It’s hot as hell outside, which is why summer is the perfect time for a chillingly creepy thriller. The first time I read the premise of IN HER BONES by Kate Moretti, I knew it was going to be up my alley. Serial killer mother? Emotionally “damaged” daughter? Does the apple fall far from the tree? Count. Me. In.

The 411:Fifteen years ago, Lilith Wade was arrested for the brutal murder of six women. After a death row conviction, media frenzy, and the release of an unauthorized biography, her thirty-year-old daughter Edie Beckett is just trying to survive out of the spotlight. She’s a recovering alcoholic with a dead-end city job and an unhealthy codependent relationship with her brother. Edie also has a disturbing secret: a growing obsession with the families of Lilith’s victims. She’s desperate to see how they’ve managed—or failed—to move on. While her escalating fixation is a problem, she’s careful to keep her distance.

That is, until she crosses a line and a man is found murdered. Edie quickly becomes the prime suspect—and while she can’t remember everything that happened the night of the murder, she’d surely remember killing someone. With the detective who arrested her mother hot on her trail, Edie goes into hiding. She’s must get to the truth of what happened that night before the police—or the real killer—find her. Unless, of course, she has more in common with her mother than she’s willing to admit…

Once I start this book, I couldn’t stop. Moretti does a great job at ending each chapter with just enough of a cliffhanger that you want to just keep reading. If not for this pesky thing called work, this could’ve easily been a one-sitting read. Edie’s obsession with the loved ones of her mother’s victims felt satisfyingly creepy and that scene where she finagled the password out of that guy? I don’t know if I will trust text messages supposedly from my bank or insurance again.

The psychological thriller is one of my favorite genres, but the “unreliable female narrator” trope is becoming old. Jane Doe is an alcoholic and she sees something sinister. But did she really see it? IN HER BONES technically does fall into this category, but it actually felt fresh. This time, Edie isn’t the only voice in the mix where their memory of the event is hazy.

MY RATING:  ✰✰✰.5
RECOMMENDED READING: Ruth Ware, LET ME LIE by Clare Mackintosh

Thank you Atria Books for including me on this tour and for providing my galley.

Pooja Dhar, PR Photography

Kate Moretti is the New York Times bestselling author of The Blackbird Season, The Vanishing Year, Thought I Knew You, and Binds That Tie. She lives in eastern Pennsylvania with her husband and kids. Find out more at katemoretti.com.