I apologize. I thought I sent feedback on this. Book was given 5 stars reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

The Zero Night – Brian Freeman

Duluth PD Lieutenant Maggie Bei is called out in the middle of the night by a local defense attorney, Gavin Wester, who has a strange story to tell. His wife, Chelsey, has been kidnapped. He attempted to pay the ransom money as the kidnappers requested, but Chelsey was not returned. Now, fearing the worst, he has turned to the police for help. Maggie, calling on her best, summons Serena and Guppo to the scene. Just as Serena is heading out the door, the phone rings…it’s an officer from Maricopa, AZ calling to let Serena know her estranged mother has been found dead.

Detective Jonathan Stride has physically recovered from the shooting that nearly took his life a year or so ago and he is at a crossroads, wondering if it is time to return to policing, yet strangely in no hurry to do so. He and Serena are struggling a bit – there is distance between them, compounded by Cat’s leaving home for college - and now with the death of her mother, he worries about her even more so. But a call from Maggie asking for some help in the case, brings him back to the office, where he quickly realizes is right where he belongs.

As Serena investigates the Webster’s home, she finds evidence of a break-in and kidnapping. Also intrigued by the timing of the ransom call made, she finds a hidden camera in the home. A canvas of the neighborhood also reveals some interesting information about the state of the couples’ marriage, along with a neglected dog that Serena promptly steals and puts in her car. That, along with some other unusual behavior gets her booted off the kidnapping and into an unsolved cold case. As she struggles with her emotions, she quickly tosses out 18 years of sobriety as she works through the death of her mother.

As two seemingly unrelated cases suddenly start to blend together, Serena inadvertently uncovers a cold-blooded, calculated plan for murder, and millions…but is she too late?

This book was absolutely incredible, as all the Stride novels are! Suspenseful, gripping and at times painful – it was hard to see Serena struggle with her past – along with some super crafty plot lines – made for an un-put-downable read!! The unexpected ending was the icing on the cake! Just perfect!! Now the anxious wait for the next Stride novel begins!

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

Another great installment in the Stride series! Very suspenseful with some nice surprises! Kept me guessing til the very end.


Before I say anything else, allow me to calm your fears: There is a dog in this book that becomes a companion to Serena. I’m here to assure you, the dog does not die. I felt compelled to share this up-front because that could have been a deal-breaker for some of you!


Serena, Jonathan’s wife, plays a more central role in this book which I kind of liked. It helped me get to know her and her story a bit more.


There are two plot lines:

Serena, sober for 6608 nights and counting hits a low point when she is informed that her estranged mother has died. Estranged is a nice word. Her mother was abusive in a thousand ways but Serena still loves her in an incomprehensible way. This jarring news causes Serena to drink.

And there we have the ‘zero’ night where her sober days count begins anew.

The zero night is significant, not only for her fall from sobriety, but because while she is drunk that night she hallucinates something from a closed case a couple years ago. A case that hit a little too close to home and reminded her of her mom. This sends Serena back into the files to figure out what actually happened and to correct the case that she is beginning to believe she handled wrongly.

Meanwhile, Jonathan, recovered from the gunshot he acquired in Alter Ego, is brought back on the force to work an abduction of a woman who is still missing even after the ransom was paid by her husband. Her husband, a defense lawyer, knows he is a possible suspect. Can Stride and Maggie follow the evidence and get his wife back alive? And if they find her, can they prove what happened to her?


Comments

It was hard seeing Serena battling her demons and knowing the hold her mom had on her even after all the pain she caused. But it was also nice to see Cat and Jonny coming around Serena to support her and love her through it. That she was able to create a mother/daughter bond with Cat that both of them needed.

At first I thought the double plot-lines were going to be hard to keep straight or make the book seem disjointed, but that wasn’t the case. The ‘cases’ are very distinctive and since Serena is on one and Stride on the other, it’s not hard to remember what you’re reading about if you take breaks reading. Freeman does a good job of flowing everything together.

My only critique was that I wish a couple things at the end were shown a bit more dramatically than jumping forward and telling what happened in past tense.

One character introduced in this book is named Broadway and he’s very mysterious (in his illegal business). He seems like too big of an enigma, too big of a player, to just show up randomly in this book and slip away quietly into the night. I’m hoping he comes back up in the next book.


