We Already Dug the Grave, by Emma C. Wells (REVIEW) — Dark Family Secrets Give this Southern Gothic Thriller Weight

I’m not a pumpkin spice girl, not really... but I am a big-time Fall girl.

Colorful leaves (or not, in SoCal). Cooler weather (erm, well... eventually, right?).

Wearing more layers—sweaters, booties, and the occasional flannel. 

Cozy foods, apple cider, and cool-weather cocktails.

Shorter days... and longer nights.

And for reading? I want ALL the autumnal vibes.

Chilling suspense. Whispers of the supernatural. Maybe even some full-on moments of terror.

All of which make Emma C. Wells’ We Already Dug the Grave pretty much the perfect book to usher in the new season. 

 

Milly—in her late 20s—is, without question, firmly down on her luck.

She’s worked one go-nowhere waitressing job in diner after crappy diner.

Sure, she had dreams... once. 

But a single fateful night during her senior year changed everything... causing her to leave her younger sister—and the aunts they’d been living with on their little Tennessee farm—behind, never to return.

And then, forcing her to make whatever life she could, from that point.

Aah, but life has a way of throwing wrenches (and probably screwdrivers and hammers) into one’s plans...

When Francis, the younger sister she’d abandoned a decade earlier—and whom she already knows, from social media, has done really well for herself, marrying a handsome, wealthy man and living in luxury—suddenly shows up, begging for help, well... who can turn down family?

Even if it means going back to the site of those horrifically tragic events... the things that altered the course of her own life, forever. 

Returning to the tiny town, and the old farmstead, where the aunts still live.

There’s one additional catch, though: Milly’s “help” will require somehow getting back in touch with her inherited but (mostly) long-forgotten ability, once again... divining the future, by the reading of tea leaves.

And what, in short order, the tea leaves tell Milly—and her now-elderly aunts, who also share some of her supernatural skills?

That Francis’ husband must die... because the only alternative is that he’ll murder Francis.

It seems that Fate isn’t finished with either Milly or Francis.

Because Fate seems to be insisting they face head on the fact that this isn’t the first time they’ve killed someone.

____________________________________________________________ 

Emma C. Wells already proved herself [in 2024’s This Girl’s A Killer, which you can—and should!—read the review for, here] quite adept at making a slightly off-kilter case for heroines-who-kill, and she does the same in We Already Dug the Grave.

[Not that the story here is a rehash of her first book; that’s definitely not the case.]

Instead, Wells goes the opposite direction, this time featuring what is perhaps an easier-to-identify-with heroine (who happens to kill)—someone who hasn’t made this her life’s goal, but rather... found herself in circumstances.

And while I can’t say I like every character in We Already Dug the Grave, that, in itself, is also rather important here. 

We don’t always like everyone in our lives—including, quite often, some of our own flesh-and-blood—yet we’re forced to deal with them, anyway. And that’s a very real place to spend some time in.

We Already Dug the Grave is a great way to dive into Fall, with its southern gothic setting—strongly tinged with both local color and supernatural talents—and its far-reaching branches of family history. 

And while the whole story is riveting, that ending? Oo-wee, it’s bound to have you sitting in your comfiest chair (or snuggled in bed against your squishiest pillows), stewing for a long, long time afterward...
~GlamKitty

[My sincere thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]