Blog Tour & Review – When Cicadas Cry by Caroline Cleveland

Happy release day to this debut!

Thanks to MBC Books and Union Square & Co. for the gifted copy

WHEN CICADAS CRY – Caroline Cleveland (Releasing May 7th, 2024)

Book Description:

In this stunning debut by a South Carolina attorney, Zach Stander, a lawyer with a past, and Addie Stone, his indomitable detective and lover, find themselves entangled in secrets, lies, and murder in a small Southern town.

A high-profile murder case— A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tenson, this is not only a murder case, but a powder keg.

A haunting cold case— Two young women are murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection to Stander’s case?

A killer who’s watching— Stander takes on Jenkins’s defense, but he’s up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a bombshell secret. When Addie Stone reopens the cold case, she discovers more long-buried secrets in this small town. Would someone kill again to keep them?

Ideal for fans of mystery, suspense, and thrillers in the vein of Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls and Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark, as well as for readers who followed the high-profile Murdaugh murder trial, held in the same small town as in When Cicadas Cry.

My Thoughts: 4/5 stars

I was blown away when learning that this is a debut novel – if this is Cleveland’s debut then I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next! WHEN CICADAS CRY is part legal thriller and part police procedural, but without the slow pace. That’s always my hang up on most police procedural books is that can get bogged down with the technical side of the investigations, but not this book! We also get a decades old cold case added to the mix and this is a recipe for a book I just couldn’t put down. Told in multiple POV’s, these characters will grow on you and I just wasn’t prepared for one part (obviously, no spoilers). With the rich descriptions of your surroundings, and the potential knowledge of the town (thanks to the high-profile Murdaugh murder trial), just drops us right into the middle of it all. Again, solid debut and I’m so ready for what she releases next!