Recommendation

There is a bit of language and some of the content may be triggers for some who are trying to stay sober or who have encountered abuse, but overall I think this is a book most people will really enjoy. Everyone likes a thriller that’s a little unexpected!

This is part of a series, I’ve seen many reviewers say that this was their first read of the series and that they didn’t have trouble with it. I would agree that you can read this as a stand-alone, however I think it would behoove you to at least start back on book 6 or 7 (I didn’t like book 1).

I say this on every Freeman book I review, but if you haven’t read any of his books yet, I would definitely recommend you try them!




[Content Advisory: 20 f-words, 40 s-words; one brief sexual encounter; possible trigger warning for drinking after sobriety]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

THE ZERO NIGHT (PolProc-Jonathan Stride-Chicago-Contemp)
Brian Freeman – 1st in series
Blackstone Publishing, Nov 1, 2022, 379 pp.
RATING: VG+

First Sentence: The man with the briefcase sat on a bench in the drowning rain.

Lt. Jonathan Stride has been on medical leave after nearly dying of a gunshot wound. Now, his former colleague, Maggie Bei, is urging him to come back when Attorney Gavin Webster asks for his help. He claims his wife has been kidnapped, but despite paying the ransom, she has not been returned. Stride’s wife, Serena, is 6,607 days into her recovery from alcoholism. Hearing her abusive, drug-addicted, alcoholic mother has died tests Serena’s strength and recovery. Can she keep her life, and marriage, together while helping Stride solve a crime?
This book has some serious plus points as well as negative points. To get the negative points out of the way, the plot focused too much on all the angst of the characters. Many of us may have known abuse victims and those who are addicts. Both are horrible situations. Although one empathizes with the characters, especially Serena whose inner struggle and pain is conveyed very well, it all becomes too dark; too heavy. There is also one really bad “too-stupid to live moment.”
There needs to be some light in the story other than as provided by Maggie Bei, Strides’ replacement while he is on medical leave. Without her, the story would have been without any humor. It was her friendship with Stride that kept things moving forward. Serena’s relationship with the bartender is much more toxic than Stride’s with Maggie, and a test of her strength. One longs for books or a series with a family such as is found in Donna Leon’s “Brunetti” series or Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ “Bill Slider” series. But all was not lost.
THE ZERO NIGHT does have a plot that is wonderfully twisty-turny. There are a lot of excellent red herrings and some good suspense with an ending that is very well done. Unfortuanatey, the next book is intended to be the end of the series. One hopes the characters will have found some sense of healing and normalcy.

Another wonderful addition to the Jonathan Stride series!
At home recovering from a gunshot wound, Jonathan Stride has been on leave from the Duluth Police Department for more than a year. When a woman is kidnapped under suspicious circumstances Maggie Bei, Jonathan's partner, tells him it's time to get back to work.
As Stride investigates the crime he also has to deal with a crisis in his own marriage.
Action-packed and unputdownable!
With each novel it's always wonderful to revisit the characters I have come to know in the Stride series.
A series I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

What is there not to love about a Brian Freeman novel? Anyone familiar with the author’s work knows there will be two or more differing storylines, as unrelated as they can be, which will soon converge; you don’t know when or how.

For me, Strider’s storyline took a backseat, and Serena took centerstage. While reading this book, you discover that you will not like all the characters, but they play their part in bringing Serena long-deserved peace.

While Serena may have to begin again, with her support team in place, she will thrive.

Jonathan Stride is back for his 11th novel in The Zero Night by Brian Freeman. There is a lot going on in this novel right off the bat. A familiar defense attorney has his wife kidnapped and Stride, still recovering from his injuries, is convinced to come back and work the case. Meanwhile his wife, Serena, finds out that her mom has died. This leads her to contemplating drinking for the first time in a long time. She also decides to revisit a case that she ruled suicide two years.

This book is very addictive from the start. As with any book for Mr. Freeman, there are a number of twists and turns throughout the story. I will say one of them was kind of easy to guess, but Mr. Freeman does such a good job disguising his twists that I found myself second guessing through the novel. I thought each storyline was very strong and could’ve stood on their own. Mr. Freeman did an excellent job leaving the two stories together to make one. It was very interesting to see Stride and Serena both on separate cases and dealing with their own personal problems.

