What Never Happened: A Thriller

WHAT NEVER HAPPENED by Rachel Howzell Hall...No spoilers. 4 stars. This was book 2 of 2 of my Amazon First Reads selections, and it was the better of the 2...In 2001...Colette Weber was the lone survivor of the killing of her family. She was only 16 at the time. They were the only black people living on Catalina Island...In 2020...Colette (Coco) returns to Catalina Island to write obituaries for the island's paper, The Avalon Breeze, and research the murders...On her first day back...Coco received a letter under the door addressed to The One Who Survived reading...Welcome home...Avalon, 20 years later, is advertised as still lovely, still safe, and still paradise...Mayberry by the sea...But...Old, widowed women are being systematically murdered by an unknown serial killer who wants their home...The killer, dubbed The Beast of Avalon, is like an invasive species to the island... like a tangerine seed discarded on the island's ground by a tourist...Even more worrisome...Coco's lawyer called to say that the man convicted of the murders 20 years ago has been freed due to new DNA evidence that cleared him...And he wants revenge...This novel was an excellent whodunit mystery with many suspects. If you've ever visited Catalina Island, you'll find this story very atmospheric.Excellent Amazon First Reads selection.

This was quite the read. I felt it was very long and very drawn out, but in the end, I don't know that there was anything to cut out. There was a history that had to be presented - a then and a now - that were vital to what was happening.There were so many typical suspects and so much happening and so many questions. I definitely felt the paranoia and the fear - questioning every one and every thing. I never in a million years saw where this was going.When all was revealed, I literally said "what!?" out loud because I never saw it coming. I had no idea. The story had me guessing and re-guessing. Never figuring out the crime on my own and that is something I love about a good mystery thriller - and What Never Happened was just that!

There is a lot going on in What Never Happened. Coco returns to the island that 20 years ago murdered her family. Now, she is taking care of her only living relative, Aunt Gwen. Shortly after arriving, she sees a pattern of deaths happening to elderly residents, and as she writes the obituaries for these deaths, she also investigates who is doing the killing and who murdered her family 20 years ago with help from her co-works in the Newsroom.Suspense, psychological thrills, secrets, a tiny bit of romance, back-stabbing, and suspects galore, along with great character development, you want to be best friends with Coco and help her solve the mystery. Rachel Howzell Hall did a nice story here to keep you turning the pages with realistic life issues sprinkled in.

Rachel Howzell Hall takes us through Catalina's hillside, as Collette returns to the small town, where her family was murdered, to care for her aunt. As if that wasn't enough trauma and PTSD to sort through, Collette is tasked with writing the obituaries for a string of old women who start falling like flies when she returns.I'd give the character development a 7/10, we learned about Collette but many of the side characters lacked depth. I would have loved to get more backstory to Noah, Flynn, and Maddie...but it all stayed pretty surface-level.I took a trip to Catalina Island for my first wedding anniversary, so I enjoyed revisiting the island through the story. Makes me wonder if the small sleepy coastal town really has some dark secrets.

I definitely did NOT see that ending coming! What a twist! I suspected a touch of it but nothing to this extent, so it definitely was a page turner, and I found myself not wanting to put it down! I definitely would recommend this book if you like suspense and mystery...it's not intense but will keep you intrigued!The writing style was slightly confusing at times, so you may have to reread I paragraph or two to understand completely. My only disappointment was Noah...it wasn't the ending I had hoped for for them. If not for these two things, I probably would've gone with 5 stars!

Grimmy award-winning, but recently laid off, obituary writer Colette “Coco” Weber is returning to the relatively remote Catalina Island in March of 2020. The last time she was on the Catalina Island ferry was after the brutal murders of her mother, father, and younger brother. She was the only one who had survived the massacre and all because she'd snuck out.Now, in search of distance from her ex, a plan for her aging aunt, and a new start, Coco is writing obituaries for the island's paper, which is owned and operated by her college friend Maddy. But as the obituaries pile up, Coco finds herself ensnared in a mystery that will have you hooked. It is sneak away to read during work to read good, stay up into the wee hours good, get you back into reading good. To quote Charles Dickens, "If that's not high praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it."Howzell Hall has woven a tale that will not only intrigue, but snap and ensnare.

On Santa Catalina Island, a short ferry ride from civilization across the Pacific Ocean from Long Beach, California, is a town called Avalon, where Colette, better known as Coco is returning to take a job writing obituaries for her best friend, Maddie's newspaper. She is returning to Avalon for several reasons. Her only living relative, Gwen lives in the house which was left to Coco when her parents died and her aunt has been having some medical problems. Coco is also escaping her ex, Micah, with whom she recently broke up. The house has not been touched in the last twenty years since her parents, and brother were found murdered in their rental home. As Coco found the bodies of her family, she then moved to the mainland and began in-depth psychology to help her cope with the trauma. She never returned until twenty years later. The man accused of those murders was recently released from prison as evidence was discovered that proved his innocence. Coco's not so sure.Now that she is back it seems that many elderly women, who were single, have died tragically in recent months. The common denominator seems to be that they all owned their own homes which were now valued at nearly a million dollars each. Or could there be a serial killer in Avalon and did it have anything to do with the still unsolved murder of Collette's family?This book kept me up at night unraveling the mysteries. The author of this book, Rachel Howzell Hall, has great style in her writing and a jolly good storyline as well.

I loved this novel until the last 50 pages. The ending seemed muddled, unbelievable and rushed. It was a huge let down to see characters I was invested in become caricatures I no longer recognized.

Good reading you didn't trust anyone in the end but changed your mind right up to the end of the book

I really wasn't sure about this book when I started it - the beginning was so dark I wasn't sure I was prepared to read on. I'm glad I did, it's cleverly written, pacily plotted and I want Coco to be my friend. I struggle to make time to read, but I really wanted to find out what happened here.

I say surprisingly as tbh I didn't know the author. However I will look out fir her again for definite. This was a rollicking roller coaster of a read! Good characters and could easily be a film....! It was a real page turner and very fast paced! Excellent.