Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for No One Saw by Beverly Long, which is the second book in the A. L. McKittridge series. As I hadn't previously read the first book in this series yet, Ten Days Gone, that review is included in this blog post.
Title: Ten Days Gone
Author: Beverly Long
Series: A. L. McKittridge #1
Publisher: MIRA
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 377
Date of Publication: February 18, 2020
My Rating: 3 Stars
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.
MY THOUGHTS:
There is a pattern that all but stumps detectives A. L. McKittridge and Rena Morgan. There have been four murders of women over a forty day period, each ten days apart. So time is soon their enemy as they know that before ten days is up there will the murder of another innocent woman. Can the pair work together to find the killer or at least identify who he chooses for his next victim in time?
The reason that I give this book 3 stars is because of the constant changes of POV. Usually this is something that I can enjoy, but a lot of the dialogue shifted rather quickly, causing a bit of confusion as to whose view we were reading. There were a lot of things going on beyond the scope of the investigation. Readers get to see A. L. and Rena behind the scenes. Regarding A. L., he is having trouble with his teenage daughter. With Rena, she is struggling with fertility and it is affecting her relationship with her husband. However, since this is the first book in a new series, it really does help to bring in some background with characters that we will be seeing a lot of in future stories.
In all, this was a good read with a rather intriguing case, and it had a lot of tension, especially as we got to "know" the intended next victim. This, I believe, kept my attention rapt in this story.
Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
**Featured Blog Tour post**
Author: Beverly Long
Series: A. L. McKittridge #2
Publisher: MIRA
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 384
Date of Publication: June 30, 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Detective team A.L. McKittridge and Rena Morgan are back on their beat after solving the brutal Baywood serial killings, but crime doesn’t rest for long in their small Wisconsin town. In book two of Beverly Long’s electrifying A.L. McKittridge series, NO ONE SAW (MIRA Mass Market Paperback; June 30, 2020; $7.99), a child seemingly vanishes from a day care into thin air and A.L. and Rena must race to bring her home before time runs out.
Baywood police department detective A.L. McKittridge is no stranger to tough cases, but when five-year-old Emma Whitman disappears from her day care, there isn’t a single shred of evidence to go on. There are no witnesses, no trace of where she might have gone. There’s only one thing A.L. and his partner, Rena Morgan, are sure of—somebody is lying.
With the clock ticking, A.L. and Rena discover their instincts are correct: all is not as it seems. The Whitmans are a family with many secrets, and A.L. and Rena must untangle a growing web of lies if they’re going to find the thread that leads them to Emma… before it’s too late.
BUY LINKS:
MY THOUGHTS:
A.L. McKittridge is an excellent detective. His skills are critical when it comes to his latest case - solving the disappearance of a five-year-old girl, with hopes of getting her back alive. It is first thought that the child, Emma Whitman, disappeared from daycare, so that is where A.L. begins his investigation. It doesn't take A.L. and his partner Rena Morgan very long to discover that not everyone they are interviewing is trustworthy. Now the pair must dig really deep to discover who is lying and why.
I really enjoyed this second book in the A. L. McKittridge series because it had a lot of layers. I didn't experience the frustration that I did in the first book in this series. For one thing, the Whitmans, Emma's parents, were hiding something. I loved the intrigue that forced A.L. to dig deeper. Also, the foundation for the characters was built in the first book, Ten Days Gone, and by reading that one previously, I had a lot of appreciation for A.L., his daughter, and his partner. I loved seeing these detectives as people behind their investigations.
I also enjoyed seeing A.L. find something in his life beyond his job and his teenage daughter. Those snippets of his life were enjoyable to read. Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was seeing how and why some people lie, and how lying can have long-range and tragic results. The last thing that I will mention (while avoiding spoilers) is the reason behind the kidnapping in the first place. That part tugged on my heartstrings.
No One Saw is an excellent police procedural. This book and series holds a lot of promise, leaving me to look forward to reading whatever A.L. and Rena have as their next case.
Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Please enjoy the following excerpt.
His partner had sent a text every day. Always a picture. Felix eating. Felix taking a dump. Felix giving himself a bath. No messages. Just visual confirmation that all was well while he was off in sunny California, taking a vacation for the first time in four years.
I can take care of your damn cat, she’d insisted. And while he hadn’t wanted to bother her because she’d have plenty to do picking up the slack at work, she was the only one he felt he could ask. His ex-wife Jacqui would have said no. His just turned seventeen-year-old daughter, Traci, would have been willing but he hadn’t liked the idea of her coming round to an empty apartment on her own.
Baywood, Wisconsin—population fifty thousand and change—was generally pretty safe but he didn’t believe in taking chances. Not with Traci’s safety. She’d been back in school for just a week. Her senior year. How the hell was that even possible? College was less than a year away.
No wonder his knees ached. He was getting old.
Or maybe it was flying coach for four hours. But the trip had been worth it. Tess had wanted to see the ocean. Wanted to face her nemesis, she’d claimed. And she’d been a champ. Had stood on the beach where less than a year earlier, she’d almost died after a shark had ripped off a sizable portion of her left arm. Had lifted her pretty face to the wind and stared out into the vast Pacific.
