Ten Days Gone by Beverly Long ~ a Review

by MK French

Baywood, Wisconsin is a small city with the feel of a small town, and there had never been major issues. Detectives A.L. McKittridge and Rena Morgan are part of the task force investigating the deaths of four women in town, each spaced ten days apart with no obvious ties between them.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free books was provided for an honest review.

February 2020; MIRA; 978-0778309581
audio, ebook, print (384 pages); thriller

Ten Days Gone is the first in the McKittridge series of novels, but it has the feel like we're in the middle of a larger work. The relationships between the people involved have such nuance and layers, reaching into the past. That definitely evokes the small-town feel, though the city has over 50,000 people in it. We see not only the investigation as A.L. and Rena move through it, but their personal lives. A.L. has an ex-wife and a teenage daughter that they try to co-parent, as well as a sister who left inpatient alcohol treatment early. Rena and her husband desperately try to have a baby, and she fears he's having an affair. It feels cluttered in a way, but realistic and adding to the tension of the main story. They're juggling all of these things at once, giving us an insight into their characters that we wouldn't otherwise see if it was purely a police procedural.

My heart went out to Rena as I read of her personal struggles, because it's hard to push through the professionalism and still retain her roles as wife as potential mother. A.L. wants to be a good father and is wholly aware of his limitations as a husband. It gives them a humanity that straight procedural stories don't have, and makes it easier for me to see why they push so hard to try to catch this killer, even as it takes them outside of their normal jurisdiction into neighboring states and delving into the past to catch the killer. I enjoyed it a lot, losing track of time to try to get to the end of the book. Sorry, not sorry! I can't wait to see where the series takes us for their future.

Buy Ten Days Gone at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband and three young children.

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