I’m really not sure what to make of this book. It has all the right ingredients, husbands hiding secrets, murder, intrigue. It just didn’t really work for me. The big reveals came far too early and I found myself just hoping to get to the end so that I could finish it. I think with some more character development so that I would be rooting for them a bit more then it might of held my interest but they just felt a bit one dimensional. The writing was good and I think if the story had been a bit more plausible then I would have rated it a bit higher.

This book started off extremely strong but lost me in the details at about 20-30% of the way through. However, it was a super interesting plot and it was very well written.

This was a very gripping thriller. I could hardly put it down! It was easy to read and very fast paced...I would be interested in reading more of this authors work!

I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller with strong female characters. What a read!

Thank You NetGalley/Publisher & Author for this gifted e-ARC!

Summary-----
Two women's husbands are murdered on the same night in the same way--and their investigation uncovers a terrifying connection.

Two men from vastly different backgrounds are murdered one after another on the same night, in the same fashion with two bullet wounds: one in the head, another in the heart. The two slayings sends their wives on a desperate search for answers--and a desperate attempt to save their families' lives.

Review----
This is a top-notch thriller, That I really enjoyed!
I loved the story line, the fast paced read. It was an enjoyable book.
I read it one night, it's great.
I loved how the characters were portrayed in this book.
Overall this was a 4/5 review for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨3.5 STARS! I was so thoroughly entertained by this book that I literally devoured it in a day. Lots of plot twists, resilient and resourceful women of colour protagonists, and well-timed black humour made for a ride of a read.

E.A. Barres writes compulsively readable hardboiled crime. Pithy metaphors, sharp dialogue, bursts of violence broken up by some truly deadpan characters—I had a LOT of fun with They're Gone.

The story begins when the husbands of Deb Linh Thomas and Cessy Castillo are murdered on the same night. Deb's solidly upper-middle-class, and lives a fulfilling, mundane life as a mother to her daughter, Kim; she deeply mourns the loss of her husband—but things complicate when the FBI comes a-knockin' and unexpected truths come to light. Meanwhile, Cessy's a young bartender whose grief is overshadowed by relief: she's free of her abusive husband... but his death has caused crueler men to come creeping out of the woodwork.

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The diversity of rep in this book is fantastic. Deb is a Vietnamese woman adopted as a child by a single American mother, and her daughter Kim comes out as bisexual in this novel (I really liked the depiction of her relationship with Rebecca—who's Black—and particularly this one dinner scene where they call out another character for being stereotypical about lesbians). Cessy's half-Panamanian and the daughter of a sex worker; one of my favourite things in this book was her relationship with her psychopathic (and hilarious) brother, Chris.

Both women face blatant racism and misogyny, as well as microaggressions that hurt/aggravate just as much (@ white lady who was about to call the cops on Cessy for simply existing in her neighbourhood—a big eff you to you, too!) Both women are also consistently underestimated by the selfish, ruthless men stalking them... which, the book makes very clear, is a huge mistake.

I did find that I needed some suspension of disbelief as the narrative progressed, especially in the latter half of the novel. (At one point there are FOUR psychopathic killers playing active roles in the story!)

And though I found the sudden introduction of so many POVs towards the end a little jarring, I did really enjoy how the author fleshed out each character—no matter how small their role—so that they leapt off the page at you. Even the villains are graced with nuance and personality beyond their (abominable) crimes.

In all, I'm impressed by the resilience of the women of colour in this book; and though some parts did require me to suspend my disbelief, I can't deny I gobbled this story up. This was even more entertaining than My Lovely Wife, imo!

I really enjoyed this book, even more that I thought I would. The author has a great, succinct style which goes well with the more violent parts of the story while still managing to also expertly capture the grief of unexpectedly using a loved one. The husband with secrets story has been done so many times in our genre but E.A. Barres manages to put his own spin on it. I also appreciate what an amazing job he did creating a very, diverse group of characters. Cessy was my fave.

I liked seeing the way the women dealt with unexpected adversity. I thought the changing point of view was done very well. I liked the way the story unfolded, and the glimpse of how people were affected by what happened. Highly recommended.

Two different women with murdered husbands. Deb starts questioning what happened, Cessy has 2 men come to her house and demand money that her husband owed them. Eventually these women meet and somewhat work together. I found this book hard to keep reading. It wasn't bad but didn't really hold my interest and I wasn't anxious to get to the end to find out what happened.

They're Gone by E.A Barres is the kind of book that's normally right up my ally. A fast paced thriller with a semi-predictable ending that's not without its plot twists. I don't read these books for the ending (because again, predictable) but I enjoy the journey to get there. Normally.

With this story, about two women who couldn't be more different who's husbands are murdered in a similar fashion, I expected a little bit more from each story, but to be honest, there were times I fought the urge to skim through some of the less interesting parts. And that's not to say it was a bad read. I liked it enough. But it wasn't the page turner I expected.

Again, I went into it with a pretty good idea of what to expect, I just didn't anticipate it being so painfully predictable from start to finish.

Deb and Cessy's husband both died the same way, one bullet to the heart and another through the head. Deb's husband is a reputable businessman and Cessy's husband is a drunk corrupted ex-cop. What can these two people from different walks of life have to common? Their death.

The story started well with a hint of mystery as Deb tries desperately to find out what her good husband was into that brought on his death. However, after that, it spiraled into boredom. After the reveal of the protagonist and what the two men had in common, that was the end of a well-written story. The reveal was only about 35% into the book; therefore the rest of the book just dragged on. None of the characters had any background to them. It seems incomplete. Even the reason why Deb's husband was killed was weak. When the protagonist was killed, that was the end of the story. I refused to believe, a famous person in life, the protagonist, when they were killed there wasn't an investigation. That wood had so much DNA and pieces of evidence that I know would lead the authorities to the killer. Yet, it left it at that...no investigation. The ending with Kim, Deb's daughter, made absolutely no sense. I wanted to like it. The beginning was good, but after the reveal, the story went downhill.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really good fast paced thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it hard to put down. Brilliant female characters too.

Cessy Castillo and Debh Lin Thomas couldn’t be more different, but they share a common tragedy, both their husbands have been shot dead. Debh is heart broken, but Cessy isn’t . Her husband was an abusive cop who owed money to the wrong people, and now they’re looking to Cessy to pay up. Meanwhile Debh has discovered her husband was under investigation by the FBI. Debh and Cessy join up to find out what their husbands were mixed up in. This is a great female driven story, I liked the fact that the central characters didn’t need men to save them