Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A somewhat far-fetched but nonetheless gripping action-packed thriller.

Ethan our hero is a good guy who got involved with serious baddies and is released from prison to attend his sister’s funeral. During his 48 hours of “freedom” he decides that the murder of his sister is not what it seem to be and during the course of the 2 days he goes to quite extraordinary lengths to uncover the mystery.

He is a true action hero and takes no hostages in his attempts to discover the truth.

Wildly unlikely but nonetheless enjoyable this book did a good job entertaining me.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me, I was unable to get into the story or care about any of the characters. The changing points of view and the authorial voice just wasn't a fit for me.

Holy buckets! 48 Hours to Kill by Andrew Bourelle is going to be an adrenaline junkie's absolute dream, and I would love to see this turned into a movie or limited series. The story is told mainly from Ethan's viewpoint although it does cut away to different characters at times which really helps heighten the suspense factor. I loved the formatting of the book being broken up into parts and the way the chapters document how much time is left on Ethan's release. I've described books like this before and I'm doing it again here - this is a very "manly" type of read that I think a lot of guys would love. But if you're a female reader like me who likes action and all the rough and tumble that comes with an action movie, you should like 48 Hours to Kill.

I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by David Bendena and he was the perfect fit for both Ethan and the story. The viewpoints are mostly men, so having a male narrator worked really well and it got especially exciting to listen to him during the heart-pounding scenes of which there are a lot of. This is definitely on the violent side and some of the descriptions are a little graphic, so this won't be a book for the faint of heart. 48 Hours to Kill has a pretty awesome revenge plot aspect since Ethan is trying to figure out what happened to Abby, and he is out to get whoever did something to her. I loved that, but I also loved that Bourelle spoke to the relationship between a brother and sister, and how far one would go to find and protect (beginning of the book) the other. I finished this in one day because I couldn't put it down and highly recommend to action fans!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you for an advanced copy and i throughly enjoyed reading this one. I would have liked it to be a tad bit shorter cause sometimes it felt like it moved on without an ending. Good plot.

One day is all it took me to read this book. Action packed, suspense fuelled thriller! The bond between brothers and sisters is unbreakable. The lengths your prepared to go to find out the truth about what happened to your sister and to get justice!

48 hours has elements of surprise, thrill, and even a little romance. I could not say one bad word about this novel and I am excited to add Andrew Bourelle, to my list of auto but authors! You will not want to miss this one!

I really loved this book. Full of action and suspense, with short chapters and different POVs.

I loved how Ethan, the badass main character, was running against time to solve his sister's disappearance.
How can a convicted felon find answers in just 2 days when the police couldn't find any in weeks ? That alone hooked me big time !

Ethan will stop at nothing to get closure and maybe even avenge his sister ! I loved that the brother/sister bond was a very important part of the book.

With an unexpected outcome and gripping last chapters, this book is a true page turner and I highly recommend putting this one on top of your TBR !

5 years into his lengthy sentence for armed robbery, Ethan is on a 48-hour furlough. He was granted a leave of absence to attend the funeral of his sister Abby. Does he have 48 hours to figure out who killed her? He's been instructed to keep on the straight and narrow and follow probationary guidelines. Ethan, along with Abby's long-time closest friend Whitney, is unknowingly drawn deeper into the case. This dark story was a lot of fun to read. The characters were well-written, and you were rooting for them the entire time. You were kept guessing until the very end since there were so many twists and turns. If you enjoy a fast paced thriller with lots of interesting characters you should go pick up this book. This book just came out yesterday and I would recommend this book to go to the top of your TBR pile!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

In contrast to his first book, Andrew Bourelle’s second, 48 Hours To Kill is an action thriller. Ethan Lockhart is serving twenty years for armed robbery when he is granted forty-eight hours parole to attend his sister’s funeral. As the narrative unfolds, we learn the backstory of events via flashbacks and how history impacts on the present. With the countdown on for Ethan to discover the truth of his sister’s murder, things get out of hand and Ethan is forced to confront the darkness of his character. An action packed tale with nuanced characters and a riveting ride, with a four-star read rating. With thanks to Crooked Lane Books and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and are made without fear or favour.

