WHAT HAVE WE DONE by Alex Finlay

 

MY THOUGHTS

I loved this book. It had so much going on that it took my breath away. The ending I did not see coming at all. Still wondering where the twins came from but it's not relevant to this story. It was just an all around good edge of your seat story. 

Children in the system. Living in a group home for foster children. Teens. At the right age for adults to basically take advantage of them. There was five children who you meet in this story. Each one coming from some type of loss to be left here by the state. Under the care of who I saw as a very uncaring man. His son was a bully and he did nothing to stop him. 

The story is told from several different characters. Each explains what is happening to them at the time. Someone is out to kill them and it takes them a bit to understand that it has something to do with the house they lived it.

It starts out with someone being shot. Multiple people shoot this person. You know who is pulling the trigger so no surprise there. Five children who live in this group home. Each pulls the trigger. Sealing them together with this secret forever. Thus the title: WHAT HAVE WE DONE!

You'll meet Jenna. She's married to the love of her life. She has two step-children and she once worked for an organization that took out people. She was groomed from the age of fifteen and finally got out. Finally has a good life. Then it all starts to fall apart. Someone is threatening her and her family if she doesn't do what she is told. She has to take out someone or else!

Donnie is a musician. He is also a bit of a drunk. He never truly got over his life. He's been drinking since he was a kid. But one night he falls off a cruise ship. One that he was playing in a band on but was fired from said band. Did he jump or was it something more sinister? 

Nico is a tv personality. He is in charge of a reality tv show called The Miners. Someone tricks him and leaves him for dead in the pits of the dark mine. He knows there is not much time and he has no cell signal at all. Very little battery life also. What will become of him? 

These three will have to work together to find out who wants them dead and why. Could it be linked to what they did twenty-five years ago. Could it be the son of the man they killed? 

Ben was on track to be a federal judge when he was murdered. He was one of the children from the group home also. He worked very hard to pull himself up and do what he did with his life. He left behind a wife and child that he loved dearly. He had no secrets from his wife either.... Who killed him and why.

There is also Artemis. Artemis was the quiet one. The inventor. The one that grew up to be very rich. He was also in the group home. You'll get to know him also. 

Then you get the twins. Casey and Haley. Both evil to the core. They love inflicting pain and horrors on people. They seem to get off by tortuous acts. Who are they and where did they come from. What do they have to do with the children, now grown ups, from the group home. 

You'll find out everything. You will cringe from some of the things that happen in this book. You'll root for the kids to make it. For the grownups to make it. For some to live. I have to admit that I wanted a couple of these characters to be killed. They really do deserve it. 

I loved the three initial story tellers. Jenna, Nico and Donnie. They are solid and very likable in their own ways. I don't think any one of them deserved to go through anything. 

This book is very good. It's edge of your seat good. It's not what I thought it was going to be after reading a few other reviews. It wasn't dark. It contained no acrobat actions. Nothing out of the ordinary for a good thriller. Lots of fighting and some bloody parts sure. What did you expect. It's a Finlay book. A good Finlay book.

Thank you #NetGalley, #AlexFinlay, #StMartin'sPress, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

4.25 stars. Grab it. It's that good.

SYNOPSIS

In this “top-notch mystery thriller” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) from Alex Finlay, What Have We Done is a tale about the lives we leave behind and the secrets we carry with us forever.

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2023:• BookPage • BookBub • E! News • Go BookMart • Goodreads • PopSugar • The Every Girl • She Reads • Beyond the Bookends

A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.

Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down—after the disappearance of several kids—the three were split up.

Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished—if troubled—lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.

To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past—a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

It’s a reunion none of them asked for . . . or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.

What Have We Done is both an edge-of-your-seat thriller and a gut-wrenching coming-of-age story. And it cements Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in thrillers today.