I adore Ruth Ware books, but I didn't love this one. It was hard for me to get into, and honestly didn't feel much like a book written by her--almost a genre change in some ways. Hoping to be more interested in her next book.

I have read other books by Ruth Ware, but Zero Days is my favorite. I was very sad when my ebook battery ran out on me one night! The book is suspenseful and full of people behaving badly, but also some people behaving “goodly”.

Jack is a pen tester, or penetration tester for companies to help them make their buildings and sometimes computers, more impervious to “penetration” or people who would do harm to networks and keep people out of where they should not be.

Jack is on a job, where she is almost apprehended by security guards. She breathes a sigh of relief to get out of the building and is picked up outside when she thought she was in the clear. She had to get corroboration from the company that she had permission to be there, but no one answered the call. Her husband, Gabe is usually on the computer with her, and he did not answer when the police called. After a very long night, and finally convincing the police to let her go, she arrives home to find out why her husband did not answer, he was murdered and sitting in his own blood.

Jack at first cooperates with police until her sister points out that they think Jack did it. This leads Jack to need to find her husband’s killer, the police thought they had the killer, but Jack knew it was not her. She uses her pen tester skills to keep out of the sight of police, which is very difficult in the age of cameras everywhere and technology that “tells” where people are. The book is not easy to put down and I have to admit going to work on too little sleep for a few nights. Highly recommended!

This book has one of those marketing campaigns that likens it to two films, and it is certainly related to The Fugitive. I had a great time reading it. I also love The Fugitive and Ruth Ware, so this was perhaps inevitable. I was intrigued from the beginning, and the pacing of the book was excellent – it moved very fast, and I had a hard time putting it down.
Jack’s husband Gabe is murdered (near the beginning, not a spoiler) while she is in jail explaining that she and her husband were running a penetration test to assess a this company’s security, and that she had not in fact just broken into the building she is fleeing. When she finally arrives home, Gabe is dead, and Jack must return to the police station to answer questions about his death. Initially she stays with her sister Hel, who keeps telling Jack to take a lawyer with her to her next police interview. For some reason Jack does not, and then she realizes that she is a suspect in her husband’s death, and also receives an email that could be construed as motive. Rather than trying to explain this to the police, or waiting for her lawyer, Jack decides to take off before the police can arrest her. Just like Richard Kimble, Jack tries to solve her spouse’s murder before the police catch up to her. Also like Richard Kimble, Jack frequently uses her professional skillset as she tries to ascertain what happened.
Jack spends the rest of the book on the run and it is the pace and her close calls that make this a highly enjoyable read. Jack makes some… questionable decisions, but making mistakes, or missing things that seem clearly suspect, seems more reasonable from her perspective and I think Ware does a nice job of motivating these mistakes.

Thanks to Ruth aware and Gallery/Scout Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely a departure from Ruth Ware’s normal suspenseful style. This was more of an action packed thriller.

Jacintha (Jack) Cross and her husband, Gabe are pen testers. Companies hire them to break in and evaluate their security features and find weaknesses so companies can improve.

Jack does the breaking in while her husband serves as the ears and eyes at home. After a job she arrives home to find her husband dead. Shocked she waits before alerting the authorities. At first she is very cooperative with the police. But soon after she discovers a million dollar life insurance policy taken out on her husband, she begins to realize someone is setting her up to take the blame. She racing’s against the clock and police to figure out who killed Gabe and why.

While there was some good action in the book, there were parts that also dragged.
3 1/2 stars rounded up.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5416540042

Ruth Ware’s books are hit or miss for me and unfortunately this one was a miss. Zero Days is a complete departure for Ware and it just doesn’t work. This is a character driven story that follows Jack while she is on the run from the police after she is suspected of murdering her husband. Jack is a very unbelievable character and I had trouble caring about her or what happened to Gabe. If you like cat and mouse, Fugitive style stories this one is for you.

