I was just about to start Nine Years Gone by Chris Culver when I came across a review that says the author unnecessarily kills off the main character's dog. I will not be reading this book for this reason, nor will I be reading any of the author's other books. I do not read other books by authors who use animal cruelty as a plot device because I can't trust that they will not do it again.

Fairly predictable psychological suspense novel. Trying too hard to be Gone Girl and not really achieving it. Plot wasn't too difficult to figure out and I didn't really buy that it could happen.

Nine years have passed and now Dominique Girard has recently been executed and for a crime, he didn't actually commit. For the past nine years, three friends Steve Hale, Vincent and Isaac have been living with a secret as nine years ago they helped their friend and Steve's girlfriend at the time disappear and they set her stepfather up to take the fall. Their plan worked perfectly as Tess vanished into the night and Dominique ended up having the lethal injection. Steve and the others moved on with their lives as Steve married Katherine and is expecting his first child and looks permanently after his niece. Isaac is busy dating Samantha - Tess's younger sister and Vincent is still continuing with life. Now Nine years later, Steve gets a phone call from Tess - who is back in town under the alias of Holly Olson. She wants Steve back in her life and to run away with her, the thing is Steve is happy with the life he has built. Tess won't take no for an answer and pulls Steve into a dangerous game of cat and mouse as he tries to protect not only his friends and their dark secret but also his newly built family. Tess is a different person now and blames Steve for the past nine years and wants revenge as in her eyes if she can't have him, then no-one can. Can Steve protect his new life or will he find himself playing a very dangerous game with Tess to survive? Find out in this 2014 mystery read "Nine Years Gone". Nine Years Gone leaves, readers, wondering themselves, how far would they go to in order to keep a dark secret from bubbling to the surface.

Written by Chris Culver — The New York Times bestselling author of the Ash Rashid series of detective mysteries has this time turned his attention to a standalone psychological thriller, set in St Louis.

Nine years ago, crime novelist Steve Hale made a decision that was destined to haunt him for ever. By helping his then girlfriend, Tess, flee the attentions of her abusive and extremely well-connected stepfather, Dominique Girard, Steve set the wheels in motion to send an innocent man to be executed. Girard’s supposed crime? The murder of his stepdaughter. But as Steve, his two closest friends, and the not-actually-dead Tess know, Girard was set up – and eventually paid the ultimate price.

Those nine years have passed, and now Tess is back making crazy demands that the now-married Steve can’t meet. Truth be told, he wants nothing to do with her, but the increasingly deranged Tess has other ideas, and following the gruesome deaths of the family dog and one of Steve’s closest friends (who was in on the original plot), he begins to realise that he has no option but to take her seriously. Suddenly, Steve’s happy family life, burgeoning writing career and reputation are all under threat and he seems powerless to stop the rot.

Nine years ago, Steve was convinced that they were all doing the right thing by helping Tess to disappear but now he’s not so sure. The problem is that the stories she told him nine years ago and those she is telling today simply don’t tally. As he tries to distinguish between the lies and the truth, Steve is more and more convinced that she has killed before and is likely to do it again.

However, Tess has covered her tracks extremely well, and Steve has his work cut out getting anyone in authority to listen to his quite unbelievable story. It gets even worse when Tess’s machinations result in turning the tables on Steve and putting him in the frame for his friend’s murder.

Clever plotting make this a story with enough originality to keep things moving along nicely, but I have to say Steve himself is more than a tad annoying. The scenes where he acts in a family environment are well worked, especially those involving his interactions with young niece Ashley. However, meetings between Tess and Steve seem a little false. Our central character is more Clark Kent than Superman, but there are times when he needs a good old fashioned kick up the backside.

The St Louis setting is great, with Culver’s descriptive passages bringing the place to life. The action ebbs and flows, although the final denouement may leave you disappointed rather than breathless.

Culver’s Detective Ash Rashid novel, The Abbey, spent 16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Somehow, I can’t see Nine Years Gone reaching such heady heights, but definitely one to pop into the beach bag for an enjoyable holiday read that won’t tax the deductive skills too much.

Self-published
Print/Kindle/iBook
£3.12

CFL Rating: 3 Stars