This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

As a winter treat to myself — while I’m supposed to be on break with the rest of my industry, lolol — I decided to finally crack open one of my most anticipated books this year. Ashley Winstead broke my heart in 2023 with Midnight Is The Darkest Hour, so I was ready for This Book Will Bury Me… or so I thought, until I finished that last heart-wrenching page.

Janeway Sharp is enjoying college life as a slightly older student at the University of Central Florida when she receives devastating news. Her beloved father has suffered a heart attack. She immediately leaves the party she’d been attending to drive the two hours or so home, only to receive even worse news: her father is dead.

In the aftermath, neither she nor her mother knows what to do with their grief. A series of small, everyday occurrences leads Jane to a true crime message board. Her powerlessness in the face of death is alleviated by her involvement with the board, especially when she’s able to actually help solve a case by going in person to investigate a murder that occurred not too far from where she lives. Soon, she’s invited to an elite circle of crime solvers famous not just online but in real life — albeit to a fairly specialized audience — for being successful amateur online sleuths.

This small group soon feels like family to Jane, even with all their ups and downs. Tho they all learn each other’s names, it’s still easier to go by their nicknames from the board. Lightly is a retired cop, while Mistress is a retired librarian: both serve as de facto mom and dad to their little team. Goku looks like your stereotypical hacker, while Citizen is in the Navy (and one of the hottest guys Jane has ever seen.) They all call her Search, after her own handle. Together, they make a great team, successfully using their skills and intelligence to help the cops solve multiple homicides.

But then three sorority girls are brutally murdered in Delphine, Idaho. After a series of tumultuous events, the five sleuths decide that their efforts are best spent going up there to investigate in person. What they discover, however, will threaten to tear their little group apart and turn Jane’s world upside down.

And that is all I feel comfortable saying about the plot before urging you to go read this phenomenal book! I’ve already skipped a bunch of details so as not to drop any unintended spoilers, but no one writes about dealing with grief as well as Ms Winstead does. Her last book talked about love and reading and friendship and the immersive quality of the dialog between reader and author. This book discusses trust and legacy and the lengths people will go to for the ones they love. She takes a highly specialized situation and makes it feel shockingly universal: who hasn’t become a little deranged by both grief and the sense of finally having a purpose, after all? Just because readers wouldn’t go to the lengths that the characters in this book do, doesn’t mean that we can’t understand why they do it, in large part due to the genius of Ms Winstead’s writing.

I truly believe that she’s the best psychological thriller writer working right now, and wish I had more time to dive into the rest of her oeuvre (which is not, btw, limited to thrillers!) This Book Will Bury Me is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. I consider it truly a blessing that there are more of her books still for me to read.

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead was published March 25 2025 by Sourcebooks Landmark and is available from all good booksellers, including