EXCERPT: The waters of Lake Wilhelm are dark and chilled. In some places the lake is deep enough to swallow a house. In others, a body could lie just beneath the surface, tangled in the morass of weeds and water plants, and remain unseen, just another shadowy form, a captive feast for the catfish and crappie and the monster bass that will nibble away at it until the bones fall asunder and bury themselves in the silty floor.

ABOUT 'TWO DAYS GONE': The perfect family. The perfect house. The perfect life. All gone now.

What could cause a man, when all the stars of fortune are shining upon him, to suddenly snap and destroy everything he has built? This is the question that haunts Sergeant Ryan DeMarco after the wife and children of beloved college professor and bestselling author Thomas Huston are found slaughtered in their home. Huston himself has disappeared and so is immediately cast as the prime suspect.

DeMarco knows—or thinks he knows—that Huston couldn't have been capable of murdering his family. But if Huston is innocent, why is he on the run? And does the half-finished manuscript he left behind contain clues to the mystery of his family's killer?

MY THOUGHTS: Although I enjoyed this dark thriller, please don't read it if you are depressed. The characters are all fighting their own personal demons after tragedy, in one form or another, has struck. They each have their own personal coping mechanisms, particularly De Marco, who trails his estranged wife from bars to her home. There's not a lot of joy and light in evidence. Yet, despite this, I enjoyed Two Days Gone.

I liked De Marco, despite him being seriously depressed, not that he recognises that, following the death of his young son and the ensuing departure of his wife some years before. And I liked Huston. I don't think I would have enjoyed reading what he wrote - there is an extract from the unfinished first draft of his manuscript - but I liked him as a person. And I liked that De Marco and Huston were friends, De Marco having helped him with some police procedural matters on his previous novel.

I liked the mystery surrounding the murders of Huston's family and my heart nearly stopped completely when I read about how the baby of the family, Davey, was killed. If anything is a reminder of 'no good deed goes unpunished', this story is it.

Yes, a very dark read, but an excellent one. I am hoping that somewhere amongst my crowded shelves is the next book in this series. I definitely want to read it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.2

#TwoDaysGone #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Randall Silvis is the internationally acclaimed author of over a dozen novels, one story collection, and one book of narrative nonfiction.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis for review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own personal opinions.

A fast paced thriller of a read with plenty of twists and turns will you keep you completely gripped

Thank you Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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Two Days Gone: Ryan DeMarco Mystery, 01
by Randall Silvis
★★★★☆
400 Pages
POV: 3rd person, dual character POV
Content Warning: mentions of mental health, depression; violence, loss of child, death of family; mentions of OCD, dissociative behaviour, grief, paranoid schizophrenia, suicide, vehicular manslaughter, abortion, cheating, murder; mentions of domestic violence


Two Days Gone is an interesting, if intense exploration of grief, the consequences the everyday interactions we're unaware may lead to jealousy, resentment or misunderstands that grow out of hand. Through a dual POV, it explores two men who are on opposites sides of a criminal investigation, yet who are more similar than they realise.

Ryan DeMarco is a State Trooper who is brought in to investigate a mass murder. A woman and her three children have been murdered, three with their throats slit and the baby with two stab wounds. It's a brutal, senseless crime. The husband, Thomas Huston, is missing, presumed the perpetrator of the crimes, though no one can understand why.
Thomas Huston is an author, profession, and otherwise happily married man with a good life. His books do well, he's got a successful career, a beautiful wife, and wonderful children. Now, he's on the run, suspected of murdering his perfect family. His mind is fraying, his behaviour is erratic at first, and then secure behind the persona of a character in one of his books.

Slightly complicating DeMarco's investigation is that he knows Huston personally. Thomas is an author, who recently contacted their office for information about State Troopers. DeMarco helped him create his character for a new book, over a few lunches together, and long conversations. DeMarco begins this investigation, therefore, feeling like he already has a sense of who Huston is, and that he's not the kind of man who would commit this crime. Yet, he also accepts that there's no alternative that makes much sense.

DeMarco is also suffering his own grief. His baby boy was killed in a road traffic accident, when another car crashed into theirs. Despite the baby safety seat, his son's neck was broken by the impact, leaving DeMarco and his wife locked in grief. Separated, his wife, Laraine, drowns her grief in anonymous sex, while DeMarco drowns his with alcohol and sitting outside Laraine's house to ensure her safety.

