You Better Watch Out: A Thriller by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth

St. Martin’s Press, 2024

ISBN 9781250286260

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

You Better Watch Out by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth is a fast-moving thriller reminiscent of the TV series Survivor and the book trilogy Hunger Games. It’s Christmastime, and five strangers are mysteriously kidnapped, awakening in a snowbound village in upstate New York. The three men and two women have checkered pasts, including thievery, hit-and-run homicide, drug dealing, scamming and addiction. The village is a killing field strewn with deadly, macabre booby traps. One-by-one they meet gruesome deaths trying to escape while facing starvation and hypothermia. Why were they brought here? Who is killing them? Will any of them escape?

Murray and Wearmouth are veteran authors who have an accessible writing style. The third-person narration is direct and easily understood. The plot flows well and has enough twists and turns to draw readers in and keep them guessing until the surprising end. Or, is it an end?

Recommended for older teenagers and adults.

Contains: Profanity, violence, gore, mild sexuality

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee