier Live, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, and A&E’s Biography.
In addition to television and radio appearances, the award-winning author has been featured in Redbook, USA Today, People, Salon magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and the New York Post.
The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year by the ILA and Starvation Heights was honored by Washington’s Secretary of State for the book’s contribution to Washington state history and culture.
Olsen, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington with his wife and Suri (a mini dachshund so spoiled she wears a sweater).
A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Olsen has written ten nonfiction books, ten novels, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
The award-winning author has been a guest on dozens of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. He has also appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Today Show, FOX News; CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight, CBS 48 Hours, Oxygen’s Snapped, Court TV’s Crier Live, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, and A&E’s Biography.
In addition to television and radio appearances, the award-winning author has been featured in Redbook, USA Today, People, Salon magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and the New York Post.
The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year by the ILA and Starvation Heights was honored by Washington’s Secretary of State for the book’s contribution to Washington state history and culture.
Olsen, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington with his wife and Suri (a mini dachshund so spoiled she wears a sweater).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 856 reviews
November 6, 2019
SNOW CREEK by Gregg Olsen is the first book in a new series featuring Detective Megan Carpenter and largely set in and around Port Townsend and Snow Creek, Washington. The novel is a police procedural with a lot of suspense.
The story begins with an interesting hook and never lets up. Then Ruth Turner meets with Detective Megan Carpenter and claims her sister has been missing for over a month. Megan believes that an investigation is warranted and finds Ida’s teenage children alone and worried in their secluded farmhouse above Snow Creek. When a body is found a few days later, Megan works to identify and catch the killer. But more is going on that meets the initial eye. Additionally, Megan is still coping with secrets from her childhood when she had a different name. Can she cope with her memories and still solve a murder?
The characters are compelling as well as memorable and Megan is definitely someone you can cheer for. Her character feels real and three-dimensional. She is likeable and relatable. The secondary characters are well-rounded and the relationships are believable.
This book is fast faced and I did not want to stop reading it even when it was very late and I needed to sleep. The author does a great job of worldbuilding and gives the reader a vivid sense of the place and people of Snow Creek. The plot is complex with several different story lines. The main plot as well as many of the auxiliary story lines are wrapped up with some twists and shocks. However, there are a few open items that will likely play into future books in the series.
This is the only book that I have read by this author but I am looking forward to the next book in the series. What a great start to a new series. It is fresh and unique. I believe those readers that enjoy crime fiction and police procedurals with a little something extra will enjoy this book.
Many thanks to Bookouture and Gregg Olsen for a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
The story begins with an interesting hook and never lets up. Then Ruth Turner meets with Detective Megan Carpenter and claims her sister has been missing for over a month. Megan believes that an investigation is warranted and finds Ida’s teenage children alone and worried in their secluded farmhouse above Snow Creek. When a body is found a few days later, Megan works to identify and catch the killer. But more is going on that meets the initial eye. Additionally, Megan is still coping with secrets from her childhood when she had a different name. Can she cope with her memories and still solve a murder?
The characters are compelling as well as memorable and Megan is definitely someone you can cheer for. Her character feels real and three-dimensional. She is likeable and relatable. The secondary characters are well-rounded and the relationships are believable.
This book is fast faced and I did not want to stop reading it even when it was very late and I needed to sleep. The author does a great job of worldbuilding and gives the reader a vivid sense of the place and people of Snow Creek. The plot is complex with several different story lines. The main plot as well as many of the auxiliary story lines are wrapped up with some twists and shocks. However, there are a few open items that will likely play into future books in the series.
This is the only book that I have read by this author but I am looking forward to the next book in the series. What a great start to a new series. It is fresh and unique. I believe those readers that enjoy crime fiction and police procedurals with a little something extra will enjoy this book.
Many thanks to Bookouture and Gregg Olsen for a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.
January 18, 2020
Rating: 3.5 rounded down.
My first 2020 read! Snow Creek is a mystery thriller by Gregg Olsen and is the first book in the Detective Megan Carpenter series.
The book focuses on Snow Creek—an isolated, forested location in Washington which houses the few people that wish to lead a lifestyle completely disconnected from the rest of the world. At the beginning, the book follows three storylines: the first is that of Regina and Amy, a couple that reside in one of the houses on Snow Creek. Their lives are disrupted when Regina comes across a dead body in the woods. The second storyline is that of Detective Megan Carpenter's dark past which we get glimpses of as she plays tapes recorded during her therapy sessions when she was younger. The third storyline is that of Megan investigating the gruesome murders in Snow Creek after a woman reports her sister, who lives in Snow Creek, missing. The complicated murders and the confusing evidence leads to a fast paced thriller that is hard to put down.
The mystery was enjoyable and the writing was great, but after spending a few minutes thinking about the story, I found that not everything about the case was tied up neatly. I still have a few questions that went unanswered, leaving me disappointed. Adding to that, the book ends on a cliffhanger related to Megan's past, meant to lure the reader into reading the next one. I understand why the book ended the way it did but after having built up the suspense around Megan's past right from the start, I was hoping for a complete explanation by the end. Others might enjoy the cliffhanger but sadly, I didn't.
Despite all of its shortcomings, it was a fun read. I am in two minds about wanting to read the next book in the series so I guess I will just have to wait until it is published for me to make up my mind. Again, this isn't one that I'd highly recommend. But if you don't have any other crime procedurals on your TBR and you're craving for one, this one would work just fine.
[I'd like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and Gregg Olsen for this ARC.]
My first 2020 read! Snow Creek is a mystery thriller by Gregg Olsen and is the first book in the Detective Megan Carpenter series.
The book focuses on Snow Creek—an isolated, forested location in Washington which houses the few people that wish to lead a lifestyle completely disconnected from the rest of the world. At the beginning, the book follows three storylines: the first is that of Regina and Amy, a couple that reside in one of the houses on Snow Creek. Their lives are disrupted when Regina comes across a dead body in the woods. The second storyline is that of Detective Megan Carpenter's dark past which we get glimpses of as she plays tapes recorded during her therapy sessions when she was younger. The third storyline is that of Megan investigating the gruesome murders in Snow Creek after a woman reports her sister, who lives in Snow Creek, missing. The complicated murders and the confusing evidence leads to a fast paced thriller that is hard to put down.
The mystery was enjoyable and the writing was great, but after spending a few minutes thinking about the story, I found that not everything about the case was tied up neatly. I still have a few questions that went unanswered, leaving me disappointed. Adding to that, the book ends on a cliffhanger related to Megan's past, meant to lure the reader into reading the next one. I understand why the book ended the way it did but after having built up the suspense around Megan's past right from the start, I was hoping for a complete explanation by the end. Others might enjoy the cliffhanger but sadly, I didn't.
Despite all of its shortcomings, it was a fun read. I am in two minds about wanting to read the next book in the series so I guess I will just have to wait until it is published for me to make up my mind. Again, this isn't one that I'd highly recommend. But if you don't have any other crime procedurals on your TBR and you're craving for one, this one would work just fine.
[I'd like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and Gregg Olsen for this ARC.]
April 18, 2020
Snow Creek is the first book in a new series by talented author Gregg Olsen, this is my first read by this author & i must say i loved every minute, he gets you from the first paragraph & he never lets you go.
Detective Megan Carpenter joins the Jefferson county Sheriffs office, in Snow Creek near Seattle Washington she is brought into a missing persons case by Ruth Turner who hasn't heard from her sister Ida Wheaton , Carpenter goes to Ida,s home where she is met by her children Joshua 19 & Sarah 17. With carpenter comes Sherrif Gray checks on Joshua & Sarah they do a welfare check , but both have no clue as to where their mother has gone.
As Carpenter & grey look into Ida's marriage to Merritt they find he was a brut of a man to Ida, But when they find out that she has been murdered things start to escalate in their investigations. A lot of questions start to arise as to the relationship between Ida & Ruth? Were they as close as Ruth Says or is it a smoke screen.
