Savage Ridge by Morgan Greene

Small town justice comes with a price.

Ten years ago, in the pine-shaded town of Savage Ridge, Nick, Emmy, and Pete murder their high school classmate, Sammy Saint John.

His body is never found, and no arrests are made. The three friends make a pact to leave Savage Ridge and never return...

Now, each is drawn home, seemingly by chance or fate. But it's neither: Private Investigator Sloane Yo has brought them back to finally answer for their crime.

The noose begins to tighten. But with each stone turned over in pursuit of justice, the long-buried secrets of Savage Ridge, and Sloane's employers – the ruthless Saint John family – start to come to light.

What aren't they telling Sloane? Is Sammy Saint John the only victim? And when the truth is finally revealed, whose side will she choose?

For fans of Chris Whitaker's We Begin at the End, Savage Ridge is a shattering, propulsive why-dunnit crime thriller set deep in the pines of the American Pacific Northwest.

Review

‘Savage Ridge’ was a great read, a whydunit rather than a whodunit and I flew through! This was an unusual premise in that we know who the killers are from the beginning and it's more about their motivations and actions. I have read a few books like this and ‘Savage Ridge’ was a good example of this type of read. I haven't read any books by this author before but I will be looking into his back catalogue as I found this book an interesting read and I was surprised by the ending!

So we know from the start that Pete, Nick and Emmy have killed the local rich boy Sammy Saint John and we flip-flop from the time of the killing to 10 years later in the book. This is the first time that they have come home since the events and they have been manipulated into doing so by a PI Sloane Yo. What follows in a cat-and-mouse chase in both times to try and pin the murder on the three kids. Of course, the Saint John’s are trying to control everything in this small town in rural Washington State and I really hated all of them! Every character was morally grey in a way and it made you question whether you were getting the real reasons for why Sammy died from them all.

This was a book full of intrigue, plenty of corruption, twists and red herrings. I flew through this in one day and I'm still thinking about it now.

Let me know if you pick this one up!