So, this was a mystery book club pick and I’ve gotta say, it was pretty interesting. There were many things that made this book appealing, and I’ll go through all of my typical points below, but I think the main thing was the actual plot that was the shining star here. 

Let’s start off with the writing style. As far as point of views go, Long Time Gone mainly followed Sloan. However, you got random POVs from characters who had insight to the case. This spanned from a waitress at a diner to people Sloan was close to. If they had a tidbit of information, you could be sure you’d hear their POV. This wasn’t bad at all. Usually I don’t like these types of omnipotent narrations, but I think this one was well done. With the writing style, I absolutely love how the author explained complex medical and pathological procedures (and even explained a dark room at one point). It was super nice to have those procedures broken down without feeling like you were being lectured. 

As far as characters go, I didn’t really feel any huge emotional pull towards any of them. I enjoyed reading about Sloan and Eric, but I never felt any true connection to them. I mainly just felt like I was along for the ride. 

Now, here is where I get to the plot. This is what truly made the novel stand out. I feel like every end and thread was tied up nicely. You could follow them to each conclusion and it was honestly a satisfying ending. You aren’t left with an unsolved mystery, which is exactly what I want in a mystery novel!! Do not give me a mystery novel with an open-ending. I love it when it comes to romance novels, but I want all the answers when it comes to a mystery. 

Spoilers ahead.

So, in the end, Sloan finds out that Ellis (her uncle) killed her father and her grandmother killed her mother. Complicated family drama, that’s for sure. Not only that, but the thing that really really bothered me about this novel is the fact that as a baby, Sloan happened to kick Annabelle’s camera and take a picture of the people who killed her parents. This was hugely unsatisfying and just didn’t feel likely at all. This definitely took off a star in my opinion because it just felt so unrealistic. 

Overall, I really did like this book. It wasn’t the greatest thing I read this year, but it was much better than most things I’ve read. The characters didn’t stand out too much, but the plot really brought this book up to another level even if the ending had a few questionable moments. 4/5 stars!

Source: Audiobook from cloudLibrary Public Library

(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)