MY THOUGHTS
I absolutely loved this book we find out that Carpenter is seeing a psychologist she has a really dark& disturbing past that i wont give away but i loved her character, her determination to find out what really happened. The pacing was building each chapter which were short & sharp the reveals chilled me to the core, but i knew by 70 % through what was going to happen, it did not detract anything away from this book, the suspense was keeping me guessing up to that mark a solid start to a series it was a dark gritty novel that i could not put down.
Detective Megan Carpenter joins the Jefferson county Sheriffs office, in Snow Creek near Seattle Washington she is brought into a missing persons case by Ruth Turner who hasn't heard from her sister Ida Wheaton , Carpenter goes to Ida,s home where she is met by her children Joshua 19 & Sarah 17. With carpenter comes Sherrif Gray checks on Joshua & Sarah they do a welfare check , but both have no clue as to where their mother has gone.
As Carpenter & grey look into Ida's marriage to Merritt they find he was a brut of a man to Ida, But when they find out that she has been murdered things start to escalate in their investigations. A lot of questions start to arise as to the relationship between Ida & Ruth? Were they as close as Ruth Says or is it a smoke screen.
MY THOUGHTS
I absolutely loved this book we find out that Carpenter is seeing a psychologist she has a really dark& disturbing past that i wont give away but i loved her character, her determination to find out what really happened. The pacing was building each chapter which were short & sharp the reveals chilled me to the core, but i knew by 70 % through what was going to happen, it did not detract anything away from this book, the suspense was keeping me guessing up to that mark a solid start to a series it was a dark gritty novel that i could not put down.
November 10, 2019
3.5 stars, rounded up
It’s always fun to get in on the ground floor of a new series. Therefore, thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book.
Megan Carpenter is a detective in Port Townsend, Washington. One morning, a woman walks into the Sheriff’s office claiming her sister is missing. A trip to the sister’s home finds the woman’s two teenagers but neither parent. The next day, two young people find a burned out pickup truck with a blackened body of a woman in the back.
The story is a lot more convoluted than my brief outline. Megan has a dark past, complete with a name change and lots of therapy. In alternating chapters, Megan looks back at her own youth and what caused the split with her younger brother. There are a lot of moving parts in this book and it keeps the reader on their toes. I was confident I knew the truth about the current day murder. But i was in a right church, wrong pew kind of way. And I never saw the many weird twists Olsen created.
This is a fast paced book and it’s entertaining. But I can’t say the ending totally worked. There were a few leaps of faith needed.
The book ends with a big cliffhanger, so I have to assume there will be a second in the series.
It’s always fun to get in on the ground floor of a new series. Therefore, thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book.
Megan Carpenter is a detective in Port Townsend, Washington. One morning, a woman walks into the Sheriff’s office claiming her sister is missing. A trip to the sister’s home finds the woman’s two teenagers but neither parent. The next day, two young people find a burned out pickup truck with a blackened body of a woman in the back.
The story is a lot more convoluted than my brief outline. Megan has a dark past, complete with a name change and lots of therapy. In alternating chapters, Megan looks back at her own youth and what caused the split with her younger brother. There are a lot of moving parts in this book and it keeps the reader on their toes. I was confident I knew the truth about the current day murder. But i was in a right church, wrong pew kind of way. And I never saw the many weird twists Olsen created.
This is a fast paced book and it’s entertaining. But I can’t say the ending totally worked. There were a few leaps of faith needed.
The book ends with a big cliffhanger, so I have to assume there will be a second in the series.
October 13, 2023
My first book by this author but I will definitely be reading more. Snow Creek is the opening book in a series starring Detective Megan Carpenter, who turns out to be a very smart, proactive police person as well as having a story of her own to tell.
The mystery centres on missing parents, two abandoned teenagers and some very strange goings on. There is a lot of excellent police work but lots of excitement too. The book is fast paced and very hard to put down. Megan's own back story is told in parallel with her investigations and it is also intriguing and very tense.
This is a very nicely written book and an excellent read, and I have added the next book in the series to my TBR.
The mystery centres on missing parents, two abandoned teenagers and some very strange goings on. There is a lot of excellent police work but lots of excitement too. The book is fast paced and very hard to put down. Megan's own back story is told in parallel with her investigations and it is also intriguing and very tense.
This is a very nicely written book and an excellent read, and I have added the next book in the series to my TBR.
January 24, 2022
The woman heard people arguing in the bush not far away. She stayed as silent as she could. The crash and fire startled her and without further thought she ran as fast as she could…
When Ruth Turner spoke to Detective Megan Carpenter of Jefferson County’s Port Townsend Sheriff’s office about her missing sister, Megan had no idea the case ahead of her would be one she’d never come across before. The secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek saw Sarah and Joshua, Ida Wheaton’s two children, alone and worried about their parents. They should have been home and weren’t. Megan promised she would search for them. It was when a burnt-out truck was discovered, with a body inside, that Megan knew she had mysteries and secrets she needed to uncover. What was the small community of Snow Creek hiding?
Snow Creek is the 1st in the Detective Megan Carpenter series, and my first by Gregg Olsen and wow! It was intense, gripping, gruesome and twisted, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be reading more about Detective Megan Carpenter. Highly recommended.
When Ruth Turner spoke to Detective Megan Carpenter of Jefferson County’s Port Townsend Sheriff’s office about her missing sister, Megan had no idea the case ahead of her would be one she’d never come across before. The secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek saw Sarah and Joshua, Ida Wheaton’s two children, alone and worried about their parents. They should have been home and weren’t. Megan promised she would search for them. It was when a burnt-out truck was discovered, with a body inside, that Megan knew she had mysteries and secrets she needed to uncover. What was the small community of Snow Creek hiding?
Snow Creek is the 1st in the Detective Megan Carpenter series, and my first by Gregg Olsen and wow! It was intense, gripping, gruesome and twisted, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be reading more about Detective Megan Carpenter. Highly recommended.
November 10, 2019
This is the first book I have read by this author and I found it very hard to put down. Megan Carpenter is a detective in a small town looking for a little excitement. When a dead body is found in the Snow Creek region, this is an area where people go to live 'off the grid', then she gets a lot more than she bargained for.
Megan soon discovers there is a lot more to this than a straightforward murder and soon abuse, fundamentalism and outright weird are coming to the surface.
Then on top of all of this is finding out who Megan is, her past identity and what she is desperately trying to hide from herself.
This is quite a confronting and macabre story but also impossible to put down once you start. A great first book in this series, I can recommend it. Thank you Bookouture and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Megan soon discovers there is a lot more to this than a straightforward murder and soon abuse, fundamentalism and outright weird are coming to the surface.
Then on top of all of this is finding out who Megan is, her past identity and what she is desperately trying to hide from herself.
This is quite a confronting and macabre story but also impossible to put down once you start. A great first book in this series, I can recommend it. Thank you Bookouture and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 25, 2019
The detective genre is littered with main characters who have a physical or mental disability (or have an event in their past that could have crippled them but they have found ways to rise above it, even though it remains like an ugly wound that refuses to heal). Gregg Olsen’s “Snow Creek” is one more book added to that pile. And that’s a shame.
I thought I had the plot figured out early on, and never imagined the twists that were added as the story played out. There are multiple subplots that are woven together, some merely minor bits and pieces while others greatly impact the main mystery. The storytelling in “Snow Creek” is the book’s five-star element.
The characters in the book are flat, which affects an important aspect, motivation. At times it was difficult to suspend disbelief and I found myself continually questioning the characters’ actions. It is a credit to Mr. Olsen’s presentation that the weak motivations did not cause the story to fall apart. While the multiple storylines offered the chance to develop many different characters, it became harder and harder to believe that most of them were coldhearted and prone to criminal tendencies.
