I have long been a fan of Tempe and her forensic mysteries so I was excited to see a new stand-alone novel by Kathy Reichs. The lead character in Two Nights is very different and much less likeable, which made the book harder to warm to.

The plot is fast-paced and exciting but I was a little confused at times with the frequent use of slang expressions as I'm not American so many were new to me.

I liked the clever parallels between Sunday and Gus's back story (unveiled throughout the book) and the story of the missing teenager. This helped to understand the main characters more.

Although I didn't love this story, I would be interested in reading a sequel.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Bantam. Thank you.

This novel features a new main character for Kathy Reichs and I'm sorry to say that Sunday Night just didn't come across as someone I want to read more about or follow in a series. I normally read most of the work Reichs publishes, but I simply didn't become invested in Sunday enough to want to read more about her. Some of that is because Reichs made such an effort to keep the secret past of Sunday hidden for so long that I never had a reason to give her the benefit of the doubt when it came to her impetuous behavior. If I had known from the beginning..........but I didn't and by the time the reason for Sunny behaving as she did was revealed I had formed almost a dislike for her.

My inability to sympathize with Suday didn't take away from the fact that this plot is well presented (aside from keeping Sunday's past hidden for too long) and presents a slightly different take on the "terrorist" sub-genre of thrillers. A matriarch of old-money Charleston, South Carolina has hired Sunday to find her granddaughter, missing for over a year. Stella's mother and brother were killed when a bomb exploded outside a school for Jewish girls. Sunday travels to Chicago to consult with the investigating police officers and try to pick up information overlooked by them. The clues are few and far between and the search turned into a long slog for me. Hopefully you won't experience the frantic highs and tedious lows which seemed to typify Sunday Night's personality for me.

Two Nights by Kathy Reichs is a definite departure from her Temperance Brennan novels, but it has the same attention to detail that gives this thriller and its heroine, Sunday Night, real credibility. Sunday Night is hired by a Charleston, SC matriarch whose daughter and grandson were killed in a the bombing of a Jewish girls school and whose granddaughter was kidnapped by the terrorists. Sunday's job is to bring the terrorists to justice - dead or alive and hopefully find the granddaughter. Sunday enlists the help of her twin brother, Gus (Augustus). Together they uncover a cell with big plans. It will keep you reading long past bedtime. I hope this isn't a stand alone!

I love Kathy Reich's writing, but I just couldn't get behind the main character, Sunday. She just wasn't my cup of tea, but the over all story is good. Will still continue to read this author.

Where to start on this one? I was thrilled to see Kathy Reichs was starting a new series, and excited to read the first book. I was not so excited anymore after the first few chapters...
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, per se, but I had higher expectations on this author.
Two Nights, although entertaining, is a pulp detective novel, with a rather unoriginal story.
Apart from the content of the story, there were a few things that bothered me in the writing. One being the seemingly endless product placement (I don't mind brand names being used in stories, often it's shorter than a full description and implies a lot of other information about a character, but in this novel the use of brands felt excessive.)
And the way the author threw in explanations for (standard) acronyms (like the ViCAP one), felt condescending and it broke the reading flow. It would have been nicer if it was eplained in a foot note.

I usually love Kathy Reichs, but I have to be honest, this book just didn't give me the same thrill as her others. Perhaps it was the dry way it was written, being mostly dialogue based, or maybe it was the characters themselves, but either way, this is certainly not what I have come to expect from this author.

The plot is interesting, but I felt like this book just didn't hit the mark. I wanted to like it and I stuck with it until the end, but even when I read the last page I still felt like it was missing something. There were entire sections of this book that I found my mind wandering away from and times when I switched to another book before coming back and reading more of it.

I had high hopes for this one, but it just wasn't for me. I didn't feel any connection to the main character, or the story itself.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I've never read Reichs before. She writes series, I don't like series and that was that. But then I saw a new stand alone on Netgalley and thought why not. Two Nights is a thriller and a pretty thrilling one at that, but it makes no bones (that's a pun, Reichs is a forensic anthropologist and the original of Bones the tv show) about being a straight up bestselling supermarket sort of a book. In other words, it's perfectly decently written for what it is, but there are no literary pretentions. The word count ending record lows for the page bulk. The story is so heavily dialogue driven, it's practically a play, albeit a very dynamic one. The title has a twofold meaning, referring to a traumatic childhood of the protagonist, but also it's a last name, of her and her black (by DNA quirk, she's white) twin brother. Sure, technically that makes them both biracial, but the striking difference gets a lot of play in the book, hence the use of simplified descriptions. Moving on...and here's where the supermarketness of the novel really shines, the main Night is Sunday Night (her brother named a more reasonable August), she's a 6 ft tall, tough as nails, redhead with a complicated past and a wicked facial scar. She lives reclusively on a small island with very limited social interaction, unless it's a father figure retired cop or a local stud by the last name of Sweet (yes, those names again), and seems reasonably content until she gets offered a high paying case of tracking down a teenage granddaughter (Stella Bright, yes, seriously) of a wealthy local elderly southern belle. And so, Sunday takes the case with the assistance of her twin, only to uncover that it isn't a simple kidnapping, it's a deadly xenophobic conspiracy that, of course, only the two Nights can put an end to. So yes, it's silly, it's succinct to the max, it's clichéd, it has all the profundity and soul of a action movie (albeit probably something with a famous star), but it's also, with expectations appropriately adjusted, pretty entertaining. None of the forensic science here, just a mindless sort of fun that reads quickly and probably exits memory with the same speed. Seems like it's set up for another series, I'd be very surprised if this one was left on its own. For some reason that seems to be the thing, subpar quality apparently a reasonable sacrifice for the character continuation. The laziness of the premise apparently nothing comparing to the comfort of the familiarity. Anyway, not sure how much the world needs more Night adventures, but this one was decent enough. Thanks Netgalley.

