It Dies With You

This book is definitely a good suspense story wrapped in a mystery. It has a dark tale of hidden secrets that are boiling beneath this idyllic town. The twist in the story wasn't quite what I was expecting. 

Hudson Miller works as a bouncer part time at a hole in the wall bar. One night he gets involved in an altercation at the bar and is sent home early. In the middle of the night he receives two back to back phone calls from his dad, someone he has spoken to in years. He ignores the calls. The next morning his phone rings again, only this time its the police. The man on the other end of the line tells him his father has been found murdered at his place of business, Miller Pull a Part, the local salvage yard. 

Hudson arrives in Flint Creek shortly after the call. He stops in to visit his stepmother and see what the police might know so far. Turns out they know nothing and his stepmother is useless. In searching the salvage yard they come across a buried vault full of what looks to be illegal guns. Could this have something to do with his fathers murder? Just about the time Hudson decides he's ready to leave town, he gets a call from his fathers lawyer. He informed that the will has been read and his father left him three rental houses and the salvage yard. 

Hudson is on the fence as to what he should do. He's tired of being a bouncer/bartender and would like to start a gym of his own someday. However, lacking funds has kept him from this. So he decides to take a leap and get into the salvage business, despite not knowing anything about cars. He ends up hiring his dad associate, Charlie Shoaf, a Vietnam veteran who brings his dog, Buster, the sort of junkyard guard dog. Hudson ends up moving back to his home town, even taking one of the rentals to live in. Things seem to be going alright at first. Not making a ton of sales, but learning the business is a process, especially when his dad didn't believe in computer records. 

With things trekking along, Hudson starts to think that maybe this junkyard gig will work out after all. That is until Buster stumbles upon something buried in the yard. A crushed car, buried in the ground, with a body in the trunk. They call the cops and of course things get hairy. Charlie says he knows nothing of anyone being murdered and then buried there and if he didn't do it, that only leaves one person-Hudson's dad, Leland. The police soon identify the body as a 22 year old kid named Marco, who had been missing since the previous year. Marcos mom and sister are the only family left and his sister, 15 year old Lucy, has been searching for him ever since he went missing. Interviewing people, keeping a detailed record of who she's talked to and even creating an Instagram page about it. 

Soon, Hudson, Charlie and Lucy are all working together to find out who not only killed Marco but Leland too even if it means Leland killed Marco. As they investigate strange things start happening. First, the shop is broke into and ransacked and then Charlie and Hudson are nearly run off the road. All this leads to a shocking discovery about who the killer is and all the secrets of this seemingly idyllic town come to light. 

This is a quick read. There weren't any really slow parts. The chapters are short which I like as it seems to read faster. The characters are interesting and I was intrigued by the story. I felt Lucy was a little to impulsive for her age but overall, its a great story. I received this book free from NetGalley for an honest review. This book will be available June 7, 2022.