Detective Megan Carpenter offers a first-person view of the action. Unfortunately, much of her character development is dependent upon long flashbacks, some of which last for chapters. It seemed immediately obvious that Mr. Olsen plans to keep Detective Carpenter around for many books, and I initially thought that it would have been better to reveal more about her past in subsequent novels. When the book ended in a cliffhanger enabled by the long flashbacks, I felt deflated. While the Snow Creek mystery had been solved, the ham-handed ploy to get readers to purchase the next book was unnecessary. For me, it caused the exact opposite reaction.
Bottom line: Great plot with unexpected twists tainted by characters displaying motivations that I questioned and long information dumps that in the end only served the purpose of introducing a major plotline in the next book. This could have been a fantastic read. Three stars.
I thought I had the plot figured out early on, and never imagined the twists that were added as the story played out. There are multiple subplots that are woven together, some merely minor bits and pieces while others greatly impact the main mystery. The storytelling in “Snow Creek” is the book’s five-star element.
The characters in the book are flat, which affects an important aspect, motivation. At times it was difficult to suspend disbelief and I found myself continually questioning the characters’ actions. It is a credit to Mr. Olsen’s presentation that the weak motivations did not cause the story to fall apart. While the multiple storylines offered the chance to develop many different characters, it became harder and harder to believe that most of them were coldhearted and prone to criminal tendencies.
Detective Megan Carpenter offers a first-person view of the action. Unfortunately, much of her character development is dependent upon long flashbacks, some of which last for chapters. It seemed immediately obvious that Mr. Olsen plans to keep Detective Carpenter around for many books, and I initially thought that it would have been better to reveal more about her past in subsequent novels. When the book ended in a cliffhanger enabled by the long flashbacks, I felt deflated. While the Snow Creek mystery had been solved, the ham-handed ploy to get readers to purchase the next book was unnecessary. For me, it caused the exact opposite reaction.
Bottom line: Great plot with unexpected twists tainted by characters displaying motivations that I questioned and long information dumps that in the end only served the purpose of introducing a major plotline in the next book. This could have been a fantastic read. Three stars.
September 16, 2025
Snow Creek by Gregg Olsen
Synopsis /
Footprints were scattered about like fallen leaves. She looked down into the ravine, and once more her lungs filled with fear. A body lay silent and unmoving in the bushes.
When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office in Jefferson County’s Port Townsend claiming her sister Ida Wheaton has been missing for over a month, Detective Megan Carpenter’s instincts tell her that she needs to do more than just file a report.
Racing over to Ida’s secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek, Megan finds Ida’s teenage children alone and frightened. She can’t help but notice there’s no TV. No video games. Nothing of the outside world. Something about the Wheaton family doesn’t add up and triggers a painful childhood memory for Megan – when one day, in a flash, both her parents were gone.
Then the body of a woman is discovered in an abandoned pickup truck close to the Wheatons’ home and Megan’s convinced the cases are connected.
If she has any chance of catching the killer, Megan must first unravel the secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community. But Megan has dark secrets of her own…
Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions over thirteen years ago. Can she finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out? And will reliving her own painful story help her solve the complex case unravelling in the hills above Snow Creek before another innocent life is lost
My Thoughts /
Outlier review ahead.
As I drive, I consider that the murders were a chain of broken links. Not completely connected but interlocking in peculiar ways. The first to die is unrelated to the sequence, but I count it anyway because the last death—Regina’s—bookends everything. Her reason for dying was the hidden crime which was sure to be discovered.
Snow Creek: my first Gregg Olsen read. I finished this one this morning and I find myself firmly sitting on the fence. Often the first of a series can be a bit of an info dump, and I'm prepared for that and adjust my rating accordingly. But what I wasn't prepared for was the inevitable information dump combined with a narrative that was overly complicated and convoluted. What was that plot???? Ow, my head hurts.
When Ruth Turner attends the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office with claims that her sister is missing, Detective Megan Carpenter believes there is enough suspicion around Ruth's concerns to warrant an investigation. Then, when a body is found a few days later, Ruth Turner's concerns about her sister come true. What begins as a missing person's case very quickly spirals into something far more contorted.
Snow Creek Washington seems to be a receptacle for those who want to live off-grid. Those that crave seclusion. Those that don't want to be seen. Those that want to keep secrets. Detective Megan Carpenter will have to sift through many, many, many, many lies before the truth reveals itself.
As a character, Megan Carpenter is as complicated as this plot. Throughout the story we are given snippets into her past personal life – through the tapes she listens to of recorded sessions she's had with her therapist over thirteen years ago. For this reader, these interspersed therapy recordings added an extra layer of weight to the narrative which in turn slowed everything down. This parallel plot thread fell flat for this reader and as a result, any connection I felt for the character melted away.
A good story needs to have a balance of round and flat characters and flat characters still need to serve a specific purpose – to propel the story forward in some way. And that's where it fell away for this reader, I became confused with the concept of the story and how Carpenter's personal backstory was aiding and abetting the narrative.
Despite these shortcomings, I have downloaded the next book in the series and am prepared to give it a go – to see if it can turn me around.
Synopsis /
Footprints were scattered about like fallen leaves. She looked down into the ravine, and once more her lungs filled with fear. A body lay silent and unmoving in the bushes.
When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office in Jefferson County’s Port Townsend claiming her sister Ida Wheaton has been missing for over a month, Detective Megan Carpenter’s instincts tell her that she needs to do more than just file a report.
Racing over to Ida’s secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek, Megan finds Ida’s teenage children alone and frightened. She can’t help but notice there’s no TV. No video games. Nothing of the outside world. Something about the Wheaton family doesn’t add up and triggers a painful childhood memory for Megan – when one day, in a flash, both her parents were gone.
Then the body of a woman is discovered in an abandoned pickup truck close to the Wheatons’ home and Megan’s convinced the cases are connected.
If she has any chance of catching the killer, Megan must first unravel the secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community. But Megan has dark secrets of her own…
Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions over thirteen years ago. Can she finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out? And will reliving her own painful story help her solve the complex case unravelling in the hills above Snow Creek before another innocent life is lost
My Thoughts /
Outlier review ahead.
As I drive, I consider that the murders were a chain of broken links. Not completely connected but interlocking in peculiar ways. The first to die is unrelated to the sequence, but I count it anyway because the last death—Regina’s—bookends everything. Her reason for dying was the hidden crime which was sure to be discovered.
Snow Creek: my first Gregg Olsen read. I finished this one this morning and I find myself firmly sitting on the fence. Often the first of a series can be a bit of an info dump, and I'm prepared for that and adjust my rating accordingly. But what I wasn't prepared for was the inevitable information dump combined with a narrative that was overly complicated and convoluted. What was that plot???? Ow, my head hurts.
When Ruth Turner attends the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office with claims that her sister is missing, Detective Megan Carpenter believes there is enough suspicion around Ruth's concerns to warrant an investigation. Then, when a body is found a few days later, Ruth Turner's concerns about her sister come true. What begins as a missing person's case very quickly spirals into something far more contorted.
Snow Creek Washington seems to be a receptacle for those who want to live off-grid. Those that crave seclusion. Those that don't want to be seen. Those that want to keep secrets. Detective Megan Carpenter will have to sift through many, many, many, many lies before the truth reveals itself.
As a character, Megan Carpenter is as complicated as this plot. Throughout the story we are given snippets into her past personal life – through the tapes she listens to of recorded sessions she's had with her therapist over thirteen years ago. For this reader, these interspersed therapy recordings added an extra layer of weight to the narrative which in turn slowed everything down. This parallel plot thread fell flat for this reader and as a result, any connection I felt for the character melted away.
A good story needs to have a balance of round and flat characters and flat characters still need to serve a specific purpose – to propel the story forward in some way. And that's where it fell away for this reader, I became confused with the concept of the story and how Carpenter's personal backstory was aiding and abetting the narrative.
