I really loved the sound of this book and couldn't wait to start reading it.

audra is trying to get away from an abusive husband who is trying to take her two kids off of her. That's when she decides to take her two kid's and run. She plans on staying at a friends house the other side of the country but half way there she is pulled over by a police man who says her car is overloaded. he says he will help her remove some of her stuff and when he is on the boot he finds drugs. he arrests Audra and calls for another police officer to collect the children.

When Audra arrives at the police station she asks the sheriff where her kids are. only for him to reply "what kids?".

according to the sheriff Audra was alone in the car. But now he wants to know what she has done with her 2 kids. the media and FBI are all over the case and everyone wants to know where the children are. they all believe that Audra has killed them and dumped there bodies out in the dessert.

this book was really gripping and I really felt for Audra. I loved this book from start to finish and the ending was really great too.

I give it 4.5/5 stars.

A terrifyingly good read. This book literally kept me awake all night. Fantastic characters and a thrilling plot this is definitely up there with all the best psychological thrillers.

Haylen Beck's debut reads like the work of a much more experienced writer. Which of course it is, actually being the 8th novel by Northern Ireland writer, Stuart Neville. But neither the author nor the publisher have made any attempt to keep this a secret, and it makes perfect sense being a real departure from Neville's excellent Ulster-set police procedurals.

'Here and Gone' will appeal to readers of Harlen Coben and Linwood Barclay. Like those authors, the story concerns ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. In "Here and Gone', a mother fleeing an abusive husband with her son and daughter is pulled over by police as she drives from New York to the west coast. Arrested for possession of drugs, she is separated from her children and, when she asks about them, the arresting officer answers, "What children?"

It is a great premise for a psychological thriller and the author handles the tension well as the woman's anxiety grows, with the local police, the FBI, the residents of the small town in which she is held and, of course, the media firmly convinced of her guilt in the disappearance of her children.

An almost unbearably suspenseful novel which deserves huge success. Thanks to NetGalley and Harvill Secker/Vintage for the advance review copy. 'Here and Gone' is published July 13. Highly recommended.

I have to admit that the book turned out to be better than I had expected. I read a lot of thrillers and lately, I felt a too many of them have an unstable woman as the main character, either past traumas, addiction, psychological problems, etc. So, I was hoping that this book would turn out to be better than I had expected when I started to read the book.

Audra has left her abusive husband and travels to the country with her two young children. However, when she is stopped by a cop in a little town her whole life turns into an even worse hell than the one she left. At the police station, the cops claim that she had no children with her when they arrested her and suddenly she is suspected of having killed her own children. As the TV reports start to report this event a man watches the news, and for him is this a chock because five years earlier, his wife went through the same thing...

Here and Gone is a fabulous thriller about a desperate mother hunt to get her children back. First, one doesn't know why they were taken, but then you start to realize the chilling truth. They couldn't have picked a better victim than Audra with her past addiction problem that could be turned against her. Through flashbacks, we get to see how right from the start her husband took control of her life and how he together with his mother dominated her life. It took some serious willpower to break free from that life and now she sits in a hotel room, accused of murdering her own children.

The most chilling aspect of this book is the realization about what happened to the children, why they were taken. Through the older child's POV, do we get to know what happens when they were taken and that I think actually gave some home to know what's happening to them. I mean, just leaving out the children's part would probably have added more angst to the situation. To an already angst-ridden situation.

I was hooked from the very first page this story is spine chilling.

This was a book of extreme dark suspense for me. The mother Audra runs away with her children from her abusive husband before the courts can decide the custody battle. She is followed by a police cruiser and is soon locked up by the sheriff. Her children are taken away. And the story follows a mother's desperate need to save herself and her kids.
Haylen Beck has written a great plot with desperation and survival chasing the main character Audra. The story told from various points of view, helps in giving us a background of Audra's life and the kind of man her husband is. His manipulations are far reaching and very diabolical.
I liked the fact that the author has thrown in rays of hope in a story which has such dark overtones. Audra finds help from unexpected quarters and as usual law enforcement officers are the last to understand the plot.
This is my first book by this author and I was extremely stunned and shaken up. This is a thriller which really thrills.
I generally don't read a dark thriller nowadays but I couldn't put this book down....

Wow! At a time when every other psychological thriller plot leads with a mother losing her child, Haylen Beck’s new book really stands out in the crowd. From the words ‘What children?’ I was hooked! Audra’s strength shines through as the world around her refuses to believe that she didn’t harm her children. Could not put this book down!

A gripping and tense psychological thriller that left me emotionally drained.

