All Shall Mourn by Ellie Marney

Title: All Shall Mourn

Author: Ellie Marney

Genre: Crime

Publisher: Black Hand Press

Published: 5^th February 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 372

Price: $37.99

Synopsis: From the author of New York Times bestseller None Shall Sleep and a Kirkus 2023 Best YA Book of the Year sequel Some Shall Break – the electrifying third and final instalment in The None Shall Sleep Sequence.

Simon Gutmunsson is on the loose…

Since the disastrous events of the College Killer case, the FBI is coming to terms with the fact that while catching one sociopath, they’ve released another. Chillingly manipulative, frighteningly intelligent, and wholly insane, Simon Gutmunsson is the worst of the worst. Now he’s free, and on the run with his twin sister, Kristin, and nobody in the FBI is smart enough to keep up…

Travis Bell’s last investigation for FBI Behavioral Science nearly killed him. Supported by family and his partner Emma Lewis, now Travis just needs to get back on his feet. But Emma has been recruited to help the FBI hunt the ultimate sociopath, Simon Gutmunsson, and there’s no way Travis is letting her go into this battle alone…

Emma Lewis has gained some perspective on life, and as her emotional walls come down, she realizes that only by working as a perfect team will she and Travis have any chance of beating the Gutmunsson twins at their own terrifying game. So, in a journey that will take them from Moroccan souks to Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, the stage is set for Simon and Kristin and Emma and Travis to meet up in an epic final showdown…

~*~

Simon Gutmunsson, our favourite nightmare fuel is back. Ever since the end of the previous book, he’s been on the run with his twin in a freakishly close relationship. It’s 1982, and the FBI is still on the hunt for a sociopath. What could go wrong? Well, if you have read the rest of the series or seen a single Criminal Minds episode…A LOT! I have been waiting to read this since it arrived, and now that I have read it, I can say wow. Everything from the first two books is coming together and to start, we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security as Emma heads down to Texas to visit Travis after the traumatic events of Some Shall Break.

But even as Travis and Emma fall into a steady rhythm where everything feels safe, an urgent call from Kirby and the other FBI agents rouses them back into action. Simon Gutmunsson and his twin, Kristin, have escaped, been to Europe, and now, they’re back in the US. Back for revenge, and to finish what they all started in None Shall Sleep. This time though, things will ramp up in a chase around the US and down towards Mexico as the twins leave a trail of bodies and horrific crime scenes for Travis and Emma. This is a cat-and-mouse game that seems to have no end, that has been going on for months across three books, and now, as they delve into Halloween and the Day of the Dead, it’s time for the terror to ramp up.

In this book, you never quite know when Simon is going to pop up, or where. He’s here, then he’s not. He’s taunting them from afar, cleverly probing Travis and Emma, getting to them through family and their coworkers, and let’s face it – leaving a rather large body count. And let’s face it – whenever Simon Gutmunsson is involved, there will always be a body count, lots of blood and a chase that never seems to end. Everything is coming to a head, and happening so fast, over a matter of days in this book. Nothing is left to chance, and Ellie has brought many of the threads from the first two books together, and done much more with her wonderfully diverse cast of characters.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Ellie Marney book without some bodies. And in this case, many, many bodies left in…well, rather gruesome positions and ways of dying. I lost count at some stage, because there were just so many deaths. So many victims, and so many losses that it really lived up to the title. The creepiness is increased with the backdrop of Halloween and Día del Muertos, so readers are in for a horrifying and satisfying read. It has its ups and downs, and at times, it lulls readers into feeling safe. This is typical Ellie Marney fashion, where the tension is always there and constantly building to an epic final showdown.

This is the showdown that we’ve all been waiting for. What has come after months of profiling and hunting Simon, and months of Simon toying with Emma and Travis. It’s powerful and chilling, and has an epic case that will draw so many people into the game. Simon is at his scariest and most terrifying in this one. And so is Kristin. Their incestuous, oddly close relationship is coming to a head, and soon, secrets about what has really happened in their past could be revealed. It’s rendered well, and yanks at our fears and worries, aiming to end everything that’s been taunting Emma and Travis for good. It was a satisfying ending to the series, dangling the promise what is to come in front of us.

I’m working my way through some of my other Ellie Marney books as well, and what I really like is how she digs down into things, that she doesn’t shy away from the gruesome aspects of crime and brings things into her stories that ensure there are crime stories out there for everyone.