I'm a huge fan of Kathy Reichs. I've read and loved all her books. I couldn't wait to read this one, a standalone featuring reluctant private investigator Sunday Night. Yes, I know, that name! It grated on me at first, then I got used to it, and then at the end of the story it was explained how she came by it and all made sense. I'm not sure whether this will be the start of a new series. I do hope so, because I loved the character of 'Sunnie'!

As Kathy Reichs says in her introduction, Sunnie has a 'dark outlook and an even darker past', and I found that intriguing. Ex-military and ex-police, Sunnie now lives a hermit's life on a 'skinny strip of sand' known as Goat Island with only a squirrel (Bob!) for company. She'd have been perfectly happy to stay that way, but her mentor turns up with a job for her. An extremely wealthy, elderly lady wants Sunnie to locate her granddaughter, missing after a terrorist attack on a school.

Sunnie is a completely different character to that of Tempe Brennan, which I liked. She is awkward and mouthy, and has a wisecrack for every occasion. She also talks in very short, staccato sentences, which makes this a very quick read. It reminded me of the old 1940s 'gumshoe' detective novels. Sunnie has a bad habit of rushing in without a thought for the consequences, so it's lucky she has her far more laid-back brother, Gus, to help out. Is this why the story is called Two Nights? Not quite ...

I wasn't so keen on the plot - rescue the old lady's granddaughter and track down the terrorists before they could strike again. Personal preference here. There have been similar real-life attacks recently, and I prefer the books I read to have more of an element of escapism. Also, the pace was a mix of fast (as they rushed from city to city) and slow (stake-outs), and I think I preferred the steadier mystery-solving approach of the Tempe Brennan books. But there are some excellent twists, some funny one-liners and I did love Sunnie! And there were also tips on how to hack into someone's email, which I'm sure will come in handy one day ...

*Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.* I was so excited to see that Kathy Reichs had another novel coming out, though I must confess that I was a little disappointed that it did not feature Temperance Brennan, nor was it set in French Canada. Instead, Reichs has introduced a new character, a former soldier and police officer turned private investigator, by the name of Sunday Night. 'Two Nights' begins with Sunday being given the case of a missing teenage girl, Stella Bright and turns into a much larger investigation. It is a fast-paced and enjoyable read as Night travels across the United States trying to locate the missing girl and prevent future crimes occurring. In Night, Reichs has crafter a complex and intriguing character. I will be interested to see if she is featured in any further novels.

This is the first book by Kathy Reichs that I have read and to be brutally honest, I wasn't very impressed. This is a stand alone book which tells the story of Sunnie Night and her quest to find a missing girl and a group of bombers. First the good - the pacing is quick and the action comes often, which will appeal to many readers. Now, the rest. I really struggled with our protagonist. Sunday Night (there is an explained reason for this name, but it still grates) is abrasive, rude, completely unsympathetic and I question how she can get anything done at all with the attitude she has. I found the detailed descriptions of things that Reichs has employed quite tedious and unnecessary - there is a lot of label dropping with clothes and accessories and it just wore me down. My main issue however, was that I just found the story quite boring and pretty predictable. This book isn't bad, it just isn't good either, in my opinion.

I couldn't wait to put my hands on Kathy Reichs's new novel "Two Nights". Thank you so much to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.
There's something about Kathy Reichs's novels that brings the feeling of peace and familiarity despite them being crime fiction novels! That, of course, is mixed with the emotions I would normally experience while reading such novel, like anxiety and excitement.
"Two Nights" is such a great read for crime fiction fans. It is gripping, suspenseful and keeps your blood pumping really fast! The only criticism I have with regards to this novel is that the story itself wasn't very innovative. It is still a really good read, only I did not feel blown away for its originality. But all in all, it is a solid book that all Kathy Reichs's fans will most likely enjoy.

A cracking read tackling a very different type of story to the Dr Temp Brennan, (Bones) series that Kathy Reichs is well known for. I found this to be just as well written and and enjoyable as her other books. At first the main character's name is a little off-putting , Sunday Night, though the explanation for the name makes sense once her background is explained.
If you like a story with intrigue and suspense then this is a highly recommended read. I hope this is the start of a whole new series of books as I would love to read them .
Thank you Netgalley and publisher for my copy.

