I just finished reading Two Days Gone, by Randall Silvis. I’ve never read anything by him before, but he’s written six books total I believe, at least according to his website. This particular book I picked just on description and cover alone, and I picked it before I realized it was part of a series. Actually, I didn’t realize that until I was about halfway through the book. No turning back at that point.
Two Days Gone was published by Sourcebooks in January 2017 so it’s not brand spanking new, but not too old either. And I think I’ve recently seen it on the shelves at Target, although please don’t hold me to that. Anyways, it’s still a relevant title to review.
The publisher says the book is for fans of “Tana French”. I’m not entirely sure I agree with that. Tana’s books to me, offer more than just what you get most of the time from series fiction. They are meaty. And some of her books, specifically The Likeness, stick with me hundreds of books later.
I got my copy free, as Sourcebooks along with JellyBooks was offering free ebooks as part of a way to gather reader analytics. Interesting. I do wonder how knowing when people read a certain author, how fast, and other information helps a publisher select books. When a book it hot, it seems to be an anomaly, hard to figure out why. But maybe there’s more science there? What do you think?
From the Publisher:
What could cause a man, when all the stars of fortune are shining upon him, to suddenly snap and destroy everything he has built? This is the question that haunts Sergeant Ryan DeMarco after the wife and children of beloved college professor and bestselling author Thomas Huston are found slaughtered in their home. Huston himself has disappeared and so is immediately cast as the prime suspect.
DeMarco knows―or thinks he knows―that Huston couldn’t have been capable of murdering his family. But if Huston is innocent, why is he on the run? And does the half-finished manuscript he left behind contain clues to the mystery of his family’s killer?
A masterful new thriller by acclaimed author Randall Silvis, Two Days Gone is a taut, suspenseful story that will will break your heart as much as it will haunt your dreams.
My Review:
When I first started reading this book, I approached it as a literary thriller, because as I mentioned above I really didn’t realize it was a part of a series. Once I figured that out, the writing style made more sense. The chapters are very short. Which was only noticeable to me because I was required to sync my reading at the end of every chapter. So that made it a little choppy for me.
The book opens on a horrific crime. Best-selling literary author, Thomas Huston, is the main suspect in the murder of his wife and three children. This book was hard for me to read. Anytime a book focuses on the murder or death of a child, I feel it very viscerally. But, I managed to push through that and tried to be objective about the story.
The main character, Ryan DeMarco, helped Huston in the past with character research, understanding the emotions and daily life of a detective, so this crime is a hard one for him to swallow. In addition, he has his own demons, having lost his son years before and is estranged from his wife.
The book is a classic who dunnit, and it is satisfying in a series fiction way. It was also a easy and fast read (despite my difficulty with the premise). I recommend this book and series to fans of Karen Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell.
Special thanks to Sourcebooks and Jellybooks for providing a free ebook.
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