Despite these shortcomings, I have downloaded the next book in the series and am prepared to give it a go – to see if it can turn me around.
November 18, 2019
Snow Creek is the first instalment in the Detective Megan Carpenter Tapes series by bestselling American crime writer Gregg Olsen and a promising start to a brand new police procedural-thriller hybrid. Detective Carpenter is a rising star at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office when she is told of the disappearance and possible abduction of Ida Watson by her worried sister Ruth. Instead of merely filing a missing persons report she goes above and beyond the call of duty by undertaking a welfare check by visiting the Watsons's secluded family home. On arrival, she is startled to discover Ida's two teenage children, Sarah and Joshua, fending for themselves. Apparently, the couple had gone on a trip to Mexico, however, it is clear after some digging that they never arrived at their destination. As secrets come to the fore revealing abuse Ida suffered at the hands of her husband and her immolated body is found he becomes public enemy number one. But did he really commit such a heinous crime towards the woman he was meant to love and the mother of his children?
This is a fast-paced, exciting and utterly addictive mix of police procedural but with all the thrills and spills you would expect from a thriller; the two interconnected sub-genres are used to maximum effect and all of the aspects Olsen uses are the most compelling features of each whilst leaving out the deadwood. It's an incredibly easy story to engage with, and I found myself right from the opening chapter completely engrossed and soon there was no chance I was going to place it down before finding out what happened to Ida; to say that it was addictive would be an understatement and it was clear just how adept Olsen is at getting under your skin and crafting fascinating, high-octane, twist-filled crime tales which have you feverishly turning the pages. With regards to the cast of characters, they were each well developed and interesting to encounter if slightly forgettable. I found I was genuinely shocked by some of the surprises and reveals throughout, which was pleasant, and immensely satisfying. Megan is certainly an intriguing protagonist, so I look forward to her blossoming in the upcoming instalments and learning more about her and her the hinted at troubled past. Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.
This is a fast-paced, exciting and utterly addictive mix of police procedural but with all the thrills and spills you would expect from a thriller; the two interconnected sub-genres are used to maximum effect and all of the aspects Olsen uses are the most compelling features of each whilst leaving out the deadwood. It's an incredibly easy story to engage with, and I found myself right from the opening chapter completely engrossed and soon there was no chance I was going to place it down before finding out what happened to Ida; to say that it was addictive would be an understatement and it was clear just how adept Olsen is at getting under your skin and crafting fascinating, high-octane, twist-filled crime tales which have you feverishly turning the pages. With regards to the cast of characters, they were each well developed and interesting to encounter if slightly forgettable. I found I was genuinely shocked by some of the surprises and reveals throughout, which was pleasant, and immensely satisfying. Megan is certainly an intriguing protagonist, so I look forward to her blossoming in the upcoming instalments and learning more about her and her the hinted at troubled past. Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.
November 18, 2019
Detective Megan Carpenter has recently joined a small police department. it's a quiet town with little crime.
When a woman walks into the Sheriff's department to report her sister has been missing for a month, Megan instantly starts to investigate. Finding two teenage children alone, they tell her their parents had left to travel a couple of weeks. Megan finds the children a bit bedraggled, but worried. As worried as they are, Megan suspects something else is going on ...
Days later, close to the home she had just visited, an abandoned pickup truck was found, burned out, with a woman's dead body in the back. Is this the body of the children's mother? If so, where is the father? Is he victim ... or a murderer?
Megan is determined to get every victim of a crime the justice they deserve.
This is a slow-burning mystery/crime with unique characters ... most of whom are living off the grid and want nothing to do with any of the locals ...especially the police. They all seem to have secrets and there are twists And turns at every corner. This is a real page turner!
Megan is especially unique. Her history is told in a series of audiotapes recorded by a therapist she was seeing years ago. As Megan begins to play the tapes, she’s taken straight back to her terrifying childhood, back to the time she was a kid called Rylee, fighting to survive.
BOOK BLURB -- Can Megan finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out and will listening to her own painful story help her solve the complex case she is now entangled in?
ALERT : While there is a conclusion, there is also a big cliff hanger leading to the next book in this series. I do not normally like cliffhangers ... but I'm looking forward to reading this one.
Many thanks to the author / Bookouture / Netgalley for the digital copy of this police procedural. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
November 14, 2019
Thank you to #NetGalley and @Bookouture For the advanced copy of Snow Creek by Gregg Olsen
This is book 1 in The Detective Megan Carpenter series
An enjoyable book with lots of twists and turns, well written and interesting, however the ending was a bit of a let down for me
3.5 Stars
This is book 1 in The Detective Megan Carpenter series
An enjoyable book with lots of twists and turns, well written and interesting, however the ending was a bit of a let down for me
3.5 Stars
March 29, 2021
Snow Creek is a remote area located outside of Port Townsend, Washington. It started life from logging camps but that died off when the spotted owl was put on the endangered species list. Today the few residents of Snow Creek consist of people who want to escape from society. Aging hippies, people with extreme religious beliefs, people who want nothing to do with society ... especially law enforcement.
Megan Carpenter is a detective with the Port Townsend, Washington Sheriff Department. She also has a past. She survived evil thanks to therapy with Doctor Albright over thirteen years ago. And a second chance thanks to the Jefferson County’s Port Townsend Sheriff. When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office claiming her sister Ida Watson has been missing for over a month Meg finds herself trying to solve the secrets in remote Snow Creek and confronting her past.
When Meg arrives at Ida's farmhouse she finds her teenage children alone and frightened. Then a couple of days later a woman's burned body is found in the back of an abandoned pickup truck. The autopsy confirms her identity as Ida Watson but where is her husband? Did he kill her? According to Ida's children the parents were supposed to be going to a orphanage in Mexico and were expected to be gone for a few weeks but the orphanage doesn't know anything about the Watson's. The more Meg investigates the more questions arise. Things are not what they would appear to be.
Hidden in the back of Meg's closet is a box containing tapes from her therapy sessions with Doctor Albright thirteen years ago. At night Meg goes home and starts listening to the tapes. Reliving her past. A time when she was known as Rylee and fighting to survive. As Meg listens to each tape, each therapy session, we learn more about Meg / Rylee. Will her confronting her past help her solve her current case?
There are multiple story lines in this first book in a new series. The first follows Regina and Amy, a couple that reside in Snow Creek, and how the murder has disrupted their lives. The second follows the investigation into Ida's murder. The third revolves around Meg's past is slowly revealed as she listens to the tapes. We learn a lot about Meg and her past but not everything. The ending is a cliff hanger that indicates the attention the case brings to Meg means and that she hasn't escaped her past. I am looking forward to reading the next installment in the series, Water's Edge
Megan Carpenter is a detective with the Port Townsend, Washington Sheriff Department. She also has a past. She survived evil thanks to therapy with Doctor Albright over thirteen years ago. And a second chance thanks to the Jefferson County’s Port Townsend Sheriff. When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office claiming her sister Ida Watson has been missing for over a month Meg finds herself trying to solve the secrets in remote Snow Creek and confronting her past.
When Meg arrives at Ida's farmhouse she finds her teenage children alone and frightened. Then a couple of days later a woman's burned body is found in the back of an abandoned pickup truck. The autopsy confirms her identity as Ida Watson but where is her husband? Did he kill her? According to Ida's children the parents were supposed to be going to a orphanage in Mexico and were expected to be gone for a few weeks but the orphanage doesn't know anything about the Watson's. The more Meg investigates the more questions arise. Things are not what they would appear to be.
Hidden in the back of Meg's closet is a box containing tapes from her therapy sessions with Doctor Albright thirteen years ago. At night Meg goes home and starts listening to the tapes. Reliving her past. A time when she was known as Rylee and fighting to survive. As Meg listens to each tape, each therapy session, we learn more about Meg / Rylee. Will her confronting her past help her solve her current case?