Sunday Night. No, not the day before Monday, the name of the main character in this book. Yes, really. Too cheesy for me, but I tried to overlook this. However, Sunday…or Sunnie (who is anything but) is totally unengaging. She’s a war veteran and ex-cop with some serious issues. A traumatic past has moulded her somewhat, but it never actually becomes clear exactly what that was…the flashbacks are woolly and unclear. Present-day Sunday is a rather dour, personality-less, fun-less, passionless loner and is now a PI, partnered with her twin brother, Gus. (Two Nights...hmm.) Although the ‘twin’ part of it seemed to raise a few eyebrows. Gus is quite a bit more likeable, thank goodness...I would have liked to see more of him.

So, Sunday is enlisted to find out who was responsible for a bombing that resulted in the death of two members of a family and the disappearance of another…Stella, the sister of one of the deceased. It’s certainly a case that needles Sunnie, making her determined to find all the answers.

The story moves at a reasonable pace, and if I’m honest, it held me enough to want to get to the end. However, I wanted to like Sunday, but she was just too colourless. The author adopts a clipped style…which I don’t like. I prefer verbs to have a subject…that style of writing just smacks of laziness. My copy was a pre-release copy, so I do hope the many, very irritating, editorial oversights were picked up. Hopefully, the editors spotted that the past tense of ‘must’ is very definitely not ‘must’.

I’m reluctant to recommend this if this author is new to you. If you’ve read previous books by her, you may be familiar enough with her to enjoy this.

Having never read this author I shall now be seeking her out ! Loved the storyline had me hooked from thie start , absolutely gripping throughout !

I love Kathy reichs and this book doesn't disappoint,a must read

I actually liked this book more than I thought I would. Basically a story friendship, lies, deceit and forgiveness between 4 long term school friends.
An interesting concept to evaluate if your friends even actually like you!

I would have given up with this book if it had not been written by Kathy Reichs. There was parts to the book I really liked and others I found boring and not really interesting. I think the characters of Sunday and Gus do have potential and I would give them another go.

Sunday Night lives as a recluse, dealing in her own inimitable way with the ghosts of her past. But when she's asked to use her particular set of skills and life experience to help track a missing girl down she has to help. But as she hunts she realises this girls disappearance mirrors her own experiences more than she could have imagined.

So I've wavered on this book. I haven't had the issue some have of comparing to the Tempe Brennan series - I never got into those so I came in with zero expectations apart from this sounding pretty interesting. And it is for the first third of the book as we get to know Sunnie and learn a bit about her. But then the second act drags. Oh lord does it drag. But perseverance won out and the final act really does make this a book worth reading. I think I would have like to hear more about Sunnies past but it is kept very implicit. If this really is a standalone I'm not sure why. Skeptical me thinks this isn't the last we've seen of Sunday Night. This gets 5 stars from me for the beginning and the end...three for the middle hence 4 stars!

I received this from Netgalley for an honest review.

This was my first introduction to Kathy Reichs and I have to admit she's a damn fine writer and I'll certainly be seeking out her other books. Two Nights deals with a battle scarred ex cop who is tasked with finding the truth behind a cold case and a missing girl. The case strongly parallels her own life and before too long our heroine finds herself caught up in something much bigger. An excellent new character who is funny, self assured and most certainly flawed. A big thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I would like to thank Random House UK for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

I've been a fan of Kathy Reichs for years and have thoroughly enjoyed all of the Temperance Brennan series so I was looking forward to Two Nights. Even more so when I learned that it was a stand alone, but I have to say, I was a bit disappointed.

I didn't particularly enjoy it, it held my attention enough that I finished it but I couldn't connect with the main character, or any of the other characters. They didn't feel real, they were just names on the page and not very likeable at all. The only thing that kept me reading was the plot. I wanted to know how it played out, but even then it was more out of curiosity than need.

Not one I would recommend.

