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Ten Days Long (A.L. McKittridge #1)
Beverly Long
Genre: Mystery | Crime Procedural
Published: February 2020 (MIRA-HQN)
Source: eARC
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.
A slow-burn mystery featuring the typical gruff, wrinkled detective and his female partner, Ten Days Gone is a twisty whodunit. Rena reminds me a lot of Eve Dallas from the In Death series. Capable, very much a tomboy, and sharp. A.L. is a divorced dad and detective that tends to be brusque with everyone.
I wasn’t really engaged until the last half of the book as the pace picked up. The characters didn’t wrap me into their story. I wanted to A.L. to have some defining characteristics to set him apart from other detective characters. I did enjoy his moments parenting Traci so maybe I struggled to identify with a male character. I can’t be certain. Now, my biggest issue was the ending. I didn’t feel like the motivations for the perp were properly explained. I can’t hash it out without spoilers but I feel weirdly unsatisfied and have so many questions!
Overall, I enjoyed Ten Days Gone thought it isn’t one of those books that I’m going to flail about for. I suspect the readers that delve into crime procedurals are likely to enjoy this more than I did. It is almost like an Agatha Christie novel had a baby with one of Iris Johansen’s books.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
About the Author
Beverly Long’s writing career has spanned more than two decades and twenty novels. She writes romantic suspense with sexy heroes and smart heroines. She can often be found with her laptop in a coffee shop with a cafe au lait and anything made with dark chocolate by her side.
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