There are multiple story lines in this first book in a new series. The first follows Regina and Amy, a couple that reside in Snow Creek, and how the murder has disrupted their lives. The second follows the investigation into Ida's murder. The third revolves around Meg's past is slowly revealed as she listens to the tapes. We learn a lot about Meg and her past but not everything. The ending is a cliff hanger that indicates the attention the case brings to Meg means and that she hasn't escaped her past. I am looking forward to reading the next installment in the series, Water's Edge
May 30, 2020
"In the mostly undisturbed magnificence of the Pacific Northwest is a spate of murders, dark and ugly as any could imagine."
Detective Megan Carpenter lives in Port Townsend, Washington, and works for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. Most of the crime there is fairly mundane -- until the cases in the hills above nearby Snow Creek shatter the peace. It starts with a missing person report. Ruth Turner is concerned about her sister, Ida Wheaton, who lives off the grid up in those isolated hills with her husband, Merritt, and their two children, Joshua (19) and Sarah (17). Ruth claims that Merritt is very controlling and liberal with "discipline" and she's not heard from Ida in awhile but that she was a "little off" the last time they talked. Megan agrees to do a welfare check and they visit the secluded farmhouse finding that the two teenagers are home but the parents have supposedly taken a trip to Mexico to work at an orphanage and should have returned by now. Megan verifies with La Paloma that Ida and Merritt never made it there and, in fact, weren't even scheduled to work. The investigation into the Merritts is heightened when a burnt out truck with the body of a dead woman is found in a nearby ravine. Is it Ida? Where is her husband? And the case really takes off with one shocker after another. NO SPOILERS but you can't even guess where this is all going!
Wowza was this a complicated crime thriller! Not only is there the police investigation aspect, there's also a huge backstory about the main character, Megan Carpenter. I admit that I was more interested in the murder case than I was in Megan's history and interspersing the content of the tapes with chapters dealing with the present was jarring at times. She works the Snow Creek case by day but every evening goes home to eat, drink and listen to recordings made with her therapist. She did something bad in her past. We don't find out what. I guess the typical hot mess female detective so common in this genre. But, she's smart and she sure unraveled this mystery.
This is what I liked -- the plot was complex and very absorbing to the point where I couldn't put the book down. Gregg Olsen knows how to tell a story, and what a tale it is -- keep focused so you can try to keep track of all of the different pieces and characters. The details about Snow Creek and its inhabitants were quite interesting and the characters were quite the collection of strange folks. There was so much going on and so many different threads to pull together for Megan to solve this that it made my head spin at times. And, quite a thrill for me, I could never have anticipated all of where this was going so kudos to the author for surprising me.
It needs to be said straight up -- this books ends in a massive cliffhanger. You've been warned. I absolutely detest when this happens as I am the kind of reader that likes everything tied up neatly with all the answers at the end. Waiting for a next installment to finish a good story is problematic especially since I admit I don't always remember the details a year later. I'm sure this was done as a hook for the second book in this new series, but it did leave me feeling peeved. I also understand that there was an earlier book, published in 2014, RUN, that features the main character and focuses on events that occurred when she was a young teenager -- I did not know it was related and had not read it. Will I read #2? Yes, I'd like to as long as I'll get my answers so I can wrap it all up and perhaps understand Megan a bit better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read, review and recommend.
Detective Megan Carpenter lives in Port Townsend, Washington, and works for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. Most of the crime there is fairly mundane -- until the cases in the hills above nearby Snow Creek shatter the peace. It starts with a missing person report. Ruth Turner is concerned about her sister, Ida Wheaton, who lives off the grid up in those isolated hills with her husband, Merritt, and their two children, Joshua (19) and Sarah (17). Ruth claims that Merritt is very controlling and liberal with "discipline" and she's not heard from Ida in awhile but that she was a "little off" the last time they talked. Megan agrees to do a welfare check and they visit the secluded farmhouse finding that the two teenagers are home but the parents have supposedly taken a trip to Mexico to work at an orphanage and should have returned by now. Megan verifies with La Paloma that Ida and Merritt never made it there and, in fact, weren't even scheduled to work. The investigation into the Merritts is heightened when a burnt out truck with the body of a dead woman is found in a nearby ravine. Is it Ida? Where is her husband? And the case really takes off with one shocker after another. NO SPOILERS but you can't even guess where this is all going!
Wowza was this a complicated crime thriller! Not only is there the police investigation aspect, there's also a huge backstory about the main character, Megan Carpenter. I admit that I was more interested in the murder case than I was in Megan's history and interspersing the content of the tapes with chapters dealing with the present was jarring at times. She works the Snow Creek case by day but every evening goes home to eat, drink and listen to recordings made with her therapist. She did something bad in her past. We don't find out what. I guess the typical hot mess female detective so common in this genre. But, she's smart and she sure unraveled this mystery.
This is what I liked -- the plot was complex and very absorbing to the point where I couldn't put the book down. Gregg Olsen knows how to tell a story, and what a tale it is -- keep focused so you can try to keep track of all of the different pieces and characters. The details about Snow Creek and its inhabitants were quite interesting and the characters were quite the collection of strange folks. There was so much going on and so many different threads to pull together for Megan to solve this that it made my head spin at times. And, quite a thrill for me, I could never have anticipated all of where this was going so kudos to the author for surprising me.
It needs to be said straight up -- this books ends in a massive cliffhanger. You've been warned. I absolutely detest when this happens as I am the kind of reader that likes everything tied up neatly with all the answers at the end. Waiting for a next installment to finish a good story is problematic especially since I admit I don't always remember the details a year later. I'm sure this was done as a hook for the second book in this new series, but it did leave me feeling peeved. I also understand that there was an earlier book, published in 2014, RUN, that features the main character and focuses on events that occurred when she was a young teenager -- I did not know it was related and had not read it. Will I read #2? Yes, I'd like to as long as I'll get my answers so I can wrap it all up and perhaps understand Megan a bit better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read, review and recommend.
October 9, 2020
There are few authors who I will read regardless of what they write: fiction, non-fiction, series, stand-alone. Gregg Olsen is one of those authors. Imagine my surprise when I was reading the second book in the Megan Carpenter series and realized that I never had formally reviewed the first book. AAAggghhh. Let me say that it is difficult to go wrong with one of Olsen's books and Snow Creek is no exception.
Snow Creek is the first in the Detective Megan Carpenter series. Carpenter has left behind a dark, murky past to start a new career in Snow Creek Washington. Her first case is a missing persons case that appears a likely accident until Carpenter gets a closer look. In addition to solving the murder case, there is a sub-plot regarding a series of tapes from Carpenter's childhood. It adds a dimension to the story line that I found intriguing. Between the suspense of the murder and the psychological sub-plot, Olsen has, again, provided us with a solid, well written crime story. Both Snow Creek and Water's Edge are available now at Amazon and local booksellers.
Snow Creek is the first in the Detective Megan Carpenter series. Carpenter has left behind a dark, murky past to start a new career in Snow Creek Washington. Her first case is a missing persons case that appears a likely accident until Carpenter gets a closer look. In addition to solving the murder case, there is a sub-plot regarding a series of tapes from Carpenter's childhood. It adds a dimension to the story line that I found intriguing. Between the suspense of the murder and the psychological sub-plot, Olsen has, again, provided us with a solid, well written crime story. Both Snow Creek and Water's Edge are available now at Amazon and local booksellers.
April 22, 2020
Sloppy. It started on the dedication page: "For Claire Bond, who both charmed and cajoled to get the best out me." Out me? Started me out angry. You need a better proofreader. Then on page 104 we meet Dan Anderson, who mysteriously changes to Dan Miller on pages 108 to 110, before quickly switching back to Dan Anderson in the next paragraph. Again, how could a proofreader miss this? It had me re-reading to figure out who this Dan Miller was. I also agree with another reviewer who dislikes this new trend of female detectives or cops who are dealing with unbelievably tragic and traumatic experiences from their past. The last 3 books I have read have this same underlying theme. Going back and forth. These people should not be cops as they truly have severe mental problems! It is really boring; get on with the story! I will not be reading any more Megan Carpenter stories.
