Review: One by One by Lauren Street

One by One (The Bishop Smoky Mountain Thrillers, #10)

by Lauren Street

Release Date: January 7, 2025

2025 Sterling & Stone

Ebook ARC; 315 Pages

ISBN: 978-1629554266

ASIN: B0DNTZV4Y5

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Rileigh Bishop and Mitch have faced their share of dangers, but nothing could prepare them for the horrors lurking in Shagbark Manor. Sixteen-year-old Hillary Scofield warned of blood-soaked visions, floating violins, and a body surrounded in a puddle of blood. Then she disappeared without a trace.

Determined to find the girl, Rileigh digs into the manor’s grim history, uncovering the chilling tale of Crawford Tillman – a man who returned home nearly a century ago to find his family murdered by an axe-wielding killer. Now, a new killer appears to be imitating the murders, starting with Hillary.

 

My Thoughts

One by One is the next book in the Bishop Smoky Mountain Thrillers and I have to admire how the author can keep writing taught mysteries book after book.  While this one has the appearance of a paranormal aspect, the actual truth is far different and I appreciate how perspective can play a huge role in witness accounts and how difficult it is for a police detective to separate fact from fiction.

The plot wove around the disappearance of a sixteen-year-old girl, but the reader did get to meet her in the first quarter of the book and learn some of her fears. I found this approach more in style of horror novels although this was definitely not a horror novel in the slightest. I did find that approach to be helpful once Mitch and Rileigh started digging into her disappearance as you already knew some of the backstory, but not enough to give anything away.  The manor is actually run by the great-granddaughter of the man who originally built the home, but who was at the center of grisly family murder that has pretty much remained unsolved all these years.  The plot moved along rather quickly and involved multiple POV, but they were clear and easy to follow.  I did have a problem with sentence structure, punctuation and grammar to the point where it actually jolted me out of the story a couple of times. As a proofreader, I tend to let certain mistakes slide, but when actual names of characters are wrong multiple times, it gets harder not to get annoyed.  And I did take a look at a published copy compared to my ARC to see if the mistakes were fixed and they were not.  I only mention this when it is definitely an issue.

 

The author does assume that you have prior knowledge of the relationship between Rileigh and Mitch when reading this book, but I don't think that is actually a big problem.  Personally, I felt like the character development was not a priority in this book and while that may be fine for the main characters whom we have met multiple times, it didn't help with the secondary characters we met for the first time in this book. To be honest, most just kind of faded to the background as the story went on, and while I liked the ending, I did feel like it was incomplete as it focused more on foreshadowing for the next book and what was going to happen to Rileigh rather than concluding the present book.  

 

Verdict

One by One had some great moments, and I definitely enjoyed the overall story even though I did find some of it predictable.  I liked how the author wove the paranormal aspect into the story, but it wasn't what people would expect.  I did think the plot overshadowed character development in this book which affected the ending and left some questions for the reader.  Overall, a decent entry in the series.