Abby was murdered. Or so it's assumed because of the large amount of her blood found in her apartment but her body has not been found. and now Ethan, her brother, has 48 hours to uncover the truth. He's on furlough for the funeral and connects with Whitney, Abby's best friend, for his quest, Both Ethan and Abby worked for Shark at a strip club in Reno and Shark's the one who has the answers. But can they survive what Shark sends after them? This moves back and forth in time, although the main time line is the 48 hours of the furlough. There are some plot holes (law enforcement issues) but it's a fast paced and entertaining read. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers from me.

48 hours to hunt down your sister's killer...48 hours to get even and 48 hours before you are supposed to go back to jail.....

A magnificent fictional trip that managed to keep me on the edge of my seat for 24 hours with lots of twists and turns, a bunch of mind blowing characters and an unforgettable display of verbal pyrotechnics. It's simply impossible to walk away from this terrific story emotionally unscathed! A terrific journey that you should be definitely enjoying without any moderation whatsoever👍👍👍

Many thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane for this incredible ARC

Cinematic levels of action rarely translate well on the page, certainly not like they do on screen. So, finding a book that gives a reader a comparable experience to watching a film jam-packed with adrenaline is a memorable occurrence.

Ethan is serving his time in prison when he gets the tragic news that his beloved sister was murdered. Seemingly out of nowhere he is granted a furlough release to attend her funeral. With a clock running down and no tracking devices or guards trailing his every move, Ethan is supposed to avoid trouble. Easier said than done as his criminal past arrives in the form of old partners and no one has answers as to what happened to his sister.

But he’s not buying it. Dogged in his pursuit of the truth, he is going to use every single minute of his 48 hours.

Skillfully written with heartfelt storytelling along-side brutal violence, this is one not to be missed for the thriller aficionado. And the captivating characters take it up another notch!

I had a lot going on in my life when I picked up this book, which I think impacted on my ability to full immerse myself in the story at the beginning.
So it took a little longer to read than it would have if I'd given it my undivided attention. Due to this, I also lost the building tension and pace that I knew was there.
All in all though, this book held my attention so I could finish it (which I have not been able to do with a book for over a month!), so that itself says something.
You know going into this story that it will be gritty and people will get hurt, some in quite gross ways. It fits perfectly with the seedy characters and alternative lifestyle some of these criminals are living. Full points for the last part of the book that I did devour in one large gulp, full invested by then and rewarded with an ending that was both satisfying and surprising to me.
Highly recommended!

This fast-paced mystery/thriller follows prison inmate Ethan Lockhart as he is released on a 48 hour furlough to attend his younger sister's funeral. His sister, Abby, disappeared weeks ago and is assumed dead, based on the amount of blood found at her apartment. Ethan initially is set on following the rules of his furlough and using the time to grieve. He's been in prison for 10 years so things on the outside are not the same as he remembers - his old loan shark boss Shark is now the head of a criminal empire and his sister's friend Whitney, once a skinny teen, is now a beautiful woman. However, as he finds out more details about Abby's case, Ethan soon finds himself investigating her death himself against the ticking clock. In order to find the truth in 48 hours where the cops and FBI had failed for weeks, Ethan will have to resort to his criminal ways that he previously swore off.