June 8, 2023
3.5 Stars
Not a bad detective story. However, it took awhile to read.
Meghan Carpenter is investigating the disappearance of two teenagers parents.
Meanwhile a man's remains are found near a burnt out truck.
Meghan has to find out if these two cases are related.
I didn't connect with this book as much as Gregg Olsens other books.
Not a bad detective story. However, it took awhile to read.
Meghan Carpenter is investigating the disappearance of two teenagers parents.
Meanwhile a man's remains are found near a burnt out truck.
Meghan has to find out if these two cases are related.
I didn't connect with this book as much as Gregg Olsens other books.
November 17, 2019
Snow Creek by Gregg Olsen is the first in the Detective Megan Carpenter Tapes series.
First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
My Synopsis: (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
The people who choose to live above Snow Creek Washington want to live off the grid, for any number of reasons, but bottom line, they seek seclusion. But things are not always as they seem, and some of the residents keep secrets.
Detective Megan Carpenter travels up into the hills to look for a woman named Ida Watson who is reported missing by her sister. Her children say that their mom and dad went to do some charity work in Mexico a few weeks ago. Upon further investigation, it is determined that they never arrived. When the body of a woman is discovered in a pick-up truck not far from the Watson home, it becomes apparent that there is a murderer on the loose. Megan will have to sift through many lies before the truth will come out.
In her personal life, Megan is re-living her childhood. She is listening to the tapes made when she finally saw a therapist for night terrors. At that time she was known as Rylee. Only the therapist knows the full story of Megan's past.
My Opinions:
This is going to be another hit series from a very talented author. I think, as a true crime writer, Gregg Olsen is able to use those experiences to create wonderful crime fiction.
The plot of this book was captivating, and the characters fascinating.
Olsen created a main character that you want to "know". She's intelligent, she's good at her job, and she's damaged. She has a past. Yes, you want to get to know her. Olsen gives you enough information to keep you stuck to the pages you turn, and leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions so that you are going to be anticipating the next book...and hope it isn't far off.
Absolutely loved this book!
For a more complete review of this book and others, please visit my blog: http://katlovesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
February 13, 2020
Rip off!
This had the potential to be a good book but the author takes shortcuts, tries too hard to be mysterious and things just don't add up. Finally after numerous innuendos intended to keep the suspense going, the author leaves us with a cliffhanger and instructions to buy the next book. Not happening. I feel like I've been cheated!
This had the potential to be a good book but the author takes shortcuts, tries too hard to be mysterious and things just don't add up. Finally after numerous innuendos intended to keep the suspense going, the author leaves us with a cliffhanger and instructions to buy the next book. Not happening. I feel like I've been cheated!
January 6, 2020
Wowza!! I've always wanted to read a book by Gregg Olsen after seeing the reviews on his previous books, so when I got a chance to read Snow Creek, I grabbed it with both hands. Snow Creek is a great start to a new Detective Megan Carpenter series. The book is fast-paced, twisted and gritty. It kept me guessing till the very end!
Detective Megan Carpenter is the newest recruit in quiet Jefferson County’s Port Townsend. The most horrible crime the county has ever seen are cases of domestic violence and small offenses. So when Ruth Turner turns up at the station with a complaint that she hasn't heard back from her sister Ida Wheaton for a long time, Megan goes along to do a welfare check. The sisters have never been 'close' so to speak and Ruth reporting Ida missing sounds like a false alarm. With nothing else going on, Megan decides to dig deeper owing to the fact that Ida and her husband, who also seems to be away have left behind, two young children. Soon an adventurer in the forest, discovers a corpse of a woman burnt beyond recognition in a hidden abandoned vehicle. Megan must unravel the disturbing secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community if she is to catch the killer.
But Megan has dark secrets of her own too…
Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions with Doctor Albright over thirteen years ago. As Megan begins to play the tapes, she’s taken straight back to her terrifying childhood, back to the time she was a kid called Rylee, fighting to survive. Can Megan finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out and will listening to her own painful story help her solve the complex case she is now entangled in?
I loved the character of Megan, her past sounds intriguing and I can't wait to read the next book to read more about her. I loved the plot of this book, its complicated and dark - a perfect combination according to me. The sub-plot involving the characters of Amy and Regina was good, but it was a bit predictable. The flow of the book seemed a bit disjointed to me, but the compelling content more than made up for it. I loved this book and finished it one sitting! Can't wait for the next!
Thank You, NetGalley Bookouture and Gregg Olsen for an arc!
Detective Megan Carpenter is the newest recruit in quiet Jefferson County’s Port Townsend. The most horrible crime the county has ever seen are cases of domestic violence and small offenses. So when Ruth Turner turns up at the station with a complaint that she hasn't heard back from her sister Ida Wheaton for a long time, Megan goes along to do a welfare check. The sisters have never been 'close' so to speak and Ruth reporting Ida missing sounds like a false alarm. With nothing else going on, Megan decides to dig deeper owing to the fact that Ida and her husband, who also seems to be away have left behind, two young children. Soon an adventurer in the forest, discovers a corpse of a woman burnt beyond recognition in a hidden abandoned vehicle. Megan must unravel the disturbing secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community if she is to catch the killer.
But Megan has dark secrets of her own too…
Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions with Doctor Albright over thirteen years ago. As Megan begins to play the tapes, she’s taken straight back to her terrifying childhood, back to the time she was a kid called Rylee, fighting to survive. Can Megan finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out and will listening to her own painful story help her solve the complex case she is now entangled in?
I loved the character of Megan, her past sounds intriguing and I can't wait to read the next book to read more about her. I loved the plot of this book, its complicated and dark - a perfect combination according to me. The sub-plot involving the characters of Amy and Regina was good, but it was a bit predictable. The flow of the book seemed a bit disjointed to me, but the compelling content more than made up for it. I loved this book and finished it one sitting! Can't wait for the next!
Thank You, NetGalley Bookouture and Gregg Olsen for an arc!
November 24, 2019
Darkly depressing storyline w believability issues. I despise the cliffhanger ending.
I read a lot of crime fiction, and I can usually find a likable cop to follow the investigation with. This time I wasn’t invested in the police or the secondary characters. Detective Megan Carpenter is a psychological mess—estranged from her only sibling, a brother overseas in the military. Her childhood was marked by turmoil of constantly moving, loneliness, fear, rootlessness, hardship, and abandonment.
Now Megan deals with families living off the grid in extremely isolated areas. Children are home schooled and raised in strict paternalistic autocracies, which are permeated with religious extremism and zombie-apocalypse-level prepping. Not one family—including one in suburbia—was what I’d consider normal. In one family, the man trained his wife to sexually do “what he wanted and lately she’d been holding back.”
There were unbelievable circumstances to do with the isolated teenagers. They have computers and smartphones when the police can’t get cell service in the isolated homesteads. The patriarch controls the landline, which is the families’ link to the outside world. In their strict, off-grid life, the teens shouldn’t have access to electronics, web connection, convenient access to transport, etc. I had trouble believing the teens’ murderous plans, the murders of their families, identity-switching, masquerading as an adult, etc.
I’m definitely in the minority of reviewers, so please take my review with a tablespoon of salt.
I read a lot of crime fiction, and I can usually find a likable cop to follow the investigation with. This time I wasn’t invested in the police or the secondary characters. Detective Megan Carpenter is a psychological mess—estranged from her only sibling, a brother overseas in the military. Her childhood was marked by turmoil of constantly moving, loneliness, fear, rootlessness, hardship, and abandonment.
