The book begins with the discovery that Claire Hutson and her children have all been brutally murdered and her husband is missing. The book then takes turns to tell the investigation side through the eyes of Sergeant Ryan DeMarco and Thomas Hutson as he goes on the run.

There is a connection between the two narrators as Hutson is a well know crime novelist and DeMarco has not only read his books but been a part of research Hutson did for one of his books.

It seems pretty clear cut, that although there seems to be no reason to it, Hutson has murdered his family - otherwise why would he be on the run?

I really liked the two main characters in this book. DeMarco is almost channelling Columbo in his detective style, and I enjoyed it. He uses the writing of Hutson to try and second guess his motives and actions whilst on the run. He also has a little back story of his own running through the book and a complex relationship with his estranged wife.

Meanwhile Hutson gives a glimpse to what he is going through whilst on the run. At one point he becomes one of his characters in order to be able to carry on and get through his ordeal. I found this a really interesting perspective.

Both men are heading twoards Annabel, the muse of Hutson's unpublished latest book. One man knows who she is and the other is trying to find out. This was the part of the book that hooked me in as the plot unravels to reveal whom Annabel is or whom Hutson wants her to be.

Just when I thought this book was done and dusted there were a couple of twists, and not ones I was expecting. At times I found this book terribly sad - so much loss between the pages. However, it also manged to be a really good mystery.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I was initially really drawn by the blurb of this book. However, when I was 25% through, I felt disappointed that the story wasn't really going anywhere. I then struggled to understand the need for Houston, on the run for supposedly murdering his family, to begin having graphic sexual images about his wife. Ultimately, I could not keep going with this book. I hate to ever say that about a book. I fully appreciate the author put a huge amount of time and effort into writing this story, and I'm sure plenty of people will love it, but it just wasn't for me. Sorry.

Well liked college professor and famous author Thomas Houston had turned to State Trooper Ryan DeMarco for police procedure for one of his novels The two men had become friends over the course of many meetings on this research. Then Thomas’s in laws go to his house and find their daughter and their three grandchildren one only a baby brutally murdered with Thomas no place to be found. Then it comes to light the last time Thomas was seen was walking down the road with a knife in his hand. So Thomas becomes the main suspect in these horrible murders. Ryan is given the investigation and starts the hunt to find Thomas. But Ryan finds it hard to believe Thomas did this. Ryan believed that Thomas cherished his family and had everything a man could ask for. It shows that Thomas did have his own demons: his mother was murdered while being in a hold up in their own store. Then Thomas's father committed suicide shortly thereafter as he couldn’t live without Thomas’s mother. The memories never really leave Thomas. Ryan understood how one night could tear your life apart when he , his wife, and their son had been in a terrible car accident ten years ago. Ryan and his wife survived but not their child. Ryan’s wife blamed Ryan and left him and was never the same nor was Ryan. One of Thomas’s students - Nathan- gave insight to what Thomas’s new novel was about. It was also proven Thomas didn’t murder his family as he was at work on his new novel. Ryan does look into other suspects while looking for Thomas. While on the run from the police Thomas alternated from the horror of what happened to his family to a shocked distance as he tries to track his course as if he were part of his novel. But Thomas is also desperately looking for food and shelter and someone he can trust. Ryan does find Thomas’s notes on his new novel and Ryan thinks he might know where Thomas is headed.
I did enjoy this story a lot even though it was pretty dark. The writing was good. The characters seemed real and you felt like you were there with them. This had a very good plot. Although I will say the story dragged at times but for the most part that wasn’t the case. I didn’t like where Thomas was thinking about the oral sex he would never get again from his wife. Just didn’t really fit him or the story as far as I am concerned. But for the most part I really enjoyed this. I kept coming up with different scenarios and killers but I was wrong so you had to keep reading if only to find out who killed Thomas’s family and why.So i really liked the ins and outs of this story and I recommend.

"The perfect family. The perfect house. The perfect life. All gone now. Snap your fingers five times, that's how long it took. Five soft taps on the door. Five steel-edged scrapes across the tender flesh of night."

In the first chapter, alone, I thought, "if I could see my face right now, I probably look like a combination of 'surprised', 'jaw drop/shocked', and 'crying' emojis.

The vivid, graphic, horrific description of Thomas Huston's murdered family - especially of his infant son (!) - just sucked all of the air out of my lungs. Sad as it was, I thought, "If this is the first chapter, I can't imagine what's coming up in the rest of it!"

And then...

While I felt that the writing was powerful in certain instances:

"He had only to let one of the four horrible images float to the surface of his mind and a pain like none he had ever experienced would seize him and double him up again, twist him into a rigid knot of agony whose only release, short-lived and painful itself, would be an animal-like scream."

and that the book got off to a fairly solid start - very intriguing, intense, etc. - unfortunately, around the half-way point, my predominant reaction was, "Seriously?! How am I only 50% through this book?!"

