The Boy: A Novel Hardcover – December 31, 2018

If you enjoy mystery, pain, love and murder, read this book. I confess I read by author and she is one of my favs, but this story just got under my skin. I felt sad, unsettled and confused almost simultaneously and I could not put this book down until I finished the entire book!!!

Ms. Hoag makes the Louisiana back country real in both a romantic and terrifying way. A child is sexually molested, another child is murdered in a small town on the edge of the swamp. Are these crimes connected? Sheriff's detective Annie Boussard and her hot blooded Cajun husband, who is also her boss, must try to find the suspect(s) when very few of any clues exist. This mail biting, page turning novel will keep you reading late into the night.

Typically I love Tami Hoag books. This one was different. Characters were so flawed they were difficult to like and want to continue to read about. In general this was a depressing book. I would not buy one with these characters again.

I had a difficult time staying with this book and skipped more than a few pages. Nick Fourcade is a bully and disguising it under the premise of being "right" doesn't change the facts. I am also not a fan of the squabbling relationship dynamics between Nick and Annie. I found the story more depressing than entertaining.

Tami Hoag is an amazing author. This is the 4th book I had read by her, and I was not disappointed. To make things even better, she has set the book in and around south Louisiana, my home. I also love the depth of her characterization. I felt like I could feel what Annie and Nick were feeling. Mrs. Hoag was certainly right when she pointed out the injustices that often occur in law enforcement and in public opinion. Because she gets us into the main characters' heads so well, it is easy to see how even good people can do evil things. I truly didn't figure out who killed the victims until about 30 pages before it ended.the end. The problem with reading a book this well written and compelling is that it is a hard act to follow. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could read next? By the way, if you have not read the three books in her Secrets From the Grave series. do it! They are unbelievably good.

I like this author and have read a lot of her books, BUT, I did not like this one at all. I found it very repetitious, and the characters were dull. All the bickering and arguing among the main characters just got annoying and irritating; there was too much of it. At one point I just started speed reading, got to 53% on my Kindle, and had enough. I bailed. I hope the author will get her mojo back; she is better than this effort.

I am a huge Tami Hoag fan. I have been eagerly waiting for this book, as it's taken much longer for her to publish it since her last novel. As I began, I was excited that she was returning to the Louisiana Bayou, an area where she has based some of her best work. This novel deals with the murders of two children, and this made it very difficult for me to read. As always, her details are brilliant, and I love the way she writes. Unlike many authors, Ms. Hoag will present several characters as possible suspects, and I am never sure who the guilty person might be until the end. However, she is always fair to the reader - it will be one of the suspects that she has given. I am furious when an author suddenly gives a "surprise" perpetrator of the crime at the end of the story. Ms. Hoag never does that. Hopefully, she will not take as long between books as she did with this novel. She is my favorite fiction writer!

I waited over a year for this book to come on my kindle and was not disappointed. I reread "A Thin Red Line" to make sure I remembered the characters. I really loved the story line even though it was emotional. Can't go too much into the story because one wrong step and you ruin the plot for others. It was a fantastic book and maybe next book she will get Chas a permanent girl friend.

My thanks to Orion Publishing/Trapeze for an eARC via NetGalley of Tami Hoag’s ‘The Boy’ in exchange for an honest review. It was published in hardback in December 2018 and its paperback edition is being published on 22 August 2019.This is the second in her series featuring Detectives Nick Fourcade and Anne Broussard set in Bayou Breaux, Louisiana. Actually the first book in this series, ‘A Thin Dark Line’, was the first book I had read by Tami Hoag back in 2009. I have gone on to read a number of her other crime thrillers and found them excellent.So I began reading ‘The Boy’ with great confidence in her skills in storytelling and characterisation. Plus, as I enjoy the combination of reading and listening, I obtained its Kindle/Audible editions.In this troubling case a young single mother, Genevieve Gauthier, is attacked in her home. She escapes and flees to a neighbour’s house. Called to the scene Detective Nick Fourcade discovers the body of a young boy, viciously stabbed to death. This turns out to be Genevieve's seven-year old son, KJ.In addition, Nick is still investigating a brutal assault against a 13-year old girl with non-verbal autism and is finding himself increasingly in conflict with the new Sheriff, Kelvin Dutrow, who considers Nick a rouge detective that he would love to fire.Once started this book was almost impossible to put down. It is very fast paced and takes place over a very short period of time. It builds up to a shattering climax that had me on the edge of my seat.As well as being a dark, intense crime thriller, Hoag powerfully evokes the atmosphere of the Louisiana bayou with its unique flora and fauna. I could so easily visualise the cypress trees heavily draped with Spanish moss.She concludes with a short glossary of Cajun French.A well deserved five stars.

It's surprising this author is not more well-known than she is. If you like PJ Tracy and Karin Slaughter, then you'll probably like Tami Hoag, as her writing is very similar in style. The setting - Louisiana Cajun territory - lends this well-paced and plotted book added atmosphere. The dialogue is authentic sounding and the bad guys suitably nasty. The scenes between Detective Fourcade and his boss are particularly enjoyable. My only slight criticism is that it becomes a tad OTT towards the end, by which time it is clear who the killer is. This didn't detract though from it being possibly the best crime novel I've read this year and one I'd recommend to other lovers of the genre, especially if it introduces them to an author, hitherto unfamiliar.

What a great book and so good to catch up with the characters. I read a lot but didn’t see the end coming, didn’t want to put it down at any time. So, so look forward to Tami Hoag’s next book

I love Tami Hoag's style of writing. This is a good book with twists & turns throughout the book. One very mild criticism, I thought Nick was way to angry & inflexible to be a good cop. The love story between him & his wife was sound but in reality no-one could put up with his antics, passionate about his job or not. Liked his stan-offs with his own 'boss'. Worth reading

There are very few authors whose quality of work is consistent, but I am happy to confirm this is still the case with Tami Hoag. I loved this novel, absolutely loved it.Although the novel revolves around the murder of a young boy, because of the way the novel is written, it felt like a reading comfort blanket. I hope we see some more Hoag novels, as it certainly makes my reading selection more enjoyable.