Really liked this one . . . very well written, smooth progression and artfully tied together! Writer Dete Meserve is a true professional.

At the beginning I wasn't sure I would enjoy a story with a scientist as the main character. But it didn't take long to be pulled into the life of Sarah Mayfield who was not only a very successful career astronomer but was also the wife and mom of an outwardly picture perfect family that was suddenly, unexpectedly and devastatingly imploding right before her eyes.

In fact, even the descriptions of the stars, the night skies and the universe with all its galaxies were quite beautiful and poetic.

But the storyline is riveting, the characters have much depth and are very well defined . . you will be drawn in, rewarded and satisfied with this read!


And it just might make you look up!

Beautifully written, well researched. Will definitely read this author again. The descriptive nature of the stars was well done and easy to understand. A big plus!

This is the story of every woman's worst nightmare. No, not infidelity. Disappearance. Sarah returns home to San Francisco from a business trip to find that her husband is missing. She is frantic! There are some clues, but none of them offer any substantive help. Where is he? She refuses to believe that he is involved in a New York murder, or that he is dead. She keeps hoping.

Mostly, we look at objects, not the spaces between. And yet that's often where answers lie.

"Discoveries are made when we look past the obvious, when we find ways around being blinded by light, and when we discover new ways to see in the dark."

A thoroughly engaging mystery -- not to be missed.

I read this EARC courtesy of Lake Union Publications and Net Galley. pub date 07/24/18

This was my first book by Detective Meserve and it will not be my last! I loved this book! The writing and the story line was superb! It is story of 2 people finding their way back to each other and some heavy bumps in the road, It was so suspenseful from page one! I absolutely love all the story lines about astronomy!, I will be looking forward to more books by this author and will look up her older books..

The Space Between by Dete Meserve is a fast paced, intriguing suspense thriller with authentic and reliable characters and elements of astronomy and insights into the stars. Very enjoyable read.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

This book grabbed me from the beginning, but about three quarters of the way through I was pretty sure I had solved the mystery.

Up until that point in the book, I couldn’t put it down, but I felt the ending was somewhat predictable, so that left me a little disappointed.

The writing about the stars and astronomy lost me a little bit too. I’m sure for people that are interested in astronomy that is an added perk to the book. For people like me that aren’t as into that, it can cause those portions to drag a little bit.

Overall I really liked the book, I just wish the ending would have had more of a twist.

This book was well written and had some unique elements, particularly all of the astronomy information and insights. As far as it being a thrilling page turner, it just wasn't for me. I figured out the villain pretty easily with all of the clues given. I'm not one who usually picks up on a twist too far ahead of time, but I did with this book. It made the climax a bit anticlimactic for me. I also didn't care much about any of the characters.

"Like so many things in the universe, the answers might be hiding in plain sight or obscured by what we see in front of us."

Dete Meserve's The Space Between is a suspense/mystery novel that follows the disappearance of Sarah's husband Ben, who then becomes a suspect in a murder. As the pages turn & Sarah is trying to understand what has happened to her husband, Dete gives you flashes of how Ben & Sarah met and fell in love as well as where their marriage is present day. Sarah is also an astronomer, so her POV is filled with parrallels about life & the stars. I found this to be a really appealing part of the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fiction/suspense/mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to receive a copy of this novel for my honest review.

The Space Between is riveting suspense, a book that took so many turns that I had no idea what was coming next! Along with suspense, this was also a love story about a couple who fall in love beneath the stars, but who have drifted apart....all of those feelings are melded into this story about a husband who goes missing, and a wife whose feelings are conflicted and confused. I loved Sarah...I loved that she was a smart, badass scientist who always seemed to be one step ahead of the authorities, and also a wife looking for the truth at the same time she’s looking for her husband.

"The truth isn’t what it seems in this stirring novel of suspense.

After presenting a major scientific breakthrough to a rapt audience across the country, renowned astronomer Sarah Mayfield returns home to a disturbing discovery. Her husband, Ben, a Los Angeles restaurateur, has disappeared, leaving behind an unexplained bank deposit of a million dollars, a loaded Glock in the nightstand, and a video security system that’s been wiped clean. The only answers their son, Zack, can offer are the last words his father said to him: keep the doors locked and set the alarm.

Sarah’s marriage was more troubled than anyone suspected, but now she is afraid that her husband’s recent past could be darker than she dares to admit. Suspecting that nothing about Ben’s vanishing is what it seems, Sarah must delve into the space between old memories, newfound fears, and misleading clues to piece together the mystery of her husband’s disappearance—and find what she hopes in her heart is the truth."

Ooh, that mysterious disappearance has me hooked, as does the whole, you never really know someone angle!

I love missing person novels and I’ve read a lot of them so I can say with experience that this novel stands out. This story will have you on the edge of your seat. There are so many possibilities and ways that it could go. Sarah is a compelling narrator. Unlike so many protagonists in this genre she is likable and interesting so you want to follow her. Far too many narrators in these novels are absolutely hard to read. She also stands out from other plots because she is brilliant. It doesn’t require you to like astronomy but if you do you will have a whole other reason to enjoy this novel as there are bits and pieces of her career and interest thrown in. We slowly find out more about her relationship with her missing husband Ben as the novel moves forward. There are many possibilities for his disappearance although I do think it’s fairly obvious as the novel moves towards its end what happened. I really enjoyed the author’s Kate Bradley series and she has clearly grown as an author since then. Kate has a few cameos here but nothing noteworthy and you are not missing anything if you haven’t those books first. Plus there are no spoilers for that series if you want to check it out, although it is much lighter in tone.