Sunday (Sunnie) Night is a recluse with a troubled past, living on a spit of land off the coast of Charleston. Ex military, she joined the Charleston Police Department until an injury and the prospect of a desk job ended her career in the force. When her foster father, Beau, visits with a proposition, Sunnie is initially wary, not wanting to get involved. She has spent the last few years distancing herself from people. Beau leaves her the details anyway, and after disposing of the piece of paper and a restless night Sunnie retrieves the screwed up piece of paper from the waste basket.

Twelve months ago Opaline Druker’s daughter and grandson were killed in a bomb attack and her teenage granddaughter, Stella, disappeared in the confusion. Sunnie is hired to find Stella and whoever was responsible for the murder of her family.

I’ve been meaning to read Kathy Reichs for a long time but perhaps this wasn’t the best book to start with. On the face of it, the premise sounded good but unfortunately I couldn’t fully engage with the story. The formatting was erratic, maybe it was incompatible with the kindle app but it didn’t improve the reading experience. Perhaps it was the writing style, particularly the dialogue, which was clipped and choppy enough to be off-putting after a while. Running through was a secondary narrative in italicised flashbacks, slowly revealing what I initially believed to be Stella’s story.

I would have liked to feel more sympathy for Sunnie, which I could have done had I realised a key factor from the start. I enjoyed the beginning, the characterisations were convincing but as it went on the story began to lose its momentum with descriptions of changing hotel rooms and various regions of the country.

I suppose Sunnie could be classed as an anti heroine, tough, acerbic, scarred physically and psychologically. Her twin, Gus, was pretty laid back in comparison and the two couldn’t be more different in looks as well as demeanour. They make a great team and the chemistry is good but Gus isn’t particularly well developed. I could appreciate Sunnie’s drive to find Stella, a girl very much like herself from her grandmother’s description, troubled, sarcastic and always ready with a wisecrack, but the search for her morphed into a frantic cross-country investigation into a terrorist group.

The suspense and action sequences were well done and the twist at the end was unexpected. The book just didn’t grab me as much as I’d hoped.

It’s brilliant when an established author comes out biting, gouging and punching below the belt with a revitalised zest for telling a rip-snorting story. That’s pretty much what’s happened here, with this new standalone thriller from one of the genre’s heavy hitters.
Although I find forensic anthropology and the scientific analysis of crime scenes fascinating, I’m afraid the Tempe Brennan series of investigations by Kathy Reichs lost me half a dozen books ago. The story got submerged under all the baggage which a long-running series accumulates, while the plots became increasingly less credible. The last couple I read leaned heavily on the ‘now it’s personal’ action-adventure angle, when I prefer the deduction-through-decomposition style of story.

And maybe Kathy Reichs herself had become a little tired of going through the motions. Who knows? But she’s certainly got her mojo back (if indeed you felt she’d lost it) with Two Nights, touted as a standalone thriller (although it has plenty of scope to be the start of a new series, should it prove a wow with the crowds).

Based in the USA and with an all-new female protagonist, Two Nights is also heavily rooted in technical tradecraft – this time it’s street surveillance and private investigations in the internet age. Our new heroine carries the requisite physical and psychological scars from a suitably traumatic past. She’s infinitely more suited to streetwise rough and tumble than was the somewhat cerebral Tempe, who always felt a little bit precarious in the field, like she might chip a nail or fall off her heels. Sunday (‘Sunnie’) Night has been in the military and law enforcement. She knows how to handle herself, how to handle munitions and how to navigate the dark web. Her people skills are not so hot and she has definite emotional and entanglement issues – but that’s what keeps her interesting throughout this procedural investigation.

The storyline is compelling – a teenage girl was snatched by a cult organisation during a terror attack. She may be alive. She may be dead. She may be involved in another terrorist atrocity. Her wealthy family want closure, and Sunnie is their unorthodox route to finding the truth. The storytelling bogs down a bit with maybe a touch too much realism. There are extended segments of watching and waiting; the hallway sequence works brilliantly at building tension but, later in the book, the thumb-twiddling and irritating airline delays have the reverse effect. Just cut to the chase, I was thinking.

