By Rachel Louise Adams
** Publication Date 16 Sept 2025 **
​4 stars


The ending of this novel is worth every slow breath through the beginning. 


Dolores, Doll, Hawthorne/Diaz is a force to be reckoned with. One of the top forensic doctors in the country. Happily ensconced in her world in Los Angeles. A world that is about to be shaken up when she is called home to Little Horton, Wisconsin. Why? Her father is missing.


Little Horton, also knows as Little Halloween, is on the map for all the wrong reasons. Halloween is an eventful day in the town’s history. Mass shootings. Fires. Murder. Most towns would shy away from the drama, but Little Horton leaned in. Now it has an amazing annual festival on Halloween.


Just before this Halloween, however, Dolores is called home. Her father is missing. Once the pride of his life, Dolores has no choice but to head home. A home she hasn’t seen in years. A home that she never expected to revisit. So she goes. Reluctantly, but it’s her duty to be there. While she gets a chilly welcome from her stepmother and half-siblings, it’s her father that she came home for.


Something isn’t right. Her father, former town mayor and Senator, left her a note, asking her to remember him as she loved him. There are secrets and surprises in store. Her ex-boyfriend is now mayor. Her skills as a forensic doctor are in need by the FBI. There’s a lot to digest here. Dolores is trying. Trying to fit in with her estranged step-mother, half-brother and half-sister. Trying not to stand out, even though the whole town is chattering about her return. Trying to help the FBI figure out this mess. 


It’s a tangled web that needs untangling. Dolores is the key, but will she be able to survive the murder spree and figure out who is after both her family and her ex-boyfriend’s? Or will she run again, back to Los Angeles, where she can pretend that Little Horton never existed?


Such a twisty, tangly mess of lies and deception. I’m not sure how Rachel Adams kept it straight to even write this novel. There are so many characters and back stories for these people. Was Dolores’s last Halloween in Little Horton really what she thinks it was? Is her father missing or gone forever? Who is committing these horrible crimes? And why does Kate Butcher hate her so severely? 


It’s a wonderful mess of a story that comes together at the end. And if you’re like me and struggle through the beginning, trust me, it’s worth it in the end. I’m sure you’ll never see what’s coming.


Definitely recommend.