She hadn’t surfed. Said she wasn’t ready for that yet. But he was pretty confident that she’d gotten the closure that she’d been looking for. She’d slept almost the entire flight home, her head resting on A.L.’s shoulder. On the hour-plus drive from Madison to Baywood, she’d been awake but quiet. When he’d dropped her off at her house, she hadn’t asked him in.
He wasn’t offended. He’d have said no anyway. After a week together, they could probably both benefit from a little space. Their relationship was just months old and while the sex was great and the conversation even better, neither of them wanted to screw it up by jumping in too fast or too deep.
Now he had groceries to buy and laundry to do. It was back to work tomorrow. He grabbed the handle of his suitcase and was halfway down the hall when his cell rang. He looked at the number. Rena. Probably wanted to make sure he was home and Felix-watch was over. “McKittridge,” he answered.
“Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Oh, thank God.”
He let go of his suitcase handle. Something was wrong. “What’s up?” he asked.
“We’ve got a missing kid. Five-year-old female. Lakeside Learning Center.”
Missing kid. Fuck. He glanced at his watch. Just after 6:00. That meant they had less than two hours of daylight left. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
The Lakeside Learning Center on Oak Avenue had a fancier name than building. It was a two-story building with brown clapboard siding on the first floor and tan vinyl siding on the second. There wasn’t a lake in sight.
The backyard was fenced with something a bit nicer than chain link but not much. Inside the fence was standard playground equipment: several small plastic playhouses, a sandbox on legs and a swing set. The building was located at the end of the block in a mixed-use zone. Across from the front door and on the left were single-person homes. To the right, directly across Wacker Avenue, was a sandwich shop, and kitty-corner was a psychic who could only see the future on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
A.L. took all this in as he beached his SUV in a no parking zone. Stepped over the yellow tape and made a quick stop to sign in with the cop who was at the door.
everybody who entered and exited the crime scene.
Once he was inside, his first impression was that the inside was much better than the outside. The interior had been gutted, erasing all signs that this had once been the downstairs of a 1960s two-story home. There was a large open space to his right. On the far wall hung a big-screen television and on the wall directly opposite the front door were rows of shelves, four high, stacked with books, games and small toys.
It was painted in a cheery yellow and white and the floor was a light gray tile. There was plenty of natural light coming through the front windows. The hallway he was standing in ran the entire length of the building and ended in a back door.
There was a small office area to his left. The door was open and there was a desk with a couple guest chairs. The space looked no bigger than ten feet by ten feet and was currently empty.
He sent Rena a text. Here.
A door at the far end of the hallway opened and Rena and a woman, middle-aged and white, dressed in khaki pants and a dark green button-down shirt, appeared. Rena waved at him and led the woman in his direction. “This is my partner, Detective McKittridge,” she said to the woman. She looked at A.L. “Alice Quest. Owner and director of Lakeside Learning Center.”
A.L. extended a hand to the woman. She shook it without saying anything.
“If you can excuse us,” Rena said to the woman. “I’d like to take a minute and bring Detective McKittridge up to speed.”
Alice nodded and stepped into the office. She pulled the door shut but not all the way. Rena motioned for A.L. to follow her. She crossed the big room and stopped under the television.
“What do we have?” he asked.
“Emma Whitman is a five-year-old female who has attended Lakeside Learning Center for the last two years. Her grandmother, Elaine Broadstreet, drops her off on Mondays and Wednesdays between 7:15 and 7:30.”
Today was Wednesday. “Did that happen today?”
“I have this secondhand, via her son-in-law who spoke to her minutes before I got here. It did.”
The hair on the back of A.L.’s neck stood up. When Traci had been little, she’d gone to day care. Not at Lakeside Learning Center. Her place had been bigger. “How many kids are here?” he asked.
“Forty. No one younger than three. No one older than five. They have two rooms, twenty kids to a room. Threes and early fours in one room. Older fours and fives in the other. Two staff members in each room. So four teachers. And a cook who works a few hours midday. And then there’s Alice. She fills in when a staff member needs a break or if someone is ill.”
Small operation. That didn’t mean bad. “Where are the other staff?”
“Majority of the kids get picked up by 5:30. According to Alice, she covers the center by herself from 5:30 to 6:00 most days to save on payroll costs. Emma Whitman is generally one of the last ones to be picked up. Everybody else was gone tonight and she’d already locked the outside door around 5:45 when the father pulled up and pounded on the door. At first, she assumed that somebody else had already picked up Emma. But once Troy called his wife and the grandmother, the only other people allowed to pick her up, she called Kara Wiese, one of Emma’s teachers, who said that Emma hadn’t been there all day. That was the first time Alice had thought about the fact that the parents had not reported an absence. She’d been covering for an ill staff member in the classroom that Emma is not assigned to.”
Perfect fucking storm.
Excerpted from No One Saw by Beverly Long, Copyright © 2020 by Beverly Long. Published by MIRA Books
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I totally understand the irritation of having to double check whose head I'm in when the POVs shifts without warning
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about POV changes. Usually I’m fine with them, but there are occasions when they confuse me. They need to be done right.
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of this
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I try to stay away from multiple/dual POV books. Great reviews.
ReplyDeleteI can do with some POV as long as it is told at each chapter.
ReplyDeletea new author for me.. and I do read multiple/dual POV books a lot.. but yes, I have seen some where I have to go back to see whose story I am reading currently :)
ReplyDelete