Title: Tend Days Gone
Author: Beverly Long
Publication: February 18, 2020
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Pages: 384
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
They know exactly when he’ll strike… They just have to find him first.
In all their years working for the Baywood police department, detectives A.L. McKittridge and Rena Morgan have never seen anything like it. Four women dead in forty days, each killed ten days apart. With nothing connecting the victims and very little evidence, the clock is already counting down to when the next body drops. A.L. and Rena will have to act fast if they’re going to find the killer’s next victim before he does.
But identifying the killer’s next likely target is only half the battle. With pressure pushing in from all sides, a promising breakthrough leads the detectives to Tess Lyons, a woman whose past trauma has left her too damaged to appreciate the danger she’s in. Unwilling to let another woman die, A.L. and Rena will put everything on the line to keep Tess safe and end the killer’s deadly spree once and for all–before time runs out again.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
As a lover of mystery and crime novels, I was all in when I saw the synopsis for Ten Days Gone. I had never read a book by Beverly Long before, but I just had to try this one.
While the story follows A.L. and Rena as they investigate of stream of murders happening 10 days apart and trying desperately to stop the next one from happening, I loved how we got to know these characters and their home lives. Long let us see Rena’s life with her husband and issues with getting pregnant, in-laws and balancing work and pleasure. We got to see A.L. struggle with coparenting with his ex wife, teenager daughter troubles, and wanting really bad to be a good father. I point this out because so many mystery/thrillers or crime novels focus on the crime and not so much on the detectives and their lives. I think, though, that this makes it more realistic. These people have to go home. They have lives that still exist outside the job and those issues sometimes spill over into their work lives and effect their jobs. I found this refreshing and real, which made this book better.
This story was really intriguing. There was a lot of interviewing and a lot of characters you had to mentally dissect while reading. I wanted to create one of those investigative white boards you see on TV shows to keep track of who was who and who was tied to who. This book was definitely a puzzle that involved a lot of tiny pieces that snapped together.
While I did love the crime itself and where that storyline took us, I just really enjoyed the characters that Long created and how we got to see how their every day lives. I think that part of this story pushed it from a good book to a great book. I love, as a reader, being able to relate to characters or feel like it’s someone I could know in my real life. I think it makes the book relatable. On top of that, Long has a fantastic writing style that leaves you hanging at just the right moment that has you starting the next chapter needing more and makes you feel the emotions the characters were feeling. What a truly fantastic, intense, and intriguing mystery that kept me guessing to the end.
If you love a gut hitting crime novels that also dive into the lives of the characters, with a touch of family, romance, and drama, then Ten Days Gone is definitely a book you will want to read. Pick it up. Devour it. You will, I promise.
STAR RATING: 5/5
Pick up your copy of Ten Days Gone by Beverly Long on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and check your local bookstore. Also make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave feedback for the author when you are finished. You can check out more from author Beverly Long on her website HERE.
