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Beverly Long is an American author of police procedural and paranormal suspense novels. She was raised in a small town in Illinois and was an avid reader right from childhood and would devour books featuring feisty heroines who find themselves in dangerous situations. Beverly co-authored her first book when she was only in fourth grade after discovering her love for creating characters. Surprisingly, Beverly never considered writing even through high school and college as she would major in a degree in business and later an MBA and got employment as a human resource leader. The thought of writing only came to her mind in her mid-thirties. Years later, in 2005, she published her debut novel, Stay with Me, and since then, she has never stopped writing.
Ten Days Gone is the debut novel in A.L. McKittridge, a police procedural series. Even though the book series is named after one of the police officers, the story features two detectives, Rena Morgan, and A.L. McKittridge, as the main characters. The two detectives work for a police department in a rural midwestern town under a serial killer’s wrath. As the novel opens up, we learn that four people have been murdered in the small town in the last 40 days, and A.L and Rena are desperate to find the identity of this mystery killer before another person becomes a victim of this maniac. But unfortunately, this case is proving to be difficult as they cannot piece out the cluses and figure out the identity of the killer and the potential next victims. The latest murders took place every ten days, and A.L. is sure that the killer won’t deviate from this pattern, and the stakes are high.
Both Rena and A.L. are dedicated to their jobs and, like any normal human being, are dealing with many emotional challenges in their personal lives. For instance, Rena and her husband have never had a child and are in the middle of infertility treatments, and Rena has doubts about her husband cheating on her. On the other hand, A.L. has an intricate relationship with his ex-wife, their teenage daughter, and his sister Liz, who escaped an inpatient treatment center, making him wonder whether she will ever overcome her alcohol addiction. In simple terms, the detectives have their plates full; therefore, it’s not easy for them to commit 100% of their attention to the case.
As the clock ticks fast and pressure mounts from all sides, Rena and A.L. are pushed to their limit as they do whatever it takes to figure out the killer’s next victim. Ultimately, their investigation lands them in Tess, a woman with a murky past who seems to be the person in the killer’s crosshairs. The two do their best to warn the woman of the danger lurking in the corner, but Tess is a woman dealing with her demons, and she does not care whether she lives or dies. In their efforts, the two detectives head out to keep Tess safe, even when this move ends up costing them everything they hold dearly.
A.L. is the lead character in this story, as most of the events is seen through his perspective. However, some chapters are dedicated to Rena and told from her point of view. It’s important to note that even though A.L. is the main character, he is cold and aloof and hence isn’t the easiest character to confide in. But it’s evident that he loves his family and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. On the other hand, Rena is the opposite of A.L. She’s a woman who feels things deeply and, at times, too much such that you can feel the emotion trickle through the pages. She is susceptible to jumping to conclusions before she gets all the facts straight, but luckily this seems to be only a problem in her own personal life. But when it comes to work, she is a comprehensive investigator.
No One Saw is the second book in the A.L. McKittridge series by Beverly Long. As the book opens, we meet McKittridge, who just returned from a one-week vacation with his new girlfriend Jess and is immediately assigned to a missing child case. The missing child is a 5-year-old Emma Whitman, who was dropped off by her grandma earlier that day at the Lakeside Learning Center, but almost 10 hours later, no one claims to have seen the little girl.
The little girl’s grandmother claims to have dropped off the girl at school and signed the sheet. But unfortunately, one of the teachers claims to have never seen the little girl. Did someone kidnap the little girl, or did she run away from home? Who is telling the truth? The teachers? Parents? Or the grandmother? What happened to the little girl? While investigating the disappearance, our detectives also discovered a similar case from a decade ago to another child at a daycare center; the girl was never found.
Could the two missing person’s cases be connected? Will solving one of the cases help solve the other? Rena and A.L. find themselves with an endless list of suspects, as there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. The missing girl’s mother, father, and grandmother have skeletons in the closets, and the folks at the daycare and other places. With the long list of suspects and secrets, the readers are constantly kept on their toes, trying to guess the real identity of her kidnapper and hoping that something bad doesn’t happen to the little girl.
While the A.L. McKittridge series is mostly a police procedural story, Beverly Long does a fantastic job of allowing the readers to connect with the characters. The characters are enthralling and 3-dimensional, and highly relatable. The author allows the reader to connect quickly and get a feel for the main characters’ personal and professional lives without the personal lives aspect derailing the novel’s primary focus. If you enjoy reading well researched police procedurals, then A.L. McKittridge series is a highly recommended series for you.
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