Help me congratulate Josh on his newest release! Here’s the blurb:
It's time to put the past to rest…
Ben Packard was just a boy when his older brother
disappeared. Ben watched him walk out the back door of their grandparents'
house and into the cold night.
His brother was never seen again.
Decades later, Deputy Packard finds himself with too much
time on his hands. A shooting has him on leave and under investigation, and all
he can do is dwell on the past. For the first time in years, new information
about his brother has surfaced that may lead them to the location of a body.
The midwinter ground is frozen solid. Worse, Packard is cut
off from department resources. As he strikes out to finally uncover the truth
behind his brother's disappearance, he stumbles on a separate, suspicious
death. A tenuous connection exists between the two cases, and as Packard starts
to dig, he meets fierce resistance from friends and foes alike who want him to
stand down.
The winter is long and cold. By the end of it, Packard will
risk everything to catch a killer and reveal the shocking truth about his
brother.
My Review:
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early copy of this one which is book 3 in this author’s series which includes the main character, Ben Packard. Book one, And There He Kept Her, and book two, Where the Dead Sleep. I practically devoured A Long Time Gone in a couple of days, but another book got in the way.
Book two found Ben on admin leave and here in book three he
is back on duty, just not at his regular job, which really irked Ben,
especially since … well, you have to read book two to know that part. In book
three, Ben finds himself involved in a situation at the courthouse that leads
him down a road he wasn’t expecting to follow, but it woke up the detective
part of his personality so down the road he went. This road led him down some
meandering paths, which led him back to the main road.
The thing about Ben is he asks questions, and he keeps
asking questions until he gets the answers he knows exist. Some of his
questions irk other folks, even those who are purportedly his superiors. They
just don’t like him looking too hard at things.
Ben still maintains his friendship with Thielen … they have
such a dry banter sort of relationship as partners. It’s quite entertaining to
read them bantering back and forth.
While I still think book one is the best in this series, book three is a close runner-up. I found myself chuckling at some of the scenes, some of the dialog the author used throughout this one. I am enjoying the fact that the author is starting to show his personality, his humor, his voice in this series. Oh, and Ben’s mom? You need to ‘meet’ her! She’s one of those moms who doesn’t hold back and tells Ben like it is, even when it comes to relationships. In this one, Ben also finds himself discovering some truths, some that he was not expecting. I can only imagine what Ben will get involved with next. Be sure to watch for books four, five, six, and seven!