I've long enjoyed Kathy Reichs' highly popular Temperance Brennan series. Now she introduces an edgy new lead, Sunday Night (the name comes from her dreadful upbringing in a cult where she was horribly abused).

Now Sunday, who has long hid from the world, is pulled from her refuge, hired to investigate a missing young woman, who might or might not be still alive - but, if she is, she's probably suffered - and continues to suffer - the same kind of treatment that has scarred Sunday for life.

Sunday involves her twin brother (hence the title) as backup and what follows is entirely engrossing - sure hope this turns into.a series!

"Life is a rat's nest of noise and chaos and chance. No logic. Just one single steadfast truth. Screw up and there's no way back."

Sunday Night has believed that quote with every fiber of her being since she left behind the horror of her past. Now, one-eyed with a scar marking her face, she has secluded herself from everyone and everything. When she gets a strange call enlisting her help on a cold case, Sunnie can't help but get involved.

A bombing left a mother and son dead, and a daughter missing -- Stella Bright vanished a year ago and her grandmother wants her found -- dead or alive. Sunnie's foster dad, Beau, thinks that if Sunnie can find out what happened to Stella that it might change Sunnie. For good. Sunnie takes the case against all her instincts and finds something she didn't expect -- in more ways than one.
High energy action with lots of mayhem and 'not quite legal' investigative techniques brings Sunnie and Gus to a plan for an event that makes the previous bombing look like child's play. Can they stop the devious plot in time? Lots of characters and various locales makes the complicated plot sizzle with tension.

Sunday Night (ahem, seriously -- these names) is complex and messed up as per usual in this genre. Although I didn't find her that appealing, she is trying to work out her crazy. I liked this well enough but don't think this character is strong enough to carry a series so I hope the author doesn't go there. When you see the name Reichs, everyone thinks Temperance Brennan and BONES, so this is far from that story line -- nothing medical -- Sunnie is an ex cop, military, etc. Anyway, I enjoyed it and found enough resolution to have it end with this one book!

Awesome. That was so intense my mind still aches. And my heart. Beau's lantern really got to me. Female PI-type novels are my favorite and this book wins roses. It's brilliant how the author drops random details and then later it's like being rewarded when there's an explanation. And I don't know which was funnier - Sunday's wit or the characters who didn't know how to react to her! I loved this book. Kathy Reichs is one of my favorite authors.

This had a lot of potential: a narrator with a dark past and withdrawn present investigating a potential terrorist bombing, but it ended up being an average mystery plot with two-dimensional characters.

I've read books by Kathy Reichs before and enjoyed them, but this books was very slow moving and I just couldn't get into it.

“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sunday Night, known as Sunnie to her few friends, has garnered knowledge aplenty from her years of experience in the military and police force. Wisdom? Perhaps. All we really learn of Ms. Night early on in Kathy Reichs’ standalone PI thriller, Two Nights, is that she has a checkered past. She’s ex-military and an ex-cop with Charleston PD, having given up the latter job after shooting a suspect and suffering an injury herself. Rather than settling for a desk job, she’s taken disability and has settled in as something of a recluse on Goat Island, South Carolina. There she seems content to feed the visiting squirrel she calls Bob and avoid the mosquitoes as well as her neighbors.

Suddenly, she finds herself summoned by a wealthy woman, Opaline Drucker, whose daughter and grandson were killed in a bombing and whose teenage granddaughter went missing.
Ms. Night’s task is to find those responsible, and if possible, locate Drucker’s granddaughter Stella.
Why should she take on this challenge? The pay will be amazing, but she is tempted to refuse. Still, Sunday is drawn to the plight of the missing girl. What happened to her? Is she dead? Is she alive somewhere, being tortured and abused?