This novel tugged at my heart strings. Everything about this book was epic and beautiful. A definite page turner, leaves you wanting more with every flip of the page.

EXCEPTIONAL! Not being familiar with Dete Meserve's work was my loss - until now (Thank You, NetGalley!). I love this book, the storyline, the characters, the surprises and the thoughts Ms. Meserve shared, through her character, on the mystery of our sky. This book was one that resonated with me, and I'll remember it for a long time to come.

So, this was a entertaining and fast-paced thriller that actually had me scared (as in “jumpy, is there someone hiding under the sofa”-scared) in a few places, which is no small feat.

Astronomer Sarah Mayfield returns home after having given a presentation at NASA about a major scientific breakthrough, to find her husband – Ben – is missing. Sarah gradually uncovers more and more disturbing and confusing clues to her husband’s disappearance. Their home security camera system was intentionally wiped – by Ben? For what purpose? Then there’s the mysterious bank transaction of 1 million dollars to her account. And Ben was supposed to testify in a lawsuit against his partners in a famous L.A. restaurant and was predicted to win – do his partners have something to do with the disappearance? In addition to all this it transpires that Ben is the prime suspect in a murder investigation in NYC.

The LAPD, and shortly after, the Feds start showing up and questioning Sarah. Is it true that she recently asked Ben for a divorce and is it true that she stands to inherit a sizeable fortune in the event of his death? How reliable is Sarah, really?

There’s a lot going on here, but it’s still easy to keep track of everything, and it keeps the story fresh and interesting throughout.

Set against the backdrop of the stars over a desert sky, this is not only a layered thriller but also a story of two people who once loved each other, trying to rediscover what they lost somewhere along the way.

Personally I love it when a writer immerses me in a subject they are passionate about and have thoroughly researched, so I really enjoyed all the astronomy bits in this one and I felt it added to the story. I don’t know a lot about it, but I find astronomy fascinating. I love going for a night time walk under a clear sky and just gazing up at infinity.

I tend to prefer my thrillers a bit darker and grittier (a la Gillian Flynn), nevertheless, the story here was well-crafted and exciting. And even though it was fairly obvious somewhere around the 60% mark what was going on, I stayed hooked throughout and it was impossible to put down towards the end.

It also gets bonus points for presenting me with a thrilling story that still felt realistic and not too over-the-top. The conclusion made sense and was satisfying.

The writing style was really 50/50 for me. That is, I really liked some of it and was kind of bothered by some of it, which is unusual. For instance I loved this phrasing: “Ben and I were happy together once… and then we weren’t. But it wasn’t a seismic shift that had changed us – it was the slow, inevitable rotation of things.” But then I found this phrasing awkward and it just sort of pulled me out of the story: “[…] his face crumpled and he cried thick tears, like glass jewels that slipped out of his brown eyes.” I mean, what’s that about? Though overall the odd bit of awkward writing didn’t put a dent in my reading pleasure.

So my conclusion is that it’s a solid thriller with an interesting story that I really enjoyed.

The Space Between is an excellent mystery written by author Dete Meserve that kept me totally engrossed in it. I also enjoyed the astronomy facts. Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advance copy.

Ten stars for this suspense/mystery novel!

Best read I've had in weeks. You will be in the edge of your seat and totally immersed in the story. Loved every page and highly recommend!

Fun, fast paced mystery. If I hadn’t started this book so late in the day I would have read it in one sitting. This author is easy to read...the dialogue flows and feels so real. As is always true in any book that I enjoy I had the opportunity to learn something new and this time it was learning a bit more about our planets and the stars. About 65% of the way in I figured out the mystery; or at least I figured out much of it. I wonder if that was planned by the author as part of the reader’s journey. I’m not a big mystery genre reader. For those who are I am curious as to when you think a reader should be able to piece it together and solve the mystery? I felt I knew what I needed to know a bit too early in this book and therefore the last third of the book wasn’t as engaging as the rest. However I truly enjoyed the writing and have already downloaded one of the authors earlier books.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an early release of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found myself reading this book in one night as my interest level was peaked by the suspense of Ben the missing husband and the information about astronomy coming from the wife Sara a astronomy professor. Sara comes home late from a 3 day scientific conference only to find her teenage son alone in the house and her husband Ben missing. The next day there is still no response to her texts to Ben and the police become involved. A lot of things led up to evidence that either Ben, Sara or both are hiding something? Who killed a young woman that Ben was doing business with? Why did Ben take out a big life insurance policy and forward 1 million dollars into Sara's bank account? As the FBI and the police investigate everything about Sara and her son she is in a race against time to prove that Ben is alive and innocent. A very interesting novel with a good ending.

I really enjoyed this experience. The book was very intriguing with all it's twists and mysteries. The author brilliantly wove in facts with compelling fiction.

THE SPACE BETWEEN by Dete Meserve is fast-paced, suspenseful story with lots of twists and turns that kept me riveted from beginning to end. Astronomer Sarah Mayfield returns home from a career-defining business trip to find that her husband Ben appears to be missing. Nothing seems to add up as she and son Zack try to piece together the disturbing evidence being revealed as the investigation into his disappearance proceeds. As with her scientific endeavors, Sarah realizes that things may not be as they seem and she must look beyond the obvious if she wants to learn what happened to Ben. She begins to question who she can really trust to help her. The vivid descriptions of the beauty and mystery of the stars and the space between them created the perfect backdrop to this intriguing story. I could not put this book down! I highly recommend THE SPACE BETWEEN and look forward to reading more from Dete Meserve. Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.