Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox
Publisher: Minotaur Books / St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 7, 2026
Format: Hardcover - 336 pages
Audiobook - 9 Hours 43 Minutes
Kindle - 327 pages
Nook - 336 pages
ISBN (Hardcover): 978-1250378842
ASIN (Audiobook): B0FP48M1Q9
ASIN (Kindle): B0FLYPRSWV
BNID (Nook): 978-1250378859
Genre: Thriller
Buy The Book:
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchased a hardcover copy of the book from my monthly Book Of The Month (BOTM) subscription.
Book Description:
Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.
2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.
2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.
When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.
Some secrets are better left buried.
My Book Review:
In Pretty Dead Things, author Kelsey Cox weaves a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader into a dark storyline that follows a twenty-five-year-old mystery that still haunts the townspeople of a small Texas town.
In 2000, seventeen-year-old Isabelle Whitmore goes missing and is never found. Twenty-five years later in 2025 the town of Anhalt, Texas is preparing for the 50th Annual Lone Star Princess Pageant. Little do the townspeople know that past secrets, petty rivalries, and long-held grudges still live on, especially when on the night of the pageant everyone is trapped in the event hall when a state-wide snowstorm bares down on their town, and the past resurfaces and a murderer still lurks among them.
Pretty Dead Things is a complex and multi-layered tale that is told in alternating first-person narratives by a lot of characters. The reader is taken along for the ride as the characters' stories unfold in alternating past/present timelines that revisit the twenty-five-year-old disappearance of Isabelle Whitmore, and the present confrontations that spark up among the past pageant contestants as they prepare their daughters for the 50th anniversary of the pageant. As their stories unfold, there is a dark intensity with riveting twists and turns that kept me guessing who the murderer is that has lurked in their town for all these years until the very shocking conclusion.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that while this story is a very twisty thriller that kept me engaged and on my toes, it was really hard to follow because of the alternating character storyline chapters. I found myself writing notes down just to keep up with the past and present timelines, and how they were intertwined throughout the whole story. Nonetheless, I loved the pageant queen theme and all the drama, pettiness and intensity that was a part of the history of that small town pageant.
Pretty Dead Things is an intense thriller that will keep you in suspense until the shocking conclusion!
Rating: 4 Stars
About The Author
Kelsey Cox received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and works from home in the Texas Hill Country. You can often find her writing at Mammen Family Public Library, chasing around her two young daughters, or watching British mysteries with her mom and aunts. On nights when bedtime goes as planned, she enjoys curling up on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, and a book with complicated characters and a killer twist in her lap.
