With an expert hand, Rachel Louise Adams’s debut No Rest for the Wicked reads like an edge of your seat, heart-pounding scary movie.
In one Halloween obsessed Midwestern town, everyone’s on red alert after a local politician goes missing. Little do they know it’s only the beginning.
It’s been close to twenty years since forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne left her hometown of Little Horton, Wisconsin. The town is famous for its Halloween celebrations, but also its history of violent deaths linked to the holiday. To Dolores, it’s the place she fled, family, bad memories, and all. Until the FBI calls to tell her that her father--the former mayor turned US Senator--is missing under mysterious circumstances.
Some people count to ten to wake up from a nightmare. Dolores always counts the bones of her head instead: sphenoid, frontal, lacrimal. But no matter how many times she counts them, it doesn’t change the fact that her father is missing, that his final words of warning to her were to trust no one, and that now, the rest of her family is giving Dolores a chilling welcome. With Halloween fast approaching, Dolores must face the past she left behind before it’s too late.
No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams was released September 16, 2025 by Minotaur Books. I received a copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion nor my review.
My thoughts: Overall this is a good book. I gave it 4 stars out of 5 possible.
The characters are well drawn. Some you will probably like for the most part, like Dolores. Others you won't like as much, like Charlotte. It was hard for me to figure out who the kidnapper was. It was a surprise twist and a good one.
The book had good pacing. It begins right away with Dolores finding out her father has been kidnapped. This captured my attention. There's more than one mystery in this book. There is a subplot of what happened to Dolores all those years ago. Flashbacks help tell the tale and don't slow it down. There are also at least 2 other subplots. Most of the subplots enrich the story. The one about the stray cats, though, I felt could have been done without for the most part. It did help characterize the female police officer's place among the other officers though.
I felt like the synopsis was a little misleading. It focuses on the town being associated with Halloween and having deaths around that holiday. I thought it was gearing up for something paranormal to be going on. Don't get me wrong. It is still a very well written mystery/thriller. It's just that Halloween is more a coincidence rather than a plot point.
Also some people may prefer there to be trigger warnings for at least sexual assault and the cat subplot. Neither one is really done in great detail. The sexual assault is mostly behind closed doors. And the thing with the cats is likewise very minor part of the plot.
Overall I would recommend this book to people who enjoy thrillers and mysteries. It's basically well-written and interesting. And there are some good twists.
Have you read this book yet? What did you think? Will you add it to your TBR list? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with us.
Happy Reading!
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