If you like a good thriller with unsuspected twists and turns. This is the book for you. It is an easy and fast read that you won’t want to put down. The characters are well developed, and don’t feel like you can’t read this book if you haven’t read the rest of the series. It works as a standalone novel, but I would recommend picking up the rest of the series.

Jonathan Stride has been on leave from the Duluth Police Department for more than a year, ever since he almost died from a gunshot wound. But when Maggie Bei, gets called about a suspicious abduction involving a local lawyer, she tells Stride it’s time for him to come back. Attorney Gavin Webster says he paid $100,000 in ransom money to the men who kidnapped his wife. Now they’ve disappeared with the cash, and she’s still missing. Gavin claims to be desperate to find her—but Stride discovers that the lawyer had plenty of motive to be the mastermind behind the crime. Meanwhile, Stride's wife Serena is dealing with the death of her mother, and struggling with her sobriety. After Serena gets put on desk duty, she begins hunting through old police files and starts to ask questions about a mother’s death that was written off as suicide. That file may turn out to have ties to the case that Stride is working.
I am a huge fan of this author's books and this one did not disappoint. It had a great mystery with lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. If you are a fan of thrillers, then you need to add this one to your TBR pile. I highly recommend it!

This is the thirteenth Jonathan Stride book by one of my FAVORITE authors, Brian Freeman, and this strong series truly just keeps getting better!

This intense story has well-developed characters and an intricate plot guaranteed to keep the reader guessing! Told primarily through the third person perspectives of Jonathan and his wife, Serena, we soon see there are problems in the Stride marriage. But they are professionals as they work to solve the fascinating case of local attorney Gavin Webster’s missing wife that grows much more complicated than it first appears!

Though this is the thirteenth book in this popular series, each book can be read as a stand alone novel. The action moves fast and promises to keep the reader turning the pages!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed all of Brian Freeman’s writing. Along with the Jonathan Stride series, Freeman also writes the Detective Frost Easton series and the Cab Bolton series, as well as several stand-alone novels. He was also chosen to take over the Robert Ludlum Jason Bourne series.

If you have not read this author and you love stories with a strong plot line AND well-developed characters. Then I encourage you to start with this one!

My sincere thanks to @blackstonepublishing and @netgalley for my gifted digital copy. My thoughts are my own.

Thanks for the ARC-loved The Zero Night. Freeman's books always have just the right amount of suspense and intrigue and I can't turn the pages fast enough!

Jonathan Stride has been recovering from a gunshot wound when he is brought back to the force by a call from his partner, Maggie Bei. A local lawyer's wife has been kidnapped and despite paying the ransom, she has not been returned. But all is maybe not what it seems. Meanwhile, Jonathan's wife and fellow officer Serena is going through her own struggles dealing with the death of her abusive mother. She goes down a rabbit hole of a cold case involving an alleged suicide. This is a solid police procedural but what sets it above is that the author does a great job of giving the lead characters depth and emotional resonance by delving into their inner struggles.

Love this author and series. The characters feel like old friends. I did not guess who the bad guys were! A book full of suspense and your favorite characters! A must read!

Detective Jonathon Stride has been recovering from a gunshot wound for the last 14 months. When he decides to see if police work is still for him, the case presented to him is a tangled mystery. Attorney Gavin Webster claims his wife was abducted and he did what the kidnapper asked—he didn’t call the cops and he did fork over $100,000 cash. Does Gavin actually want his wife found or is he responsible for her disappearance?

At the same time, Stride’s wife, also a law enforcement officer, is losing it since the death of her abusive mother. Their marriage has been on the rocks for a while, and now Serena is taken off the Webster case for her own mental health. Where this leads her is down a rabbit hole of a cold case.

The clues in this novel as to who is responsible for various crimes kept me guessing until the end. There is a lot about alcoholism and parental neglect, so that was pretty dark, but this is a well-done mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, which is the 11th in the series. It RELEASES NOVEMBER 1, 2022.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Zero Night is book 11 in the Jonathan Stride series, but it was the first book by this author that I have read. You can read it as a standalone. References to things that happened in the past are complete enough that you know what's going on, but you may feel like you want to go back and read the earlier books! The story was fast paced and suspenseful. I enjoyed it!

