Ruth Ware has been on my “must read” list for awhile and, while I don’t think this was her best book, it was definitely enjoyable and it kept me interested until the end. The only downfall of the story (in my opinion) was that it felt a bit predictable. I had a hunch that the messages from Hel were not really from her (and it seems that Jack might have had some suspicions as well). Because of that, it made it a little easier to put two and two together and figure out the “mystery.”

I did like that the main character Jack was a complete bad a**. Despite grief and physical injuries, she pushes through an incredible amount of reserves to find justice for her husband. Her character development was the best part of the book for me.

4.5 stars rounded up!

Another riveting read by Ware...however, fans should be aware that this is very different than her usual mysteries. This book is less Agatha Christie and more female Bond. Some of the tech explanations slow the reader down a bit but overall an engaging story.

First of all, I love Ruth Ware and will read anything she writes. Zero Days is definitely different from her other books. When Jack (Jacintha) Cross's husband Gabe is murdered in their home, she is the primary suspect. Determined to prove her innocence, she escapes police custody and is on the run. She will do whatever it takes to find out who is really behind the murder.
This one is filled with cybersecurity, hacking, coding and a lot of white collar crime. I prefer Ware's domestic thrillers, but this one is very fast-paced as the Jack is playing a very dangerous game of cat and mouse.

This is not Ruth Ware's best work, in my opinion (I am still waiting for another "The Death of Mrs. Westaway"!) The writing seemed very plain and uninspired, making it a bit boring to read at times. Dialogue could be overly simplistic, kind of silly, or straight up hard to believe at times, like when police officers discuss very pertinent details of a case in the corridor just outside the room where they have been questioning a person of interest. Jack is alternately described as making herculean efforts to hold back tears at inopportune times and wondering why she hasn't cried yet--overall I think we were told how broken up she was, but I never truly felt it. And I guessed the baddie when they were very first introduced in the story.

But then things picked up in the second half and it kept me flipping pages like a good thriller should. By then I was engaged by the story's balanced mix of tension and mystery.

The comparisons to Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Fugitive are apt. Jack and Gabe are a married couple of pen testers, hired by companies to test their organizations for weaknesses in security. There is a lot of time spent detailing how they hack into systems and physically infiltrate spaces they shouldn't be able to access. There's phishing, bypassing multiple types of locked doors, climbing through vents, the dark web, scaling walls, and the eponymous zero day exploit.

When Gabe is murdered, as his spouse, Jack is suspect Number One. If she wants to find out who is actually responsible while the police are focused on her, she's going to have to go on the lam and investigate for herself. On the run from the police and with few resources at her disposal but a particular set of skills, Jack must try to learn what her husband may have gotten mixed up in...and what it might mean for her.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I found this book to be very slow unlike most of Ruth Ware’s books. This one is very different. It’s a slow burn book that’s worth reading at about half way it picks up the pace.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for Ruth Ware’s latest, Zero Days.

Jack and her husband Gabe are routinely hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security to look for holes in the system. While out on a job one night, Jack comes home later than expected, only to find her husband murdered at his computer.

With the police quickly closing in on her as suspect number one, Jack must race against the clock to clear her name and find her husband’s real murderer. Who can Jack trust?

Zero Days will hit the shelves on June 20, 2023. Until then, make sure you add this one to your TBR.

I always know that a Ruth Ware book is most assuredly to be a great read. I was not disappointed. Ruth Ware is a great mystery thriller writer. Her characters are believable and you find yourself really feeling for them. Jack was a fighter and I loved her love story with Gabe. I look forward to everything from Ruth Ware.

I usually love Ruth Ware but this book just didn’t do it for me. It was fast paced but I just didn’t care about the characters at all.

A fast moving story, got involved right away and it continued throughout, not the author's usual style but I liked it. Likeable heroine, lots of interesting info about security and cybersecurity mixed into the story in an accessible way. A satisfying conclusion

I’m not a HUGE Ruth Ware fan…in fact, she has been consistently inconsistent for me. In 2016, The Woman in Cabin 10 was a big hit, and I was among those who enjoyed it – a LOT. 2019’s Turn of the Key was a 3-star “meh” for me, then One By One and The It Girl, were both four solid stars. Now, thanks to Gallery Books/ Scout Books and NetGalley, I had the opportunity to read Ms. Ware’s latest, Zero Days, in exchange for my honest review.