For readers who are used to Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan series, this protagonist might come as a shock. She’s not Tempe, a forensic anthropologist. She’s Sunday Night, an ex-cop-turned PI. Sunnie does not have a warm, shiny personality. She uses sarcasm to keep others at a safe distance, and her wry wit is not for everyone. But she’s smart and resourceful. She’s diligent and persistent. She’s definitely not someone you’d want to cross. Like a lot of detective novels, the Night chapters are narrated in first person. We also get to meet her twin brother Gus. That’s one of the vague aspects of this book; there are others. Gus is a kinder, gentler soul than Sunnie.

Along with the appearance of Gus, most of the secondary chapters that impart snippets of a young female in an undisclosed location are much more cryptic. For most of the book, I was speculating about the timeframe and her identity and the setting, and I found it frustrating. I wanted more details – even when those questions were answered, I still didn’t feel satisfied that I really understood enough about what had happened, and that was my chief complaint about this story. I wish that the author had taken a different tact in showing us who the characters are while still maintaining the element of surprise. While I now understand the idea, I am not altogether sure that it was entirely successful in its execution.

There were also aspects of the plot that, while perhaps plausible, seemed rather a stretch. The bad guys came across as amateurs, yet the Chicago police hadn’t been able to solve the case in over a year (which was Sunnie’s point all along). I did like the twist on some present-day issues, however, and I am pleased that Ms. Reichs has taken a risk with a whole new direction and different types of characters. Sunday Night and Gus would be characters I would like to see more of in the future.

I thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and the author for an ARC of Two Nights. My unbiased opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

I have followed Kathy's books from the very beginning and have enjoyed the Dr. Brennan series but I was very glad to see this new book that I hope becomes a new series for Kathy. I liked the characters and this one is very well written as her books usually are. I look forward to a new series. Thank you Kathy!

I was quite excited to receive a ARC of the new standalone book Two Nights by Kathy Reichs . Unfortunately, as I got into the story my excitement dwindled rapidly.

I had difficulty liking any of the primary characters. For a recluse, Sunday Night easily took on the case presented to her. I’m also not sure how Sunday’s background presented in the last chapters added to the overall story, as shown by her character’s questions on “what makes a person do things”

I felt there were too many secondary characters, and how they fit into the overall story – I felt I needed a list. Understandably if this were a true story there would be multiple people involved so possibly it was just how they were written as characters.

I felt the secondary voice – providing background info was distracting.

The story line includes a missing granddaughter, loss of a family in a bombing, lots of disguises, murders in public places, multiple cities, horse racing, cult-like leaders, domestic terrorism & anti-Islamic Jihadist sentiment.

A little over ½ way through the story we find out the actual target of the bombing, and for me, this took some of the tension out of the story.

The author provides some very descriptive scenes, of people, locations, and situations. Sadly, it just wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the story.

I wish to extend my thanks to Netgalley, on behalf of Random House Publishing/Ballantine Bantam Books and the Author for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

For me this was a 2 star read

Two Nights by Kathy Reichs is a stand-alone novel, not part of the Temperance Brennan series. Meet Sunday Night, ex-cop and ex-marine, a woman with secrets and and plenty of issues that date back to her childhood.

When a local matriarch's daughter and grandson are killed in a bomb blast, the terrorists take her granddaughter Stella. It isn't clear whether or not the girl has been killed or is being held captive--all leads have dried up, no body has been found . Sunnie is hired to find out what happened to the girl and rescue her if she is still alive. Even is Stella is dead, Opaline Drucker wants those responsible brought to justice.

Sunnie has some experience with cults and hopes to find Stella alive, but discovering more about the cult and its leaders becomes a convoluted path.
Sunnie needs assistance and gets it from her brother Gus. The backstory of Sunnie and Gus influences the plot in several ways, and I'd like to know more of his story.

Read in March; review scheduled for June ___

NetGalley/Random House

Mystery/Suspense. July 11, 2017. Print length: 336 pages.

When ex-cop Sunday Night is hired to find out who bombed a woman`s daughter and grandson, killing them and others, Sunday (Sunnie) agrees to help find out who did and to retrieve the woman`s kidnapped granddaughter. The investigation leads her to a homegrown terrorist group with an agenda.
I really disliked the main character finding her angry and with a big chip on her shoulder. Her relationship with everyone is tense, even her twin brother, Guy, who comes along to help her. I have read all Kathy`s books so I was very surprised that I disliked her character so much, other than that the story was interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the preview copy of this book.
4.5*
I have read a few other books written by Reichs- mostly Temperance Brennan- and like her style in general. This new stand-alone novel with Sunday Night as the flawed, but righteous protagonist was a real page turner. I hope to see more of the Sunnie and Gus duo in upcoming novels. It felt like the ending left the possibility open. The setting, although it varied as they moved about the country tracking down the kidnappers, still felt like old south to me.

I enjoy seeing a strong female lead, even when the feats performed seemed to be stretched a bit. I also liked the way this novel ended. I was a bit surprised, thinking I knew what had happened. Hope to see more Sunday Night!

For the most part I enjoy Kathy Reichs' books, but I had a difficult time connecting with the characters in Two Nights.