It was clear that this story was going to present a mystery that I assumed I’d spend practically the whole book trying to unpick and resolve, and that there would most likely be a dramatic ending that would inevitably involve violence. That’s okay, it’s precisely what I signed up for when I selected this novel. What I didn’t realise, and what I actually found most appealing about it, is how deeply I was to become drawn into the lives of the characters. There’s emotional depth here, bags of it.

This is the latest in a long running series featuring Duluth cop Jonathan Stride, his family and his colleagues. I’ve dipped in and out of it (as is my want) so I’ve missed chunks of the group’s history. As the story begins, Stride is recovering from a serious gunshot wound and hasn’t worked in a year. There’s some doubt as to whether he’ll ever return. He’s romantically entangled with Serena, who he lives with and had also worked with, and in the background (and sometimes the foreground) are others who feature large in both of their lives.

A man reports the kidnapping of his wife, in circumstances that throw suspicion on his own actions in the lead up to the alleged event. It’s quite possible that events unfolded exactly as he describes them, but is there more to this than meets the eye? There is money in the mix, not only the ransom demand but also a background involving riches lost and found. This is going to be a tricky one: a woman is certainly missing but by whose hand and to what end?

As the investigation and the search proceeds, we get deeper into other matters that are occupying the minds of the various characters. There is a family death, backgrounds of neglect and abuse, alcoholism and mental health issues. This might sound grim, and I suppose it is, except it really fleshes out the players and provides context for their moods and their actions. I found myself drawn in, the matter of the kidnapping receding into the background.

The only false note in the whole story occurs as it reaches its its conclusion. Here, an action is taken which is out of step with everything that preceded it, a ‘why did they do that’ moment which gift wraps the opportunity for a dramatic climax. In truth, resolution of this tale is it’s weakest component: after setting up a set-piece ending, loose ends are tied up a little too easily and far too neatly for my tastes. It’s a pity and I really wish the author had been a little braver in this regard. But overall it’s an enjoyable read with deft scene setting, excellent characterisation and strong dialogue all ticking boxes for me.

Agent Stride is back in the game after being shot and almost dying. His former partner, Maggie Bei, pleads with him to come back and work on a case involving the apparent kidnapping of the wife of a local lawyer. The lawyer, Gavin Webster, claims to have paid the ransom money and the kidnappers didn’t return his wife as they agreed. Gavin may have had motive to be the mastermind behind the disappearance. As Stride finds a path back to work, he also finds trouble in his own marriage as his wife struggles with her abusive past and alcoholism.

The author keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the story and the characters are well developed. You can relate to the behaviors and the triggers along the way and the plot will keep you guessing until the surprise ending. I highly recommend the book and the author.

A kidnapping, murders, betrayal. This book has it all. There were so many twists that caught me completely by surprise. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Another 5⭐️ for Brian Freeman.
This is the eleventh installment in the series.
Jonathan Stride and Maggie Bei search for a lawyer’s kidnapped wife while Jonathan’s wife Serena investigates the suicide of a woman two years ago. This book is full of twist’s and turns and didn’t want to put it down.
Thanks NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing and Brian Freeman for the chance to read this ARC!

Brian Freeman is a master storyteller. He beautifully crafts such detailed and deep stories to thoroughly involve the reader. In The Zero Night, he visits some of his favorites, Jonathan and Serena Stride... what initially begins as a kidnapping of a lawyer's wife, quickly spirals into something so much more. And, it's written magnificently. I became hooked on Mr. Freeman's writing with The Deep, Deep Snow and The Ursulina.... both have become favorites of mine to re-read as I always see something new... A big thank you to Blackstone Publishing for an advanced reader of this book. The views expressed are my own.

Serena and Stride are at a crossroad in their lives but when two separate cases and death knocks on their door, the vulnerabilities and their fierceness take center stage as they tackle the perspective cases. The author knows how to tell a complex story where the visually descriptive narrative puts you in the middle of all the actions and a variety of emotions are awaken as the solid plot plays out on the page and all you can do is sit back and follow along with what the author has intended. As this story reached a fevered pitch, the abundance of plot twists, some that gave me pause, enhanced my reading pleasure. When all was said and done, this book blew me away and I did not want it to end. I wanted more Stride and Serena. This is by far, the best book in this terrific series.