TW/CW: torture, drug use, voyeurism

The pacing in this book was phenomenal. The main plot takes place over the 48 hours that Ethan is out of prison and the first scene we have of him is the morning of his release. Ethan doesn't have the time to wait around and twiddle his thumbs while thinking about what actions to take. We do get some flashbacks of Ethan and Abby at various points over the previous years but those chapters are usually pretty short and give us some more depth of their relationship. Each chapter starts with the number of hours Ethan has left, which really emphasizes the time constraint he's working under. It was very reminiscent of the TV show 24 where they never really let you forget the amount of time left on the clock. The actual time wasn't mentioned that much in the story (it wasn't like Ethan was constantly counting down the hours to the reader) so the countdowns at the beginning of every chapter really felt like a natural way for Bourelle to get that information across to us. While Ethan might not be counting down the hours in his head, his concerns are written in such a way that we can feel his anxiety about the time he has left. There's one part where he's thinking about going to sleep but then says he doesn't want to waste 6 of his 48 hours on sleeping so he continues on with his investigation. The writing and action are so fast and just keep on rolling so quickly that Ethan (and thus the reader) have pretty much no time to rest. There are some short chapters that are following other characters that act as brief breathers away from Ethan's agenda, but some of them are literally just a couple of paragraphs so we aren't away for long enough for these to feel like any substantial breaks. Also, the fact that Ethan is involved with the criminal underworld also increases the tension and pacing because it is very much a matter of he has to do X before Y finds out because otherwise Z will happen. The plot points escalate pretty quickly and really sucked me into the book.

The characters and their development arcs are fantastic. Ethan and Abby's relationship was so well established and grounded that I cried twice while reading at certain points in the story. We only get 2 scenes with them together in the times before Ethan goes to jail but there are so many other details woven into the story that really show how close their relationship was. Bourelle did a fantastic job of working in character backstory in a very organic way. For example, since Ethan has been in jail for 10 years, when he's talking to people he used to know, it is a natural conversation to catch up on the neighborhood gossip and talk about who is doing what. We get a lot of information and backstory in the first 25% of the story but it never felt like an info-dump because of the surrounding circumstances. The side characters are also just the right amount of developed to make them feel real and not just caricatures. For example, we have the loan shark turned head of criminal enterprise who uses a strip club as a front for his other dealings. It would be so easy for him to be a generally flat 'bad guy' character. However, we get to see his complicated relationship with Ethan and some of his other quirks which really make him feel like an actual human and not just some faceless bad guy in the shadows. The same holds true for other characters in the book. All the characters we're introduced to are complex and interesting in their own ways and it really makes the character relationship and growth side of the book feel really grounded. This is really a revenge/redemption story and I think Ethan's personal character arc really exemplifies that line. While he is investigating his sister's murder, he is also grappling with his role in the events that preceded her death. This struggle makes his fall back into his criminal ways even more heartbreaking because he promised to give them up so that he could be the big brother his sister deserved.

The mystery elements and investigation were really well done and the clues were really intriguing. I really loved the premise of this book and I was expecting Ethan to come out of prison with a full plan in place on how he was going to find Abby's killer. However, since he initially was just going out to grieve and attend the funeral, I thought the events leading up to him finally deciding to investigate were really well done. The plot leaned into Ethan's criminal background when he needed some quick answers and it did so in a very specific way. Ethan's experiences both before and during his jail time all came into play and it was fascinating to see how certain clues would push him further along or push him to do things he didn't, initially, want to do. I really liked how Ethan being a member of this criminal world blurred the lines a bit during his investigation because there were so many other things going on at the same time that it wasn't always clear what was related to Abby and what wasn't. There were also a number of times where a lead would seemingly dry up but we'd get new information later and double back to that initial lead. This looping was intertwined with other clues so it never felt too convoluted or convenient and I found all the plot threads came together in the end. The ending is where I think this book might lose some people. It goes full summer action blockbuster and it is the one part where I had to suspend my disbelief the most. That being said, it did feel like an appropriate ramp up of the tension and investigation so I did really enjoy where it went and I think it made sense plot-wise even if it wasn't entirely realistic. This story reminded me a lot of the movie Shot Caller which I also really enjoyed.