Ware's books don't always hit with me, but I can appreciate how different each of her books is from the other as she works her way through the tropes and sub-genres we see in mystery and thrillers. <i>Zero Days</i> is her take on <i>The Fugitive</i>, with a woman on the run from the cops as she tries to figure out who killed her husband. It requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, particularly in terms of some of the main character's decisions, but it's well done for the type of story it is. The story follows pretty much exactly as you might think it might, hitting each beat that one expects in a suspense, cat and mouse narrative.

What kept me from fully loving the book was the repetitiveness of the main character's thoughts. I almost wonder if it would have been less repetitive if we had had a third person POV, because a lot of the time is spent with the main character thinking the same thoughts as she goes through similar motions (gotta run, gotta hide, I miss my husband, omg my husband is dead on repeat, essentially). It made being in that headspace and in that inner dialogue a little exhausting. I do think Jack's a relatable character, though. Even though she makes some dumb decisions, her decisions make logical sense for the situation she's in and given her background.

Overall, this is a fun summer read. It's quick to get through and entertaining. It's a bit ridiculous and over the top, but I expected that.

I’ve enjoyed several of Ruth Ware’s thrillers and this one was no exception. The premise was interesting, and I found myself wanting to figure out who was behind it all. I felt the story needed a little more exposition than we were given in order to ramp up the murder and subsequent reaction of our protagonist. However, this was a fun page-turner and a quick read for any thriller fan! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me this advance copy.

This was an action packed thriller, which made it not really like Ruth Ware’s previous books, but it worked for me because I also like action thrillers. I did think the beginning dragged a little, but I enjoyed it quite a bit as the story picked up. I’m not a huge fan of the fugitive run, but I thought Jack made a good fugitive. Jack is a professional break in artist, but she does it at a company’s request to test their defenses. Her husband Gabe is a hacker who works along side her testing defenses and helping people. One night Gabe is murdered and it’s not long before Jack realizes that she is the police’s main suspect. Determined to solve her husband’s murder she goes on the run from the police, especially since her abusive ex is a police officer. I did think the mystery of it wasn’t hard to figure out, but I don’t think an action thriller is necessarily full of surprising twists but non=stop action which this book did better at delivering.

This book is so different from Ruth Ware’s other books that it completely threw me off guard when I started reading it. I almost didn’t keep reading after chapter one but I’m glad I kept going because the beginning scene is not actually what the whole book is like. It took me a lot longer to get into it and honestly even after finishing it I feel like I still don’t understand some of the tech stuff that was behind the whole premise of the book.

It’s a very action packed book, and some parts of it were attention grabbing, but it did become repetitive and I was ready for it to wrap up a little quicker than it did.

Zero Days is a fast paced thriller that will suck you in from the first page. Zero Days follows Jack Cross as she tries to clear her name and catch her husbands murderer. Jack is a strong, smart, and capable main character. I was so invested in her story. Her love for husband and desperation to find his killer jump off the page. This one pulled at my heart strings a little more than Ware’s novels usually do and I loved it!

This novel has all the tension, twists, and vivid setting that I look forward to in a Ruth Ware novel. While the first twist was a bit obvious, it was only the tip of the iceberg and I was really surprised by the twists and reveals that came later.

Fans of Ruth Ware will be delighted with this new novel!

This book has a character with a very unique job and it starts out with some pulse pounding tension. After the main character's husband is killed, she soon realizes that she is a suspect in his murder, and unless she goes off the grid, she may not be able to figure out who killed her husband before she is locked up for the crime. The story line is fast-paced and well-done. Hard to put down and exciting.

Zero Days is a fast-paced thriller, featuring Jack, a fugitive on the run from the law. She and her husband Gabe are verified Penetration Specialists, paid to break into companies to assess their security vulnerabilities. When Gabe is brutally murdered and Jack is framed as his killer, she goes on the run in order to avoid capture from the police and investigate who was behind the hit. However, she acquires a life threatening injury along the way, time is running out, and she doesn’t know who to trust. Who killed Gabe? Will Jack discover the truth before it’s too late?

Ruth Ware is definitely a hit or miss author for me, I really enjoyed The It Girl, her last thriller. However, while Zero Days began at lightning speed, my interest soon waned. And I was left disappointed. Why?

