Tag Archives: Sarah Pearse

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : The Wilds

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The Wilds (Detective Elin Warner, #3) by Sarah Pearse (Goodreads Author)

Amy Caudill‘s review

May 28, 2026 

The Wilds by Sarah Pearse

The Wilds (Detective Elin Warner, #3) by Sarah Pearse (Goodreads Author)

Amy Caudill‘s review

May 28, 2026 

This third book in the Elin Warner series by author Sarah Pearse features our heroine on a family vacation with her estranged brother, Isaac, to a national park in Portugal. In the last book, The Retreat, Detective Elin had begun repairing the relationship with her brother as she investigated a series of murders in a property he had developed. Now, Isaac has invited her on this trip to recover from those events, but also with an ulterior motive. He hopes to assist his friend Penn, whose sister has gone missing in that same park.


Unknown to Isaac, and even Elin at first, her path had crossed with the missing Kier before during a time Elin was dealing with a lot of emotional turmoil, and she had failed to follow up with the troubled woman. Now guilt as well as her own sense of duty as a detective lead her to pursue the case.


The novel goes back and forth between points of view of the missing Kier, in the past, and Elin, in the present, but as each change is a different chapter it is not too difficult to follow as the plot is unveiled one missing piece at a time. Kier had lived a troubled life, seeking solace on the road and ultimately traveling with a love interest, Zeph, who was a famous chef whose attitude ruined his career. Was Zeph involved in Kier’s disappearance? Since three years have passed, the trail for clues is cold and people who knew the couple present conflicting reports of their relationship.


Several twists and turns will present the sleuthing duo with obstacles, including a surprising connection between Elin and Penn that throws her completely for a loop. When no one is whom they seem to be, and everyone appears to have assumed identities and suspected motives, who can they trust for information? While this story may not have as much action as the previous books in the series, it does contain an absorbing mystery that will keep the reader guessing until the very end.


I enjoyed this novel very much and award it five stars for an interesting mystery that successfully deals with several sensitive topics, including abuse and trauma, with a very satisfying conclusion.

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : The Retreat

Book Reviews, ,
The Retreat by Sarah Pearse

The Retreat (Detective Elin Warner, #2) by Sarah Pearse (Goodreads Author)

Amy Caudill‘s review

In this imaginative take on the isolated island murder mystery trope, a British detective, Elin Warner, investigates when a series of murders take place on an island resort with a dark history.

In the beginning of this story, Elin is on leave after experiencing a breakdown from incidents in her prior investigations, but when she is pulled into this case, which has personal connections through her boyfriend, she decides she must give this case her all.

Cary Island, also known as Reaper’s Rock, has a bloody past.  Once home to a school for troubled youth, it became the site of a massacre that still haunts locals.  However, a mogul has decided to build a luxury retreat on the island, which seems to be a success, until the first body appears.

 Though early signs make the death as an accident, Elin and her new partner Steed soon find evidence that indicates it might be otherwise. When another body appears, with ties to both the group including the first victim and the owner of the resort, the detectives uncover evidence linking both deaths to the previous group of murders on the island.  With a storm and problems on the mainland preventing Elin from getting reinforcements, it’s up to her and Steed to catch the killer, or killers, before they strike again.

I enjoyed this story very much, even though I haven’t yet read the first book in the series, which I’m sure would explain more about Elin’s personal issues.  The clues left about the past littered throughout the story as Elin’s thoughts and fears threaten to overwhelm her at times are eye-opening though.  Despite or perhaps because of her flaws, Elin is very relatable as a character, though the story frequently switched between her point of view and those of the party that appear to be victims of the murders. 

There is plenty of action, along with details revealing a complex backstory and history of the island and the prior murders. The only issue I had is the very end, where a secondary character reveals information not previously uncovered about a hidden motive behind one of the murders, far after the fact and seemingly without any suspicion being cast on her.  I don’t know if the author is setting up for another story, but it seemed completely random to reveal that at the end and did not seem to fit into the rest of the story at all.

Otherwise, a very enjoyable story, which I give four stars.