Book Review: Here and Gone

Here and Gone

by: Haylen Beck

Publication Date: June 20, 2017
Finished on: July 16, 2017
Publisher: Crown

Synopsis:
Audra is driving cross-country from New York to California in an old station wagon with her two children in the backseat to escape her abusive husband.  Nothing can go wrong, right?  Of course, everything goes wrong when Audra is pulled over by a sheriff in a small town in scorching hot, middle of nowhere Arizona.  Audra tries to keep calm, but the sheriff pulls drugs out of her trunk that she swears aren't hers and she is placed under arrest.  She is placed under arrest and put in the back of the sheriff's car.  She doesn't see her children again and everyone suspects she killed and dropped them in the Arizona desert.  Who will believe her word against the police's?

This book was written by Haylen Beck, which is a pen name for Stuart Neville.  According to the book jacket, Neville has wrote the Serena Flanagan detective series which was set in Belfast.  His Haylen Beck novels will are be set in the US and be American crime novels.  This was my first novel by Haylen Beck (or Stuart Neville).

This book received excellent endorsements from Lee Child, John Connolly, and Ruth Ware, just to name a few.  You had me at Ruth Ware, so let's get started!

My review:
This weekend, my boyfriend and I road-tripped from Phoenix to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to attempt to escape the Phoenix heat for a few days and to spend some time relaxing in nature.  I asked my friends on Instagram which (of the numerous) titles from my "to-be-read" list should be brought with me and it was a tie between Here and Gone (Haylen Beck), Goodbye Vitamin (Rachel Khong), and The Child (Fiona Barton).  Based on the synopsis of the book (above), Here and Gone seemed to be the obvious choice to read on an AZ road trip.

This book packs in the creepiness.  We know early on who took Audra's children and why.  I can't quite decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  I'm not sure if knowing makes it scarier than not-knowing would have been.  Regardless, we are split between a few narrators including Audra (in police custody), her eldest child (10-year-old Sean) and his captors.  Obviously, no one believes Audra when she tries to blame the missing children on the police.

This is definitely a page-turner and the chapters are quick and succinct to keep you reading much later than you had planned.  I absolutely loved reading this book while on my own road trip in Arizona.  I felt like this could be happening in any of the small towns we passed by.  I couldn't help but keep thinking this could really happen to someone!  This novel is suspenseful and will bring out your inner paranoia.  Give yourself a summer afternoon, an iced drink and this novel.  You won't regret it!

Overall, I rate this 4.5/5 stars.  This is a fast-paced thriller that takes place in my home of Arizona.  

I received a free e-copy of this book from Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.  I highly recommend this book for suspense lovers.  It was released in June, so go out and buy your copy today.  And while you're at it, you may as well pick up something by Stuart Neville as I would anticipate that they are will be just as action-packed as this one.