It's not that the story wasn't interesting. The Sergeant's chapters seemed to progress at a decent pace, as he was methodically gathering information, following leads, etc., but the chapters written from Thomas Huston's perspective tended to drag on and it took a very long time for any progress to be made, it seemed. Luckily, most of the story is told from DeMarco's point of view.

Towards the end of the novel, Randall Silvis cheekily inserted a red herring moment and then had the Sergeant acknowledge it as being a red herring, which gave me a chuckle. When the person who was ultimately responsible was finally revealed, it didn't feel like a surprise, but more of an, "Oh...ok, yeah, that makes sense." However, the way in which that person was connected to another character in the story was rather crafty.

Overall, the narrative took an inordinate amount of time to unfold and would have been more powerful, with different pacing. The last 20-25% of the novel could have been condensed and still would have communicated the same plot points.

It gave me the mental image of falling off a very tall building and taking so long to hit the ground that the person falling would stop being concerned with dying and more concerned with how long it was taking to happen ("Shouldn't I be hitting the ground, already?!").

"Monday dawned like a mile-long freight train filled with radioactive sewage. DeMarco trudged through it. All he could do now was to wait for a tip, a sighting [...]. He felt as heavy and hollow as a gut-shot dog dragging its ass uphill."

You don't say...

This is a book that keeps you guessing, just when you think you have it figured out you find out more information that leads you down a different path. I can usually always figure out movies or books but this one had me guessing. This is a dark book but the ending left me satisfied.

This book is told by Ryan DeMarco the cop trying to find his friend and discover if he was the one who killed his entire family and Thomas Huston the author and professor whose wonderful life has been destroyed in one night. His wife and children brutally murdered. Huston is missing, did he kill his family or is he searching for his familys killer? DeMarco can relate to Huston's sense of despair since he lost his young son in a car accident DeMarco's life has been put on hold. He hasn't done anything to finish the projects he was working on, he is still tracking his grieving wife and is really stuck in place even years later.

Both of these broken men take us on a very dark and brilliantly written path toward answers, though the answers for each may be different they both find their own sense of peace in the end.

Wonderfully done.

A quote from the acknowledgements section:

The best fiction is a voyage of feeling, and the writer's job is to generate sentipensante for his readers, those feelings that give rise not to an intellectual kind of knowledge but an emotional knowledge, a deeper connection with what Faulkner called "the old verities and truths of the heart".

I feel this is exactly what Silvis accomplished in Two Days Gone. His writing is visceral and portrays extremely well the emotions of grief and guilt.

Thomas Huston's wife and children have been murdered. He, best-selling writer and college professor is the prime suspect.

Sergeant DeMarco, in charge of tracking Huston, has ghosts of his own. As an acquaintance of the writer, he does not quite believe that Huston is responsible for the crimes.

The investigation will yield truths of the hearts of both men and some of the reader's too. An atmospheric and haunting read.

(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)

As this is the first book read for 2017 I wondered if it would set the standard of what is to come. I certainly hope so! Thomas Huston is a lecturer on Creative Writing as well as an author. He researches his books meticulously and in the course of his research he meets Ryan De Marco who becomes a friend. When Huston's wife and three children are found murdered De Marco .finds it impossible to believe this sensitive thoughtful man is to blame.

The story follows Huston and De Marco's path told from their points of view. The writing is beautiful and the story is totally absorbing. Definitely a five star start to the year. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for getting my reading year off to a great start!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this great book!

I was unfamiliar with this author's work - this is not just a typical mystery. It's definitely a literary thriller, stuffed with wonderful writing, literary references, and more words that I had to look up in a book in a long time!

However, at the heart of this book is a great thriller. The story is told from two viewpoints - a hardened Pennsylvania State Trooper, Ryan DeMarco, and a bestselling author/professor, Thomas Huston. When Huston's entire family is slain and Huston goes on the run, DeMarco has to face the fact that the man he knows on a friendly basis may be guilty, even though he doesn't really believe it. Both of these men have demons to face so neither are thinking clearly as DeMarco's hunt for Huston and the truth go on.

A great book with that requisite twists and turns - don't miss it!

Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis

Told from the perspective of two men – one on the run and the other searching for him – the book was filled with suspense, mystery and darkness. Ryan DeMarco is the policeman on the case and also a friend, of sorts, to the man on the run - Thomas Huston . The murder of Huston’s entire family has caused him a bit of disassociation and a great deal of mental trauma – it has also created a target for him that he is intent on finding and also made him into a target. DeMarco spends his time trying to figure out the clues that will determine whether or not Huston was the perpetrator or a victim, too.

The novel was long, detailed, and filled with characters, backstories and descriptions. It was a good story but not the best of this genre that I have read. There were a few surprises that made me lift the rating from a three to a four because I do like a book that makes me think or surprises me. My inability to relate to either DeMarco or Huston may have impacted my enjoyment of the book although it was well plotted and crafted.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOK Landmarks for the ARC. This is my honest review.

3.5 Stars