Haylen Beck

Wrongly arrested after fleeing from her abusive husband, a mother desperately fights corrupt authorities to recover her stolen children; while a man across the country hears the story on the news and identifies links to similar events in his own past.

A Novel

Here and Gone

Katheryn

Beautiful book. Yes, there is plenty of horror and terror and plenty of spine chilling moments, especially when Audra learns her children are missing. But, every mothering bone in my body felt Audra's journey and her worry and her determination. I loved it.

Cindy

I loved the premise of this book , how scary is it that you are on a road trip , get stopped by the local police on a trumped up charge , wind up in jail and find out that no one believes your kids were with you. Everyone in this small town actually thinks you are covering up for murdering them. I went on a roller coaster ride with this one! As a female lead character Audra was everything she should have been, strong , determined and resourceful. I was so rooting for her during this story and the fact that there is something much more sinister going on here with some of the members of the police force just added to the overall drama and mystery of where are Audra's children? Of course about midway through the book I figured out what was happening, the author actually spells it out. When this happened for me I became very tense about the whole situation which is okay but I am not a fan of this type of anxious tension in a book.

After much drama and more tense moments (many) all is resolved and wrapped up. All said and done this is a solid story with a great premise. I just was not a fan of the  tenseness that I felt while reading this book.This review was originally posted on Cindy's Book Binge

Cath

A very fast-paced, gripping novel. The beginning was a bit off though, and I was so confused for a moment there that I forgot I was reading a thriller. It felt like the author badly wanted to expose the truth without introducing the problem in the first place. The mystery aspects of the novel that were supposed to hook the readers just confused and annoyed me. It was as if they were played out by actors – all the forced, redundant violence and suspense. It felt as if the book struck me in a way that it wasn’t supposed to, like i was asking the wrong questions. In a way, it just stirred to a different direction- one I did not expect it nor enjoyed very much.

However, that was just the beginning of the novel. The fog finally cleared in the second half of the book when we were given some clue of the past. Some hints. And that was when the suspense finally got to me. It was a fairly short book, so I flew through it from there. The book addresses multiple dark subjects through different perspectives and it was interesting to see that. The pacing slowed towards the end of the book but I still found myself engaging with the direction it went with. Sean and Louise were the highlight of this book, hands down. Audra, on the other hand, though complex and definitely an interesting character to read about, was a little robotic to me.

Ultimately, Here and Gone is a unique and refreshing mystery/thriller novel packed with chilling, bizarre aspects you would not find in other books. It is also scarily realistic, which makes it the more gripping. it is not quite what I expected, and given the ending was a little anti-climactic I still enjoyed it nonetheless! I would recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of darker mysteries, one who prefers stories that are more character-driven than plot-driven.

Many, many thanks to Crown Publishing for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

Here and Gone A Novel

Reviews