Kathy Reichs introduces an edgy new lead, Sunday Night, in a standalone thriller, Two Nights.

Sunnie and her brother (hence the title) were raised in a cult compound, and Sunnie in particular was scarred physically and mentally by the experience. She's pried out of her seclusive life by her foster father, a retired policeman.

Wealthy Opaline Drucker wants help in finding her granddaughter Stella, after a bomb killed the girl's mother and younger brother. Stella's body wasn't recovered at the scene.

The search sends Sunnie on the trail of a modern cult and she knows that if Stella is still alive, she shares some of the horrendous experiences of Sunnie's own past.

It's a thoroughly gripping read with an intriguing lead character - highly recommended!

I received a copy of this from the publisher via NetGalley.

Sunday, previously a soldier and then a police officer, and now a recluse with a pet squirrel living on an island accessible only by private boat, is persuaded by her former foster father to take on a case for a rich old woman called Opaline. Opaline's daughter and grandson were killed year ago in a bombing at a Jewish school and her granddaughter, Stella, disappeared. Sunday is to try to locate the four bombers and find out if Stella is still alive.

Sunday agrees to take on the case, recruits her twin August, and soon makes progress. Progress involves a lot of Sunday shooting people with guns and getting more guns and considering how to fly on commercial airlines with her guns. I found the story fast-paced, although the chapters from the perspective of the girl in the cult/terrorist organization were perhaps longer than they needed to be and slowed things down. Sunday was unlikeable and unnecessarily rude to everyone except Gus. (I wouldn't rush to read another story about her.) The constant references to her traumatic past became tiresome, although that thread came good in the end. I'm not sure that the writing of the character of Kerr really convinced me that she had a low IQ.

Overall an exciting read; the scene at the race course was well written and clearly described. It was all just a bit dark and humourless and Gus was the only character you really felt had a heart.

See other review as already received a d completed.