A very well polished debut... [and] a compelling police procedural.... Those who appreciate well-constructed multi-layered mysteries with flawed characters should find this very much to their liking THE FIELDS is the first in a new series planned by author Erin Young. It is a high-octane police procedural whose intense plot and explosive tempo keep you on the edge of your seat, if not biting your nails. I should have put the book aside from the start as I don't like books with graphic violence and the book opened with a pretty gruesome start! Logan was cool, I didn’t care about him that much but he was a good, strong character. He was written really well and I liked his mindset. I was drawn into how he worked so well with Riley.

The pace is very fast and elegantly written. It is particularly deserving of praise for it is the debut of Erin Young's writing a crime thriller. I was very pleased that Ms Young plans to make this the basis for a series. Put me down for the next one! I happily recommend this book as a really great read. What could be more all-American than a small town amid rolling fields of corn? But when a woman’s body is found in those same fields, the dark truth beneath that wholesome image begins to emerge. Her protean worlds of fiction work well for Young. Whether she’s using Robyn to promote her historical fiction or Erin to brand her new American crime novels (she’s working on an Iowa sequel), Young has proven she’s versatile with genres as well as pseudonyms. First of all, this book is graphic. I probably should have seen that coming, considering that it’s a thriller and murder mystery, but the thrillers that I read are nothing like this. I was honestly unsettled by a lot of the book, especially once I got past the 40% mark.Fast, smart and authentic. Riley Fisher is a bold new character on the crime scene, grounding this eerie and engaging thriller. The Fields is one of the best procedurals I've read in a good long while." - Ace Atkins, New York Time bestselling author of The Heathens This was promising debut with blood freezing and intense opening: a brutally killed young woman lying in the corn field, discovered by drones flying around the area like vultures sniffing the smell of their preys.

Fisher is a credibly drawn lead, and this is a series that, if it can plough a distinctive furrow, may go on to put down roots.

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I really loved Riley and am very glad this is a series because there is still so much more I want to know about her. All the secondary characters are interesting and fully fleshed. I felt the police procedural plot was made more realistic with the missteps along the way instead of the usual step-by-step perfect investigation. The inclusion of government corruption and Big Ag interwoven throughout sometimes slowed the pace for me, but it was thought provoking. I will be interested to see where the author takes these characters in the future. The Fields" by Erin Young is a procedural thriller filled with political corruption and agricultural espionage. Big agriculture tries to force out small struggling farms, and, in an election year. Protestors wave placards, "Iowa for farms, not Firms". Riley Fisher, determined to prove her worth as the first female investigator, doggedly pursues leads as the victim count increases. Riley's past challenges did not greatly enhance the novel, nor, did the extensive cast of tangential characters. That said, tidbits of clues were added to entice the reader to await the next case to challenge the investigative prowess of Riley Fisher. I look forward to the next offering by Erin Young. Growing up, Young’s best subject was English, and she thought she wanted to be a music journalist. She even tried her hand at it in high school and while getting her degree at Exeter College. Can you stomach extremely graphic depictions of postmortem bodies, like those found in Karin Slaughter novels… but taken up a notch?