The premise seems perfect for a movie: think Mission Impossible style action as the married team of Jacinda (“Jack”) and Gabe, who have a company that specializes in pen testing. Basically, Gabe was a reformed hacker who spent some time locked up for his exploits and then decided to go straight. He partnered with Jack to explore and report on security, both physical and digital, focusing on reporting on the results of their efforts to test how the companies’ assets might be penetrated. Hence, pen testing!

During what should have been a fairly routine test of a business, Jack is shocked to return to their home and find Gabe murdered. And it seems she is their number one suspect. Her only chance to make things right is to figure out who, if anyone, she can trust, and then solve the question of who and why wanted Gabe dead.

Jack goes on the run, and the reader is dragged through the streets and countryside looking for answers. The descriptions of what she has to endure when she is injured are incredibly vivid, and although I found the resolution a bit too neat and the epilogue a bit of a cliché, overall I enjoyed it and think the movie will be great fun. Four stars

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ruth Ware is back on top of her game! Zero Days by Ruth Ware is the action-packed, new book from the queen of thrillers. The story revolves around Jack, who works with her husband Gabe breaking into security systems. One day, she comes to find that Gabe has been murdered, and she is the prime suspect. Will she be able to solve the crime before the murderer comes after her?

Here is a gripping excerpt from Chapter 1:

"The wall around the perimeter was child’s play. Six feet, but no spikes or barbed wire on the top. Barbed wire is my nemesis. There’s a reason they use it in war zones.
At five foot two I couldn’t quite reach to pull myself up, so I scaled a nearby tree with a sturdy branch overhanging the car park, lowered myself until my feet made contact with the top of the wall, and then ran softly along it to a place where I could drop down out of sight of the CCTV cameras that circled the building at intervals."

Overall, Zero Days is an amazing spy thriller that will appeal to fans of James Bond or Mission Impossible. I can't think of any spy movies starring women. Maybe this will be the first? One highlight of this book is the heart-pounding action scenes. The book started off with action and it never let up.

Another highlight of this book is Jack, the heroine. She is not a typical wimpy heroine. She actually takes action to solve the crime and avenge her husband's murder. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of thrillers in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in June!

Ruth Ware's books can be hit or miss for me. "Zero Days" uses a fugitive trope and is a fast-paced thriller involving a cat-and-mouse game with Jack (a woman who is the prime suspect for her husband's murder), and the police.
This is not my favorite book by this author, but it's a good one. Recommended for readers who like thrillers that get their adrenaline pumping. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Zero Days
Ruth Ware
Pub Date June 20, 2023
Gallery
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in s change for my honest opinion.
Action packed thriller with Mr. and Mrs, Smith vibes and Fugitive vibes, so glad for a break from Wares previous themes,
The identity of the killer was a little obvious but still more entertaining than Netflix.
4 stars

I'm so excited that Ruth Ware has stepped away from her usual format where the main character is trapped somewhere. This was twisty, turny mystery that felt fresh and new. Jack and her husband Gabe are pen testers for large corporations. Their job is to physically and electronically test a company's security systems. Jack's job is to break into the buildings, and Gabe's job is to try to hack into their system. During a routine pen test, Jack is caught by security on her way out of the building and brought to the police station where she is held for several hours while she tries to prove her innocence. In the mean time, Gabe and the company that employed her are not answering their phones. When she is finally released, she comes home to find Gabe murdered and his hard drive is gone. To make matters worse, Jack is being considered a suspect.

Who murdered Gabe and why? He was well loved amongst his friends and businesses associates. Was he up to something that Jack didn't know about?

Zero Days is the story of Jacintha aka Jack and her husband Gabe. They were pen testers. When the book opened Jack was on the job and Gabe was at home calling the shots. When Jack left the site she was arrested. When she got to the station she tried to phone Gabe to no avail. She knew something was wrong, as he never went to sleep unless she was home. When she was finally released she went home and found Gabe murdered. It took a while before she phoned the police, as she was in shock. The police took her back to the station for questions. They released her to her sister's care. They called her in for further questions. Eventually they wanted to accuse her of the murder. When the two detectives left her alone she escaped.

