Two nailing-biting stories featuring side characters from the USA Today bestselling Gone Trilogy.DEAN’S LISTEvery marriage has secrets. Some are deadly.Lydia Harris knows her marriage to Dean has problems, but when she finds a box of news clippings he took great pains to conceal, the problems go from disappointing to dangerous. Nation-wide murders… in cities where he has traveled. She doesn’t … in cities where he has traveled. She doesn’t want to believe him capable of such violence, so she searches for clues to explain the hidden clippings.
As the evidence begins to mount, Lydia is torn. Dean seems to be trying to rekindle their lost spark, and she yearns for what they’d once had. But can she look past her own feelings to uncover the truth, or will she be next on his list?
NO RETURN
Family comes first. Until it kills you…
Rusty Caldwell is a lonely victim of tragedy. After losing his wife and kids to a drunk driver, he spends most nights towing drunks to keep them off the streets. His one-track existence takes a turn when he finds out his estranged sister Mandy has committed suicide.
After flying out to offer his support, Rusty learns there’s much more to the story. It turns out his sister had been cheating on her husband Chris with Travis Calloway, the rich CEO of the biggest company in town. Before Mandy died, she claimed that Travis fathered one of her children and demanded that he pay up…
While Rusty is trying to figure out the truth, Mandy’s friend Laura offers to help look into Travis. Sparks start to fly between her and Rusty, and soon neither can deny the attraction. Before they can catch a break, they receive death threats for their efforts.
With Travis and Chris both looking guilty, Rusty better find out the truth before he or Laura are the next one to fall.
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4-4.5 stars
These are true standalones. I have not read the Gone series 1-3 and it was not necessary to enjoy both of these stories. Of the two, I enjoyed No Return more, probably because the main characters were more sympathetic and their characters more developed and complex. But both were good, solid, worthwhile suspense reads. Here are my comments on each:
Dean’s List
Good, suspenseful thriller
4stars
I really enjoyed the fast-paced plot built around a woman fearing the secrets her husband has been keeping. The suspense keeps building to a high action end.
Lydia’s comfortable suburban life crumbling apart thanks to a spilled perfume bottle gave good thrills as secrets kept tumbling out of the woodwork. Lydia is a bit naive and fumbles about a bit in her attempts to dig out the dirt on her husband’s suspicious activities. She is in turns super cautious about covering up her activities and then totally oblivious of the trails she’s leaving. I liked the realism of her mistakes as her panic and urgency leaves her vulnerable to discovery.
It’s a good standalone story. My only issues are with the sudden ending and the lack of complexity to the characters. I felt the denouement could have been longer and the characters, particularly Dean and Lydia, needed more backstory.
No Return
Family lost and family found: suspense with heart
4.5stars
I really loved hero Rusty Caldwell and this tale of loss, estrangement and addiction held at bay until tragedy strikes from the other side of the country and family needs draw him out of his self-employed solation.
The mystery and suspense kept going throughout and Rusty is in the middle of it all. The pace was good, the characters realistically flawed and complex, and the plot kept me closely engaged. I thoroughly enjoyed this standalone story (though policeman Nick Fleshman and Alex and Alyssa Mercer pre Claflin’s excellent Alex Mercer series make cameo appearances), right down to the heart-to-heart talk with nephew Brady at the end.
With a choice of prime suspects in his sister Mandy’s death and anonymous threats dogging him as he tries to discover the truth of her demise, Rusty is an amateur detective with regrets, misgivings and yet a strong sense of duty to his niece and nephew and, maybe, the chance to reach for a new happiness. He’s the kind of stand-up guy that puts family first and can even cook a killer meal and win over a woman who has given up on men. What a hero!
I read a complimentary copy of the set; this is my voluntary and honest review.
The First Book- Dean’s List.
Lydia’s marriage to Dean has not be good for awhile. She is getting ready to go out with her friends, when she has to clean up a mess. While cleaning up, she makes a discovery of box her husband has hidden. She finds a box a newspaper clippings about murders that happened in cities he was at. Lydia doesn’t want to think her husband is capable of these crimes.
Lydia will start looking into these crimes to see if her worst fears are possible. The more she looks into it, the more worse it looks. That is just the tip of the iceberg, everything will unravel around Lydia, she will discover a lot of truths concerning her husband but her friends as well.
Book 2-
Rusty Caldwell is dealing with the lost of his family from a drunk driver towing people that should not be driving. He looks at a paper, finds out his sister has died. The paper states it is a suicide. He is completely thrown and calls his parents. He gets the contact information he knows his parents has for her. Due to her drug issues, they stopped talking, now he will never get the chance.
Rusty speaks to his brother in law. He flies out to Florida to help her family during this time. This will be the first time he will be meeting them.
Once he gets there, he tries to make sure the family is taken care of with meals and his presence. He speaks with her neighbor Laura. Finds out that Mandy might not have commited suicide. That she had plans for the future. That her marriage to her husband was not going well.
Rusty decides he needs to find out what happened to his sister. Together will Laura, they will work together to find out what happened. The more they dig, the more it looks like only two people have motives.
With anonymous text messages threatening, they will continue to look into it. But things turn deadly the closer to the truth they get.
Will Rusty be able to clear his sister’s name and bring the killer to justice or will he lose more than he bargained for.
Both of these books were so good. The book jumps right into the fray and keeps the pace. You will be hooked reading both of these stories. This author never disappoints with her books, she knows how to weave her stories to keep you going.
I received an ARC copy of this book and this is my honest review