The beauty of BLOOD RIVER WITCH lies in how T.J. Martinson works a sentence. We are not so much brought into the story as we are immersed in it and all of its varied senses. From the first page, which allows us to step inside a scene of human horror, we are hooked by a thriller that will not let go of us.

The small town that sits upon Kentucky’s Blood River is about to relive a past horror that they are still fighting to put out of their minds. Late one evening, Deputy Sheriff Alicia Moore is summoned to a tobacco barn located deep in the muddy woods. A body that is torn open and riddled with flies is hung upside down to rot in the obvious misery that had claimed the life of this individual. What makes this find especially difficult for Alicia is that it takes her back to a satanic ritual type of murder in which she was a serious suspect. Many of the town’s residents have not forgotten about this as they still refer to her mockingly as the Blood River Witch.

"The ending is both surreal and utterly memorable. T.J. Martinson has written what is easily one of the best novels of 2026, and I will not forget it any time soon."

It turns out that the victim is Alicia’s ex-fiancé, Jake, who also had been a suspect in those same murders. Alicia plows forward with the case, not knowing if she is looking at a serial killer who has returned, a copycat, or someone committing a random murder seeking to make it look like one of those scenarios. She begins with Jake’s wife, who has a valid alibi and is quickly ruled out as a suspect.

As much as she would like to avoid it, the comparisons to the seemingly random, ritualistic killing of Colton Marshall --- a truck driver who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time --- ring loudly. It’s so loud in fact that the current sheriff brings in out-of-town resources to take over the case, much to Alicia’s chagrin. She also must deal with her father, the former sheriff, who has not had a relationship with her since the events of 2005 as he has never been able to bring himself to fully believe in her innocence.

What Martinson has spun together is a deadly spider-web of a novel, full of thriller and supernatural aspects, that will keep readers guessing at every turn and wondering just which Alicia is actually at play --- the potential satanic killer from two decades ago or the upstanding law enforcement officer we see before us now. I will leave the answer to that open-ended as the book will take you many places before you are able to realize what has really happened and who is to blame.

Alicia has been haunted by dreams she has about Jake that began about a week before he died, and she is not sure how to interpret them. Her investigation includes speaking with his father, a local pastor, who wants justice for him just as much as he seems to care about saving Alicia’s tragic soul. When she hooks up with a young British researcher who is intrigued by Jake’s death and claims he may have some theories about it, along with Colton Marshall’s murder, she is not interested at first but slowly becomes intrigued. It makes for some of the most compelling scenes in the novel, and there are many to savor.

BLOOD RIVER WITCH toes the line between satanic, supernaturally themed murder and the horrors that exist inside very human killers. The ending is both surreal and utterly memorable. T.J. Martinson has written what is easily one of the best novels of 2026, and I will not forget it any time soon.