Similarly, the interspersed sequences of the girl being tormented by her cult captors irritated me for much of the book. They interrupt the flow and distract from the main event. And I felt that the genetic relationship between Sunday and her brother, August, was just too weird. She’s white: he’s black. This is played on throughout the book for no apparent reason – it adds little apart from confusion while pushing the boundaries of biological possibility.

On the plus side: superb, snappy dialogue and snarkily sharp observations. A refreshing lack of unreasonable behaviour from the forces of law and order. A crisp, sparse writing style. Savvy fight scenes in which the smaller, lighter fighter has to fight fast and fight nasty against the big boys. And a brilliant twist which caught me with my jaw flapping.

So while it’s not quite the ideal comeback, but Two Nights certainly woke me up and got me interested in reading more from Kathy Reichs. Mission accomplished.
7/10

I had difficulty connecting with Sunnie the main character and at times loose thread with the story. There were grey areas in the plot which I was unable to fathom which then led to conceptions to the story. This has not been one of my best read but I managed to finish the book.
A great twist at the end! I felt that if this was made into a film I would comprehend and appreciate the characters and story better.

I enjoy books by this author. I was excited to read the first book of a new series. Sunday Night is a damaged character but determined. She was ex military and ex police and now works as a PI. It took some time to develop the characters but I enjoyed the last half of the book! Excellent.

Like many people out there, I have been a fan of Kathy Reichs every since reading her first Temperance Brennan / Bones novel. With those, Tempe became a familiar figure, one I felt I knew and one I liked a lot. With familiarity though might not come contempt but definitely comes less excitement when a new book is released, especially with a TV show attached; somewhere along the way I stopped picking up the latest instalment.

Then I saw Two Nights, a new novel with a new character, and that familiar excitement was back again…I felt I had to read this book because, despite not being excited by Bones any more, this had nothing to do with thinking Reichs wasn’t a good writer – she is – and a good storyteller – she’s that too. Both apply here, with what is a cracking story and a great central character – Sunday Night – who is uniquely damaged (as all the best characters in crime fiction are) and absolutely intriguing (I am really hoping this is the first in a new series).

The story on the face of it seems simple – a young girl is missing after a local school is bombed and her mother and brother dead. Her grandmother wants justice and has the money to pay to get it and the connections to find the right person to do the job. That right person is Sunday, a former soldier and detective who now lives off the grid and under the radar.

Sunday is tough, really tough, and hard to love. She isn’t unlikeable though, which – as you may know from reading other reviews – is really important to me. I have to like the people between the pages or I lose interest in them and their story. Sunday’s story, I wanted to know. I eventually found it out, and it’s pretty dark; it’s no wonder she doesn’t trust anyone or that she is determined to do the right thing, even if that involves ignoring the law when she has to.

It’s her voice you hear throughout and so you get to understand the workings of her mind pretty well. You see in it a confused person but a good one. You also see someone who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer and knows how to fight. Her storytelling style is short and sharp…there is a little of the old school detective novels here – words aren’t minced – which I liked. It kept the story moving along and me interested. In fact, I don’t think I got bored or found my mind wandering once. With my reading so many of this genre, that’s hard to do.

It’s also hard to keep me guessing – I often figure out the who, why and where pretty early on. Good writing can keep me reading but there isn’t that buzz of not knowing that I love. I had that here. There was one point in particular where I thought one thing and realised I was completely wrong and it brought a smile to my lips. Loved it – and loved the book…can’t recommend it enough.

I have read one or two Kathy Reichs books previously and am a big fan of "Bones" so thought this was a good bet and I wasn't wrong. This book introduces a new character in Sunday Nights. A very determined, strong minded and brave young lady who as well as tackling the case in hand is dealing with issues from her own past. I loved every moment of it and will be keeping an eye for future books as this character goes into the future. Brilliant and cant wait to read more of her books!!

I really like Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan books so I was pumped to see she wrote a standalone with new characters. Bummer, though, that this book failed to interest me. I hope to like Reichs' future books more.