Overall, this was a fantastically paced and plotted read that I devoured in an afternoon. It was pretty much 0 to 100 in just a few chapters and I really enjoyed the character development we got interspersed with the action.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is December 7, 2021

This is a mystery/thriller story that moves along at a very quick pace, mostly because each chapter counts down the time Ethan has left before he has to return to prison. Ethan had taken the fall for his boss, 'Shark' for a crime and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, he's likely to get out in two more years. Abby, Ethan's sister, has gone missing, then been declared dead and Ethan has been granted a 48 hour furlong to attend her memorial. Ethan has an ulterior motive, to find the person who killed Abby. Ethan is picked up from prison by his childhood best friend who also works for Shark, a visit with Shark soon follows and a demonstration of what may be in Ethan's future if he doesn't keep quiet. Ethan meets with the police office that investigated Abby's death and an FBI agent who also looked into it. Ethan thinks he knows who killed her but he has to prove it. Some of the violence is on the graphic side, especially the demonstration put on by Shark. Ethan also has an incredibly high tolerance for pain, especially as the story goes on. Ethan gets together with Abby's best friend who also works for Shark as a stripper in the club he owns. Together they follow clues to find out what happened to Abby. Some of the chapters are from Abby's perspective, which eventually reveals what happened to her. Overall a very good book and I would recommend. Thank you to #Netgalley and #Crooked Lane Books for the ARC.

Ethan is on a 48-hour furlough 5 years into his lengthy sentence for armed robbery. He was given a furlough to attend his sister Abby's funeral. He now has 48 hours to find out who killed her or does he? He has been told to stay on the straight and narrow and abide by probation-like rules. Ethan unwittingly gets thrown deeper into the case alongside Abby's long-time best friend Whitney. I really enjoyed this dark novel. The characters were well written and kept you rooting for them throughout their journey. There were so many twists and turns you were really kept guessing until the end. I would definitely recommend this book if you like dark and gritty and believe in second chances.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this digital ARC to read and review.

48 hours and the clock keeps ticking until Ethan has to report back to prison. He’s out so he can attend his sister’s funeral, but he has other plans. He needs to know for sure IF she’s dead, and he needs to know who, why,where, and more. He’s estranged from his mom, and viewed suspiciously by his former boss, a gangster who’s still free because of Ethan’s silence. Befriended by Whitney, his sister’s friend since childhood, the two search for answers as the clock keeps ticking….

If Ethan Lockhart was given the chance to do his life over, he would. In a heartbeat. As a young man trying to prove himself to the world, he took a job at a strip club owned by a shady individual known as “Shark”. Getting involved with Shark and his goons lands Ethan in jail for a short time and to reward Ethan for his silence/loyalty-Shark tells him he’ll look after his sister while he’s behind bars.

But she goes missing.

And then she’s declared dead.

Ethan has a 48-hour furlough to attend his sister’s funeral that he plans to use to find out what happened to his sister. A race against time. One wrong move and Ethan could find himself adding to his prison sentence or killed.

Author Andrew Bourelle nailed it.

The pace, the intricate plotting, the character development, all of it. I was glued to the pages of this book until its exciting conclusion.

This story played out like a movie starring Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg as Ethan Lockhart. A likable guy who has become hardened by prison life. Upon his return home, things go as expected: He has an awkward visit with his mother, a tense run-in with former co-workers at the club, and his initial face-off with Shark doesn’t go well. Bourelle takes his time with these scenes. Nothing about the narrative feels ‘phoned-in’. The dialog is authentic. Each character is fully formed and fleshed out. I couldn’t help but fall in love with Ethan and get helplessly invested in his cause.

I am impressed with the intricate details of the plot, as well. It was fun trying to keep track of all the moving parts and formulate running theories as to what happened to Ethan’s sister.

As the hours wind down to mere minutes, the pages fly by.

I really need this to be a movie!

This book is available for pre-order at Crooked Lane Books and the expected release is December 7th, 2021

5 out of 5 stars-you can’t ask for a better crime thriller-murder mystery. Bourelle delivers.

Ethan Lockhart, a prisoner who gets a 48 hour furlough to attend to his sisters funeral and also try to find out who killed her. Can he do it in 48 hours?

What a story, impossible to put down! It's fast, action packed and filled with twists and turns. Each chapter counts down the time Ethan has left before he goes back into prison and the story is so smart and well written that each clue slowly unravels page by page. I highly recommend this book and it's definitely going to be one of the best crime thrillers of the year. I can't wait to read more of Andrew Bourelle.

Thanks to Netgalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Andrew Bourelle for this ARC.