Every Last Fear ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Genre: Thriller

US Publication: March 2, 2021

Print: 368 pages

Audio: 10 hours 57 minutes

Confetti Rating: 4 stars

REVIEW:

In 2018, an Iowa family of four died after asphyxiating from toxic gas while vacating at a resort in Akumal, Mexico. Being an Iowan myself, this story was pervasive at the time. First they were missing, since loved ones weren’t able to get in touch with them, but Mexican authorities eventually found them dead in their rental condo. Their names are Kevin, Amy, Sterling (12) and Adrianna (7) Sharp.

Have you ever heard of the Sharps and their tragic story?

It seems as if author Alex Finlay has, as he begins his thriller Every Last Fear with, “They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” The bodies are those of a Midwestern family of four who seemingly died from toxic gas asphyxiation while on vacation in Mexico. There’s evidence that the bodies were staged though, so perhaps foul play is involved.

The story then jumps to follow their surviving college-age son, Matt Pine, as he deals with the aftermath and mysterious circumstances of their deaths. He also has to deal with the media and a maelstrom of public interest, since his family gained notoriety as subjects of a Netflix documentary that profiled his older brother’s murder conviction years before (an obvious nod to “Making a Murderer”).

Matt is guided by a gritty FBI agent, Sarah Keller, who believes there’s more to the story than gas poisoning. Was it a murder/suicide committed by the father? Was there a tie to his former employer’s shady cartel-related business dealings? Was the eldest son’s murder case somehow involved?

Clearly there is A LOT going on in this story! Whatever the opposite of a “closed room” mystery is, this is it. We go from New York, to Washington DC, to Tulum, to Chicago, to small-town Nebraska. Alternating chapters follow multiple characters at various points in time. While this zigzagging style can often be hard to follow, it's not in this case. In fact, it makes for a real page turner.

I flew through Every Last Fear in a few sittings, never knowing how the mystery would be resolved. It would have been a 5-star read for me had it not ended THE LAMEST WAY POSSIBLE. (See my GR profile bio if you don’t mind the spoiler.) There was also an inherent sadness I felt while reading it, constantly thinking back on the real Sharp family whose deaths I can’t imagine weren't the seeds that planted this story in Finlay’s mind.

My thanks to the author and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy via NetGalley.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.”

So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison—putting his own life in peril—and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

Told through multiple points-of-view and alternating between past and present, Alex Finlay's Every Last Fear is not only a page-turning thriller, it’s also a poignant story about a family managing heartbreak and tragedy, and living through a fame they never wanted.