I definitely enjoyed the investigative chapters in DeMarco''s POV more, and Huston's POV's dwindled away after a while. But, I enjoyed the ambiguous nature of Huston's POV. How he didn't want to remember the night his family died, and shut out the memories when they did creep up, so that you never got a full story, just hints and suggestions that left his guilt or innocence uncertain. He was clearly traumatised by what happened, and his POV reflected that, with disorientation, scattered thoughts, and a wish to die.

I liked the process of the investigation. The way DeMarco went about digging into the Huston's lives, to see what could have triggered Thomas to kill his family, the doubts he had, and the way he approached the case. DeMarco was thorough in investigating Huston's recent activities. This led us to some interesting secondary characters. Like the sweet Danni, who provided an honest view of strippers and why they get into the work they do. Adorable Nathan, a young gay student who was secretly in love with Thomas, but put aside his feelings to help DeMarco see Thomas clearly, and help solve the case. I loved the positive rep of LGBT and strippers.

Eventually, we get Thomas Huston's POV of the actual crime at around 80%, which felt early, until I realised that DeMarco still had work to do after that, to provide some context and answer some lingering questions as to why the crime happened. That made the resolution of the crime a bit more genuine and real-to-life and more interesting than just learning Huston's truth and then ending the book.

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Was it perfect? No. For me, I felt like the story was interesting, but not engaging enough to make me want to continue the series. It wrapped up everything in this book, for this case, which was great, but there was no time that I felt absolutely engrossed or addicted to the story. I wanted to know what happened to this case, and what the result of the case was, but I never felt so connected to the main character – Ryan DeMarco – that I wanted to explore his character more.

The investigation is interesting, but not fully engaging. It's accurate to a criminal investigation, but it's also extremely slow and long-winded. I'm disappointed that some fundamental options weren't instantly considered, like checking and tracking bank accounts, asking the public for sightings, checking Thomas' medical reports for potential mental health issues. Some of the eventual evidence or clues would have been found this way, so I can understand why the author delayed their reveal, but it didn't feel genuine to the process of investigation.

It sometimes reads more as telling rather than showing for far too long. That makes it feel much longer to read than it should have been. I easily read a nearly 400 page book the other day, in just one day, but this one took me 3 days. This was mostly because the reminiscent and flashbacks made it feel like a much longer read. Quite honestly, I considered DNF'ing at around 8%, but wanted to know who did it, so I stuck with it. In the end, I'm glad I did, but it was definitely a hard slog.

I also had issues with the formatting, but since this was an ARC, I didn't let that affect my rating or review. There were moments where sentences felt incomplete, with a full stop instead of a comma, or were short and sharp but lost the emotive aspect. There were also some pages that had half-lines of text, for whatever reason, where there were only a few short words on the line and then massive gaps, so it looked like a Jenga board of writing.

There was some random use of excessively flowery phrasing. It wasn't all within Thomas' POV, either, so it couldn't be explained away as being part of his professorly personality. Sometimes it came across as completely unnecessary, and half the time I didn't know what the words meant. Because they were so randomly placed and infrequent, when they appeared, it felt jarring and unnatural.

I wasn't overly keen on DeMarco being a sort of morally ambiguous character. There were times when he definitely went outside the law and beyond the remit of his position, exhibiting illegal or questionable behaviour. Not all of this can be blamed or rationalised by his mental state.

Also, ultimately, I was surprised when we learned Huston's story of the night in question that it went so easily. I wanted a fight, some resistance, some mental anguish, but there was very little opposition, that didn't feel natural to the situation, especially in terms of the baby.

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Overall, the book was interesting but not thrilling. It was slow to start, and only really picked up pace around 20-30%. It was interesting that DeMarco kept investigating a supposedly open-and-shut case, because he vaguely knew Huston's character and felt that facts didn't add up. It made a good standalone novel, but – quite honestly – there was nothing here that made me feel I desperately had to pick up the next in the series.

This one was a very well written and atmospheric story. I didn't not like it, but I didn't love it either. I found myself very easily pushed away from reading it and putting it down a lot. I was losing connection with the characters....it was an okay read, but I won't be continuing the series.

Thomas Huston, a beloved professor and bestselling author, is something of a local hero in the small Pennsylvania college town where he lives and teaches. So when Huston’s wife and children are found brutally murdered in their home, the community reacts with shock and anger. Huston has also mysteriously disappeared, and suddenly, the town celebrity is suspect number one.

This was an OK read. Nothing really stood out, either positively or negatively, and ended up being pretty forgettable. Overall, I do lean that this was more on the boring side and tended to ramble.

I really enjoyed this book and engaged with the characters. it's frightening how a life can be turned around/destroyed in a instant.

