After She's Gone

I previously read The Rest of My Life, a contemporary romance, by Sheryl Browne, so I was intrigued when I saw she had written something completely different. After she's Gone is the first book in a series about Detective Inspector Matthew Adams. Matthew and his immensely supportive wife, Rebecca, are about to foster Matthew's teenage niece Ashley when Matthew goes head to head with Patrick Sullivan, a local criminal involved in drug dealing and prostitution. Matthew and Sullivan have known each other since childhood and their relationship has been volatile, to say the least. They each blame the other for losing them something that was very dear and close to them.
This was definitely a hard-hitting story of vengeance that captured me show more right from the start.
Be warned, the first chapter involves the death of a child, and as you would expect, it was incredibly heart-wrenching and emotional.
Sheryl Browne does an admirable job of letting readers inside the heads of Matthew, Rebecca, Ashley, and Patrick Sullivan. Sullivan is truly depraved and pure evil. There were some very dark and disturbing scenes; not purely with regards to violence, but also the psychological terror and emotional distress involved.
The story is very easy to follow as it focuses on a small set of characters. You get to know each character really well.
The one thing I found a little frustrating were some of the inner monologues that went on slightly too long and became a tad repetitive. It made the story drag a little in parts, especially when the suspense kept rising and I wanted some action, but yet again heard Sullivan feeling disrespected or Matthew blaming himself.
Nevertheless, I went straight from this one to reading the next in the series. I guess that indicates I really enjoyed it. Sheryl Browne is a very talented writer who does dark and suspenseful just as well as light and funny.
I received an ARC via NetGalley. Thank you Choc-Lit! show less

2.5 Stars

I realize my take on this book is very different from most of the other reviews, however, it is what it is.

The feud between evil drug dealer, Patrick Sullivan, and Detective Inspector Matthew Adams has been going on since these two men were children. When Adams feels that Sullivan killed his child, he is hellbent for revenge. The feud takes on all new levels. For me, those levels became ridiculous. I just could not see Adams, as a cop, doing the things that he does. He treats his wife like crap, moves his alcoholic sister's daughter from a group home to his house to live and treats her like crap.

And Sullivan was disgusting and what he does is disgusting. I just felt like the author just thought of the worst things (all of them) show more and put them into this book.

I had to give up the book after a little after halfway. I was not enjoying it at all. Way too far fetched for me and I grew very tired of these men acting like children. I could not and did not finish. I left them to fight it out without me because frankly, I really didn't care.

Thanks to Choc Lit and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. show less