Now Megan deals with families living off the grid in extremely isolated areas. Children are home schooled and raised in strict paternalistic autocracies, which are permeated with religious extremism and zombie-apocalypse-level prepping. Not one family—including one in suburbia—was what I’d consider normal. In one family, the man trained his wife to sexually do “what he wanted and lately she’d been holding back.”
There were unbelievable circumstances to do with the isolated teenagers. They have computers and smartphones when the police can’t get cell service in the isolated homesteads. The patriarch controls the landline, which is the families’ link to the outside world. In their strict, off-grid life, the teens shouldn’t have access to electronics, web connection, convenient access to transport, etc. I had trouble believing the teens’ murderous plans, the murders of their families, identity-switching, masquerading as an adult, etc.
I’m definitely in the minority of reviewers, so please take my review with a tablespoon of salt.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 31, 2022
Megan Carpenter has a dark and mysterious past that she’s hidden from everyone apart from a therapist who helped her put her life back together. Now a detective in Port Townsend, WA, she is determined to get justice for every victim she meets.
So when Ruth Turner comes into the Jefferson County Police Station because she is concerned that she hasn’t spoken to her sister, Ida, in weeks, Megan is determined to find out what has happened to her. Driving out to Ida Wheaton’s secluded off-the-grid cabin, she discovers Ida‘s two children scared and alone.
Several days later, Megan is called back out to the tiny community of Snow Creek to investigate the death of a burned and abandoned body of a woman found in the back of a truck. Unconvinced that this is a coincidence, Detective Carpenter wonders if it has anything to do with Ida Wheaton.
Interspersed throughout this novel is the story of Megan’s childhood and what drove her to vow never to let anyone hurt her or those she loves ever again. Can she move beyond the horrors of her childhood as she begins to relive them? And will her own painful history help her solve the complex case she is now confronted with?
I really enjoyed this book and the multiple twists in both Megan’s history and the case in Snow Creek. It is a short novel (only 260 pages) and an easy read that is the first in a series. I look forward to continue following Megan’s story in the second book, Water’s Edge. Rating of 4 stars.
So when Ruth Turner comes into the Jefferson County Police Station because she is concerned that she hasn’t spoken to her sister, Ida, in weeks, Megan is determined to find out what has happened to her. Driving out to Ida Wheaton’s secluded off-the-grid cabin, she discovers Ida‘s two children scared and alone.
Several days later, Megan is called back out to the tiny community of Snow Creek to investigate the death of a burned and abandoned body of a woman found in the back of a truck. Unconvinced that this is a coincidence, Detective Carpenter wonders if it has anything to do with Ida Wheaton.
Interspersed throughout this novel is the story of Megan’s childhood and what drove her to vow never to let anyone hurt her or those she loves ever again. Can she move beyond the horrors of her childhood as she begins to relive them? And will her own painful history help her solve the complex case she is now confronted with?
I really enjoyed this book and the multiple twists in both Megan’s history and the case in Snow Creek. It is a short novel (only 260 pages) and an easy read that is the first in a series. I look forward to continue following Megan’s story in the second book, Water’s Edge. Rating of 4 stars.
January 20, 2021
But almost only 2. Very good story but as I’ve always said, I hate book cliffhangers. It’s disappointing when authors use them as a vehicle to sell more books. It worked for Jericho Quinn but here, Olsen could have let us know Megan’s real backstory.
I’ll definitely read the next two at least. It would be so much better though if this one didn’t feel incomplete, because there is a good story here.
I’ll definitely read the next two at least. It would be so much better though if this one didn’t feel incomplete, because there is a good story here.
August 8, 2024
Stars: 3.5 out of 5
I had this on my TBR list for a very long time, so I finally decided to check it out. And it was a fun read, all in all. It kept me invested.
I liked Megan and was interested in learning more of her backstory and what made her the (somewhat) broken person she is today. It was also interesting to watch her investigate the murders she discovers in Snow Creek.
I liked the atmosphere in this book. The imagery of Port Townsend and surrounding areas is well done. I felt like I was there. Heck, I even googled images of Port Townsend and browsed houses for sale on Zillow just to see what the area is like.
Story-wise, however, this book left me somewhat... unfulfilled, I guess?
See, while the story of the Snow Creek murders if resolved in the end (after several convoluted detours), Megan's story is far from done. In fact, we learned almost nothing about her past by the end of this book, and it finishes on a cliffhanger.
Yes, I understand that the cliffhanger is there to entice me to buy the next book in the series. However, I don't know if I'm invested enough to do that. I liked this story, but I'm not sure I LOVED it enough to try the next book. Then again, maybe one day I will check it out. Only time will tell.
I had this on my TBR list for a very long time, so I finally decided to check it out. And it was a fun read, all in all. It kept me invested.
I liked Megan and was interested in learning more of her backstory and what made her the (somewhat) broken person she is today. It was also interesting to watch her investigate the murders she discovers in Snow Creek.
I liked the atmosphere in this book. The imagery of Port Townsend and surrounding areas is well done. I felt like I was there. Heck, I even googled images of Port Townsend and browsed houses for sale on Zillow just to see what the area is like.
Story-wise, however, this book left me somewhat... unfulfilled, I guess?
See, while the story of the Snow Creek murders if resolved in the end (after several convoluted detours), Megan's story is far from done. In fact, we learned almost nothing about her past by the end of this book, and it finishes on a cliffhanger.
Yes, I understand that the cliffhanger is there to entice me to buy the next book in the series. However, I don't know if I'm invested enough to do that. I liked this story, but I'm not sure I LOVED it enough to try the next book. Then again, maybe one day I will check it out. Only time will tell.
October 28, 2019
Holy cr*p what a complete stunner of a read this is it had everthing, sensational, creepy, addictive with a stunningly complex plot from beginning to end and I loved. loved, loved it !!
This is the first book of a new series featuring Detective Megan Carpenter and it really is a belter, set in part in the atmospheric Snow Creek that is home to some pretty weird people who have chosen to live in isolation it’s a disturbing place where Megan has to investigate a reported disappearance and from here on in we are pulled into a thrilling mystery that’s just so damn compulsive I could not put the kindle down. Added to this we are also drawn into the secrets of Megan’s past told in part through a series of tapes from her childhood when she was mysteriously called Rylee ...this I have to say just makes the book even more compelling and I just can’t wait to read the next in the series so please don’t take too long Gregg Olsen as I need the next book right now please and a massive thank you for a stunner of a read.
So this is going to rate as one my my best reads of the year I can’t fault it so please don’t miss it as it’s a 5 star +++ read.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
This is the first book of a new series featuring Detective Megan Carpenter and it really is a belter, set in part in the atmospheric Snow Creek that is home to some pretty weird people who have chosen to live in isolation it’s a disturbing place where Megan has to investigate a reported disappearance and from here on in we are pulled into a thrilling mystery that’s just so damn compulsive I could not put the kindle down. Added to this we are also drawn into the secrets of Megan’s past told in part through a series of tapes from her childhood when she was mysteriously called Rylee ...this I have to say just makes the book even more compelling and I just can’t wait to read the next in the series so please don’t take too long Gregg Olsen as I need the next book right now please and a massive thank you for a stunner of a read.
So this is going to rate as one my my best reads of the year I can’t fault it so please don’t miss it as it’s a 5 star +++ read.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
November 18, 2019
Detective Megan Carpenter takes a special interest in her new case. A woman, acting very strangely and very reserved, reports her sister, Ruth Turner, missing. Megan goes to the woman's home and is met by the Ruth's teen children. They are are terrified, and Megan discovers that both parents are actually missing, and have been gone for several weeks.
The family lives off the grid and the parents' disappearances raises several concerns for Megan. For starters, Megan sees similarities to her own broken past. While searching for the parents, at the end of each day, Megan painfully listens to tapes from therapy sessions that helped her to recover from very tragic experiences.
Megan soon learns that there is much more than meets the eye with the disappearance of the parents. Meanwhile, there is another couple that also live off grid, and one of them has taken some very serious steps to protect her own. Megan must tie all of these things together.