1. The list of suspects is overwhelmingly SHORT and it is TOO OBVIOUS who is behind the hit.
2. As a Pen Specialist, Jack’s impressive skills at hacking and breaking in should immediately be used to formulate a plan. She appears to not realize this as an option until 3/4 of the way through the book. Huh?
3. The long lengthy paragraphs contain too many unnecessary details. I found myself skimming the pages by the 50% mark.
4. The plot wrapped up too neatly in the end!

While this fugitive thriller deviates from Ware’s more Gothic sensibility, it is an enjoyable, quick read if you don’t mind that it lacks any real twist or turn to the plot.

I am still a fan of Ware and hope that her next thriller returns to the Gothic thriller genre. I will definitely be looking for her next offering!

Trigger warning: Domestic abuse

3.5/5 stars rounded down

Expected publication date: 6/20/23

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC of Zero Days in exchange for an honest review.

Zero Days is a fast-paced thriller. Ruth Ware always delivers a satisfying story with plenty of twists and turns. I highly recommend.

This is by far my favorite Ruth Ware book! I've liked most of her others, usually feeling like they had a slow start. This one starts off right away and is full of action throughout. Jack is a great character, smart & brave. I felt like the story was easy to follow, but not so simple that I guessed the ending right away. Overall, it felt much different from past Ware novels, this was more of a Jason Bourne type thriller than a spooky mystery or psychological thriller.

Wow! I am a Ruth Ware super fan so I read this book simply because she wrote it - I had no idea what it was about. Once I started reading, I was surprised at how different this book is from her others. Very Oceans 11ish. And then all the Ruth Ware kind of things started happening and I was hooked! Well done!

Ruth Ware NEVER disappoints! If you are looking for another dark Victorian mystery or horror-adjacent thriller, this is not it. However, I actually liked that! With the timely news stories all about AI, deep fakes, and technology ever-looming, Ruth created a unique and interesting plot line with this one! I was riveted the whole time trying to figure out whether Jack would get caught! If you are a person that works in tech or cyber security, I think you will really enjoy all the nods to working in that profession, and if you aren't, you will learn some neat things! I can always expect to enjoy Ruth's books, and they normally do not take me very long because I'm so interested in what happens. I think this is another success from this author!

Whew! I devoured this fast-paced thriller in a day, riveted by the story of Jacintha (“Jack”), on the run and trying to find out who murdered her husband Gabe. Was it easy to figure out the whodunit? Yes. Did it matter? Not to me, it didn’t. The characters are vividly drawn and compelling, and it’s interesting and entertaining to see how Jack manages to both evade capture and conduct an effective investigation over the course of a week.

Jack, penetration specialist is testing the security of a building site when things go awry. When she finally arrives home she finds something horrifying. She goes on the run and tries to solve the mystery herself. I found this book to be a little confusing as to what was happening and why. It did have a nice twist that I didn't see coming.

Jack and her husband Gabe are security experts, hired to break into buildings and hack security systems. When a routine assignment goes awry, Jack returns to find her husband dead. Now Jack is the prime suspect and, on the run, she must decide who she can trust while hunting the real killer.

In Zero Days, Ruth Ware forgoes her trademark gothic psychological thriller for a straight-up action thriller that sorely missed the mark. With just a few chapters, the reader finds Jack on the run for murder, never stopping until the end of the book. Instead of setting a thrilling pace, the plot felt repetitive, with bursts of movement interspersed with Jack's thoughts as she grieves. With very few characters, it wasn't difficult to figure out whodunit which always spools the fun of any mystery. Having read all of her books, Zero Days is my least favorite Ruth Ware book.

This is an action packed thriller- great for the small screen. I found myself rooting for Jack and her quest for justice. Her sheer determination to keep moving forward despite all the obstacles in her way was a true testament of grit. Figuring out why Gabe died was the impetus to keep reading the next chapter. I found the ending satisfying and a way to continue the series, whether by book or tv. Definitely recommended! Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!