Photograph by Brian Freeman is a gripping psychological crime thriller that pulled me into the story from the very first page. With its unique plot, emotionally charged characters, and the right amount of suspense, Photograph kept me turning the pages.
Shannon Wells is a private investigator who helps women with nowhere else to go. Last year, a woman named Faith Selby came to Shannon with a strange request: Find out who I really am.
Shannon soon discovered that Faith was hiding a whole other life, but was unable to penetrate the web of mystery the woman had built around her past. Now Faith is dead. The only clue to who she was and why she was murdered is an old photograph of a little girl in the rain outside a Midwestern motel.
The hunt for answers takes Shannon from the hot beaches of Florida to a remote small town in Michigan as she peels away layer after layer of a shocking cold case that has rippled violently into the present. With each secret she uncovers, the danger around her grows—and forces Shannon to confront the demons hiding in her own past.
I was immediately drawn into the mystery of who murdered Shannon Wells’ newest client’s mother, armed with nothing more than a single photograph published in a book a few years back. The tale was emotional and even painful at times (not the writing but what was going on in the story), keeping me guessing until the last page. However, some of the plot threads wrap up a little too neatly.
The story centers on Shannon Wells, a private investigator, who dives headfirst into solving the mystery at hand. I found that Shannon’s character was well fleshed out driven by personal sense of justice. However, some of the secondary characters lack the same depth and could have used more development to support our main character and to further the story a bit.
Photograph is clearly written with crime fiction and mystery thriller fans in mind as it hits many of the familiar tropes that appeal to that audience. It’s not a bad thing, I mean the author is trying to fit into a genre. While I enjoyed parts of this story, the overall book didn’t full click for me. I’d be open to reading another Brian Freeman novel in the future, but I don’t see myself purposefully seeking out more of his work, not because of any flaw in his writing, more of just my taste in books.
Photograph hits bookstores everywhere on October 7, 2025 from Blackstone Publishing. The audiobook, narrated by January LaVoy, is available for pre-order at Libro.fm!