Thought I was going to love this one - and for the first few chapters I did, but then it moved on to another place and for some reason I just couldn't connect with it anymore. I may give it another go at some point as it's getting some great reviews but it wasn't for me just now sorry.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Audra has finally left her abusive husband. She’s taken the family car and her young children, Sean and Louise, are buckled up in the back. This is their chance for a fresh start.
Audra keeps to the country roads to avoid attention and finds herself on an empty road in Arizona, far from home. She's looking for a safe place to stay for the night when she spots something in her rear-view mirror. A police car is following her and the lights are flickering. Blue and red.
As Audra pulls over she is intensely aware of how isolated they are. Her perfect escape is about to turn into a nightmare beyond her imagining…

What an excellent novel this turned out to be - and for a debut? There is a lot to look forward to from Haylen Beck!

Without going into the plot too much, the easiest way to describe this book is with the high points:

* Characters - Audra was such a great creation. She is a mixture of all the things I would want in a lead female. Smart, tough and brave - yet vulnerable and fiercely protective of her children (who were very good as well.)
* The suspense/tension - this started so well and got me hooked - and then just kept ratcheting up the tension so much that it was almost like I was setting fire to the Kindle just turning the pages.
* Sometimes, when I am reading a thriller like this, I like to be challenged emotionally as well. And that happens in spades - especially when it comes to Audra's kids.

Clearly a very talented author with a long career ahead in this genre.


Paul
ARH

Dark. Intense. Creepy. Chilling.

This was my first experience of Stuart Neville (pen name Haylen Beck) and it definitely won’t be my last.

Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Audra has finally left her abusive husband. She’s taken the family car and her young children, Sean and Louise, are buckled up in the back. This is their chance for a fresh start.

Audra keeps to the country roads to avoid attention and finds herself on an empty road in Arizona, far from home. She's looking for a safe place to stay for the night when she spots something in her rear-view mirror. A police car is following her and the lights are flickering. Blue and red.

As Audra pulls over she is intensely aware of how isolated they are. Her perfect escape is about to turn into a nightmare beyond her imagining....

I give this book 3.5 out of 5 for a fast paced very readable thriller. It was a similar style to Linwood Barclay's thrillers and I could see it being made into a movie.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in return for my honest personal opinion.

Twitteresque reviews are for books where I never wrote a full review but I want to give you a flavour of how I felt during the book. All in 140 characters or less! These are all books I read during the summer, but I didn't want to leave them drift away without reviewing them.

Twitteresque review:
Lots of tension but disappointingly straightforward. However engaging characters, a knot-in-the-stomach type plot, and a dark web kept me reading.

Small town America is always portrayed as having significant problems with either crime, sex abuse, interbreeding, poverty and in fact any other symptom of neglect. This story however is centred around extreme greed and corruption. Audra Kinney with her children is fleeing her husband and an abusive relationship, when travelling through a small town she runs into trouble with local law enforcement. Her kids are taken into care but they are nowhere to be seen and she has no access, what is going on? This is a very tense and thought provoking story and examines the extremes people will go to satisfying their egos and greed. Recommended

Here and Gone started off good but I lost interest and as I was not enjoying it I decided not to finish it.

I really enjoyed Here and Gone. It has an interesting plot, not quite like anything I've read before. It was pretty intense, without having any crazy twists and turns.

Thank you for providing me with an ARC!

I found the story rather dull and predictable, with cliche plot lines and characters. There was no mystery, no twists or surprises. Just an okay read for me that I probably won't even remember next week.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Here and Gone is a very different novel to anything else I've read lately. It largely about one woman's fight for survival and her determination to never give up. I loved it's authenticity. Although initially some of its happenings may seem a little hard to believe, that's kind of the whole point and part of Audra's battle is to make someone believe her story.

I digress.

Audra has finally left her abusive husband, her children, Sean and Louise are safe with her on the road. Audra doesn't know exactly where she's going but she does know that it needs to be as far away from her old life as possible.

When she is pulled over at the side of the road by the Cops, she thinks nothing of it. Of course she is going to lie about her reason for travelling in case her husband is searching for the kids, but she doesn't believe she is in any danger.

Sadly for Audra, this is only the beginning of her nightmare, and her life is about to get a whole lot worse than she ever could have imagined.

Without saying too much more, Here and Gone is a terrifying tale of domestic and emotional abuse, the secrets hidden by the dark web and our willingness to accept the word of those in authority, even when something doesn't seem right.

A gripping, fast paced book full of suspense. An unsettling plot that had me turning pages as fast as I could, A wonderfully enjoyable read.

Two and a half star rating.
Maybe in novels and films it would be best to stick to the main roads because as everyone knows, things won't go as planned, as Audra finds out when she flees from her abusive husband and not so nice mother in law. This story sounded great but sadly it was too similar to other books, with the same kind of people. It did have some action packed moments to be fair - enough to keep reading to see how it would all pan out, but on the whole a bit of a disappointment, with unanswered questions.