Hannah Lyon's entire job is to question how the world works. She's a physicist. So why can't she figure out what happened to her own husband?

Ellis Blake’s No Prisoners is set in New Mexico in 2008. Adam goes out one night to run an errand and that's the last anyone sees of him. Five weeks later the police think he just walked out of his life and into a new one. Hannah knows better, so she starts digging, while Detective Lou Hunt does the bare minimum on the case.

Here's where I have to be honest with you. I'm an action oriented reader. I like a fast pace, and this is a slow burn that tested my patience. The first two-thirds is a lot of Hannah driving around and a lot of Hannah trying to get someone, anyone, to take her seriously. I had to power through.

Then she notices a red SUV following her every move, and that's the moment the whole story starts to pick up a bit. Once it does, the mystery gets twisty and I did not see all of it coming. That's what saved it for me.

I'll be straight about the rest too. I didn't click with these characters. Hannah's under enormous stress and she's the only one fighting for Adam, but she reads as brittle the whole way through. Lou Hunt starts out sympathetic and then loses me, and I can't tell you why without spoiling it. Same with Adam.

Three stars from me, almost entirely about the pace. But I know plenty of readers live for a slow-building thriller, and if you're a patient reader who loves a family drama that takes its time, you are going to feel very differently than I did. This one's for you.

Thank you G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the ARC. No Prisoners is out July 21.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of  The Last Thing He Told Me.

About the Author

Ellis Blake is the pseudonym of Ben Sanders, award-winning author of American Blood and other books in the Marshall Grade series. He lives in New Zealand.