"Two Days Gone" is spellbinding, and constructed with all of the basic elements that create a thriller, though at times it wasn't as gripping as I had hoped. Nonetheless, an entertaining journey that included twists and turns along the way, with an ending that was ultimately satisfying.

When a man who has it all is accused of killing his whole family what could cause it? Sgt DeMarco has been tasked to find him. Grappling his own demons, nothing is ever what it seems.
This was a solid start and likeable characters which made it easier to read. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Two Days Gone is a good book and I enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to more of Randall Silvis books though

This book is character study of two men folded into a mystery. Thomas Huston is a writing professor and an acclaimed author. He is also a loving kind friend and a family man. Sergeant Ryan DeMarco is a man haunted by his failure to avoid a terrible car accident that killed his infant son and left his wife so bereft, she could no longer function as a wife and partner. When Huston's entire family is murdered and he disappears, it is up to DeMarco to solve the crime. Everyone is sure Huston is the murderer because he has run away, but DeMarco cannot reconcile that his kind, intelligent friend did something so horrendous. Silvis did such a good job in showing the moral nature of Huston, that, as the reader, I never doubted that he was not the murderer; whereas, I feel he was wanting to sow real doubt in the reader's mind. This is a strong literary mystery, but what dropped it one star for me was the typical, tiring fight and chase scenes. I hate that in any book. They are contrived and not believable. I'm not even sure I will continue the series if it includes scenes like this. Apparently authors feel it is mandatory to include. I prefer literary mysteries that are written with enough skill to leave that knife-wielding, gun-slinging, car-chasing nonsense to strictly male genre fiction and write an intense wrap-up that appeals to a critical thinking reader.

I read this book and would recommend it,
Just know it comes across as eerie and dark, but if one likes that, this is going to be a good book for you.
The character definely had a lot of demons to deal with.

The first in a series following Ryan DeMarco, a state police officer in Pennsylvania.

This started out kind of rough for me. I honestly considered quitting. I was struggling- especially with Tom's POV. However, it did improve. A lot. The first half I'd give 2 stars, the second half 4. So I am going with 3 ;) Not only did the story pick up in the second half, but we mostly (and eventually totally) lost Tom's POV.

I was not sold at first, but I really ended up liking the character Ryan DeMarco. I like how he isn't afraid to speak his mind or do what is needed- even when it breaks the rules.

I don't plan on immediately continuing the series, but it is something I may do in the future when I have more time. I am especially interested in how Lorraine's story progresses. While very minor, she broke my heart.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I've tried throughout the years to get into this book and read it to the end, and only recently found myself with a unrelenting motivation to complete it despite how much I struggled to remain interested. The premise is promising and I was intrigued by the mystery. Unfortunately, those weren't enough for me.

The main problems I have with this book are the momentum (which is unfortunate since it's the go go go feeling that makes me want to continue reading on as quickly as possible till the end) , the parts where the narrative rambles on and the awkward dialogue, and the sudden shift the novel took in the middle.

Everything considered, I'm really sorry but this book just isn't for me.

I found that whilst this book started strongly, the momentum was quickly lost. I found myself struggling to continue reading in certain places

Two Days Gone is a literary thriller in which a famous writer, Thomas, supposedly murders his entire family before taking off and hiding in the woods. Ryan DeMarco, the detective on the case, has a history with the suspect and can’t believe his friend would commit such a horrendous act of violence. But he has no proof; just a gut feeling as he searches the woods.
Thomas also narrates the book. His thoughts are fragments thoughout, overcome with grief and guilt. In his own mind, he is guilty. He has committed a crime and doesn’t want to live with the consequences.
We see Ryan De Marco try his best to unravel the mystery while all the time hoping it isn't his friend that has commited the murders.
A good plot with memorable characters and a slow pace which builds up as the story unfolds.
Thanks to NetGalley for the book to write this review.

Ryan DeMarco has to suspend his belief in his friend in order to solve a horrific murder in this well done and twisty novel. It will keep you guessing.

I have had this in my to read to awhile now. It is the first book in a series and so we were introduced to the Detective that is a part of the rest of the series. Overall, I enjoyed this mystery. I really didn't not guess the end until it was happening! I added the other books in the series to my to read list and can't wait to read them!

The ending didn't surprise me, but the plot kept me interested and turning pages. It was an interesting read, a good mystery book!

Nicely written book, but one of the more depressing books I have read lately. Reminds me of the depressing nature of Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. Both books were a slow read for me. would still recommend. Thank you for the ARC