Snow Creek is the first book in the Detective Megan Carpenter series. The way this book is written, readers get to see how Megan survived a horrid past and how she showed her resilience and became the strong woman she is now. This compelling story was impossible to put down. The twists and turns were many and the conclusion was truly hair-raising. I cannot wait to see what else this series has in store.
Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
The family lives off the grid and the parents' disappearances raises several concerns for Megan. For starters, Megan sees similarities to her own broken past. While searching for the parents, at the end of each day, Megan painfully listens to tapes from therapy sessions that helped her to recover from very tragic experiences.
Megan soon learns that there is much more than meets the eye with the disappearance of the parents. Meanwhile, there is another couple that also live off grid, and one of them has taken some very serious steps to protect her own. Megan must tie all of these things together.
Snow Creek is the first book in the Detective Megan Carpenter series. The way this book is written, readers get to see how Megan survived a horrid past and how she showed her resilience and became the strong woman she is now. This compelling story was impossible to put down. The twists and turns were many and the conclusion was truly hair-raising. I cannot wait to see what else this series has in store.
Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
November 19, 2019
Set in Snow Creek, Washington near Port Townsend this new detective series brought out so many different emotions as I read the story. The story telling is overwhelmingly good and the setting was thought-provoking as I worked my way through self-imposed isolation many in this community apparently desire.
Thoughts:
The story begins with a scene that made me so miffed and disgusted as I watched two self-absorbed women decide that being left alone and not being bothered was more important than perhaps alerting the police to a situation that they needed to be involved in. This opening scene evoked so many emotions that only a good writer who knows how to create excellent characters can (even when I don’t like the character’s choices).
Snow Creek gives all appearances to be an area in Washington state where people go when they no longer want to be disturbed by other people. Self-imposed isolation. To hide from civilization and never return. But when Detective Megan Carpenter is alerted to a possible missing person case of Ida Wheaton by her sister, the solitary way of life several enjoy becomes disturbed. To make the investigation even more difficult both sisters and their families have strict religious beliefs with a lot of rules, hindering both present and future conversations and questions from being answered.
I truly had a hard time putting this one down and when I stayed up late one night to finish I didn’t feel guilty about it at all. The characters and their stories were so unique and memorable. While the religious and lifestyle choices made for a interesting investigation, I am fairly certain the two women I mentioned at the beginning will be the ones I remember long after. Detective Carpenter also has a background that she is trying very hard to overcome and move on from. We learn a little through old audio tapes her therapist recorded from their sessions years ago, but never enough to give her entire story away. However, throughout the story you can see her try and take a few strides to move past her past.
Overall, this is one I can recommend to those who love detective series or police procedurals. Just note that this one is a little different due to the location and isolation. There are generally no security cameras to watch or financial records to pull up since these people tend to live off the grid that many other detective stories might use. Just a really good detective who can slowly unwind a story and find the truth.
Rating: 5 stars
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced reader copy and the opportunity to provide an honest review.
Thoughts:
The story begins with a scene that made me so miffed and disgusted as I watched two self-absorbed women decide that being left alone and not being bothered was more important than perhaps alerting the police to a situation that they needed to be involved in. This opening scene evoked so many emotions that only a good writer who knows how to create excellent characters can (even when I don’t like the character’s choices).
Snow Creek gives all appearances to be an area in Washington state where people go when they no longer want to be disturbed by other people. Self-imposed isolation. To hide from civilization and never return. But when Detective Megan Carpenter is alerted to a possible missing person case of Ida Wheaton by her sister, the solitary way of life several enjoy becomes disturbed. To make the investigation even more difficult both sisters and their families have strict religious beliefs with a lot of rules, hindering both present and future conversations and questions from being answered.
I truly had a hard time putting this one down and when I stayed up late one night to finish I didn’t feel guilty about it at all. The characters and their stories were so unique and memorable. While the religious and lifestyle choices made for a interesting investigation, I am fairly certain the two women I mentioned at the beginning will be the ones I remember long after. Detective Carpenter also has a background that she is trying very hard to overcome and move on from. We learn a little through old audio tapes her therapist recorded from their sessions years ago, but never enough to give her entire story away. However, throughout the story you can see her try and take a few strides to move past her past.
Overall, this is one I can recommend to those who love detective series or police procedurals. Just note that this one is a little different due to the location and isolation. There are generally no security cameras to watch or financial records to pull up since these people tend to live off the grid that many other detective stories might use. Just a really good detective who can slowly unwind a story and find the truth.
Rating: 5 stars
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced reader copy and the opportunity to provide an honest review.
November 17, 2019
Woah!! This book was all kinds of creepy with different sub plots linked in a macabre way. I loved it!!
Detective Megan Carpenter had only one case to begin with to find a sister and her husband. Searching for them led her to a charred body and then neighbors Regina and Amy with their own story which is so horrendous that you would have to read it to believe it. Megan too had a past which chilled me completely. OMG!!
My first book by author Gregg Olsen, I was simply blown away by this master game planner who could put the scenes in such a way that I couldn't look away from my kindle even when I wanted to. The story took me by my throat making me gasp every few chapters.
I had no idea how Megan remained sane after seeing and going through so much horror with the victims. I was glad her personal story was left for book 2 as I wouldn't have been able to stomach it. Evil had never been better written that what this author did with the hints of disturbed minds. I was completely shaken up, thrilled to the core.
Snow Creek was both a compelling place in its worldbuilding and a captivating read in its story. This had something extra, a zing in the story as compared to other police procedurals. Wow!!
Detective Megan Carpenter had only one case to begin with to find a sister and her husband. Searching for them led her to a charred body and then neighbors Regina and Amy with their own story which is so horrendous that you would have to read it to believe it. Megan too had a past which chilled me completely. OMG!!
My first book by author Gregg Olsen, I was simply blown away by this master game planner who could put the scenes in such a way that I couldn't look away from my kindle even when I wanted to. The story took me by my throat making me gasp every few chapters.
I had no idea how Megan remained sane after seeing and going through so much horror with the victims. I was glad her personal story was left for book 2 as I wouldn't have been able to stomach it. Evil had never been better written that what this author did with the hints of disturbed minds. I was completely shaken up, thrilled to the core.
Snow Creek was both a compelling place in its worldbuilding and a captivating read in its story. This had something extra, a zing in the story as compared to other police procedurals. Wow!!
November 15, 2019
This is a good start to a new series. In this book there’s not only the police investigation, but there's also a huge backstory about the main character, Detective Megan Carpenter, told through some tapes she had from psychotherapy sessions.
Megan obviously did something bad in her past but we don't find out quite what it was so I’ll have to hope there’s another book to come!
The plot was quite complex but had me hooked, trying to keep track of all of the different characters. Snow Creek certainly has a collection of strange folks which made the story more enthralling.
With that ending, I’m hoping book two won’t be too long away...
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
Megan obviously did something bad in her past but we don't find out quite what it was so I’ll have to hope there’s another book to come!
The plot was quite complex but had me hooked, trying to keep track of all of the different characters. Snow Creek certainly has a collection of strange folks which made the story more enthralling.
With that ending, I’m hoping book two won’t be too long away...
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
November 1, 2019
What a fantastic start to a the new series Detective Megan Carpenter.
It's dark, its compelling, you will cringe and you will turn the pages quickly.
Megan herself has a very troubling background that you only start to discover as she listens to her tapes from her psychiatrist.
Twists and turns; pay attention or you will miss them approaching.
Great read !
Can't wait to see what Megan does next !!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to meet Megan Carpenter !!
It's dark, its compelling, you will cringe and you will turn the pages quickly.
Megan herself has a very troubling background that you only start to discover as she listens to her tapes from her psychiatrist.
Twists and turns; pay attention or you will miss them approaching.
Great read !
Can't wait to see what Megan does next !!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to meet Megan Carpenter !!
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