What Waits in the Woods

I wish there were words to express how excited I was when I saw that I was approved for this arc. Thrillers will always be one of my favourite genres and the fact that this was a murder mysteries screamed that it was right up my alley.

After her dreams are cut short and a failed relationship, Esmé decides to move back to her hometown to help her brother take care of their unwell father. Things quickly take a sinister turn when one of Esmé's old friends is found dead in her backyard.

The story follows the point of view of Esmé and Rita, the detective who is investigating the murder. Usually, I find it can become quite confusing when there are dual points of view because it can become jumbled but thankfully this was written well and i found myself excited to see each different view of Esmé and Rita.

I loved trying to solve the mystery along with the other characters. As we learnt more about the characters and their pasts, I tried to figure out on my own who the killer was and I can confirm that I was not even close.

I feel like the ending was slightly rushed. It felt like it came out of left field as I hadn't seen any reason for the story to go that way which could have been my fault because I could have missed some foreshadowing and clues.

Overall, I had great fun with this tense and fantastically paced Thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I just finished What Waits in the Wood by Teri Parlato and here are my thoughts.


Esme Foster left her hometown to become a professional ballerina. Her life was set for stardome. Problem is she gets hurt and can no longer dance. Feeling adrift, she returns home. Her brother isn't particularly happy to see her and her father is too far gone to really notice. Just as she arrives home, one of her old school friends is found dead in the woods behind her family home.

Could someone have thought Kara was Esme? They look a lot alike and she still remembers the car crash that killed her mother and the man screaming at her, saying he was going to kill her.

Detective Rita Myers is all too familiar with closed nit places like Graybridge. Knows the place is built on secrets and lies and everyone, including Esme has them. Could digging too deep bring a killer back out to play?

This book was pretty interesting. It certainly had the small town creepy vibe going for it. As a dancer myself, it was nice to connect with a character that has something in common with me. Esme's old friend group are all cliquey and I wasn't a fan. The whole town had weird energy and no one felt reliable. I loved it. All the family dysfunction was pretty wild to boot. No one is happy and everyone was a suspect.

Loved the plot and the setting. The woods behind the houses are just creepy enough to keep you indoors. The book is told from two POV and normally that is one too many for me but it worked for this book. The end was probably the very best part for me. I didn't see it coming.

I found the pace to be too slow for a thriller which was a real bummer. That brought the entertainment value down for me a bit. I like the rush you get from a thriller and this one.... I maybe wouldn't have called this a thriller personally but it was worth the read for me.

3.5 stars rounded to 4

Thank you to @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks for my gifted copy

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