She was on the run. Her plan was to find out who was responsible for Gabe's murder. She contacted Cole, Gabe's best friend in hopes for assistance. She also enlisted help from her sister, Hel. The police had her cell phone so Hel gave her one. Jack knew that the police would probably put a tap on Hel's phone so Hel got another phone and Cole put an app on her and Hel's phone so that the police couldn't trace them.

It turns out Cole knew something about Gabe's murder but he wouldn't tell Jack. He told her he was protecting her. And as it happens, the police were somehow able to trace her. So she got a disposable phone and added the app that Cole gave her. But the police were still able to trace her. It was Cole that alerted them, as he believed that she was better off in jail than killed.

I love books with a lot of suspense and this book had plenty. The characters were well developed and I had no problem following the story line. It held my attention from start to finish. I gave it five stars.

I always look forward to a new Ruth Ware book! Zero Days was quite different from most of her previous titles, which usually are atmospheric locked-room psychological thrillers. Zero Days takes on more of a fugitive trope, which Jack finds herself the primary suspect in her husband's murder.

I loved Jack as the main character. She was a resourceful badass, able to get out of seemingly any tricky situation, and I couldn't wait to see what escape she'd find next. It was a lot fo fun to follow her thought process through the book.

Is it possible to be disappointed by a reveal but love the ending? No spoilers here, but that's how I feel (I'll add a little more about those thoughts on my blog).

If you're looking for the twisty locked room thrillers that Ware is known for, Zero Days isn't that. Despite being a departure from her usual tropes I really enjoyed the story. Fans of action movies will love this fast-paced, high-tension read!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Gallery Books for an advance copy of this thriller about secrets, lies, and breaking into secure locations.

Big companies pay enormous amounts to be sure that corporate secrets stay secret and proprietary ideas stay exclusively their own. Big companies also don't trust easy so a new business has been created that a company can hire to break into their own buildings, steal their own information, and teach these companies how to protect themselves. And also who to sue for not doing their jobs correctly. Legal hacking, legal breaking-and-entering with all the adrenaline surge that comes from committing crimes, with a big payday if successful, thieves with white hats as some are called. Sometimes though, people don't like looking the fool, and might bite back. Zero Days by Ruth Ware is a different kind of story from the best selling author, but is still a very tense thriller, filled with scares, tension, and a lot of lies.

Jack and her husband Gabe are a team who break into companies, not to steal, but to test these companies and make sure their secrets are safe. Jack does the grunt work while her husband is the computer expert. Jack returns from a difficult job to find her husband dead, and police having only one suspect. Jack. Fleeing the authorities, Jack is wounded and left with very little in the way of resources, Jack must elude not only the cops, but those that killed Gabe, as friends suddenly can't be trusted and her enemies seem to be growing larger.

A different kind of story, more a Jason Bourne story than like Ware's previous stories. Which is good in that authors, especially successful ones tend to coast on their best sellers, very few try something new. There are a lot of twists, a lot of thrills, and a lot of tension which is good. Also there is a lot about computers, security devices and the world of counter security which I found very interesting. Also Jack is a great character. In many of these kind of books the woman is almost at the mercy of the plot reacting to what is going on. Jack is proactive, very capable, smart, strong, grieving and at the same time a vengeful spirit. Again to use movie terms very Mr. and Mrs. Smith met the movie Sneakers. A very taut thriller, with real stakes, and real consequences.

Not like other Ruth Ware books, but what previous readers might not enjoy, new readers definitely will. A lot more professional than the amateur characters in previous books, and I really salute Ware for trying something new. A great character, with a really good story.

This was the first Ruth Ware I’ve given less than four stars to. It was engaging, but the subject matter itself was not something I held much interest in so it made it difficult to finish. For someone else, it might be the perfect book though, so please still give it a try!

Another fantastic book by Ruth Ware. The first plot twist was so unexpected and really got me into the book. It was a page turner I didn't put down till the very end.

I love Ruth Ware, but this one is not my favorite of hers. It lacks the dark atmosphere and secretive characters her other books have. I did enjoy the breakneck pace!