Category Archives: Haylen Beck

Review: Lost You by Haylen Beck

Title: Lost You by Haylen Beck
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A provocative novel of psychological suspense about two women locked in a desperate fight over a child each believes is rightfully hers

Libby needs a break. Three years ago her husband split, leaving her to raise their infant son Ethan alone as she struggled to launch her writing career. Now for the first time in years, things are looking up. She’s just sold her first novel, and she and Ethan are going on a much-needed vacation. Everything seems to be going their way, so why can’t she stop looking over her shoulder or panicking every time Ethan wanders out of view? Is it because of what happened when Ethan was born? Except Libby’s never told anyone the full story of what happened, and there’s no way anyone could find her and Ethan at a faraway resort . . . right?

But three days into their vacation, Libby’s fears prove justified. In a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies:

“I’m his mother.”

What follows is one of the most shocking, twist-y, and provocative works of psychological suspense ever written. A story of stolen identity, of surrogacy gone horribly wrong, and of two women whose insistence that each is the “real” mother puts them at deadly cross-purposes, Lost You is sure to be one of 2019’s most buzzed-about novels.

Review:

Lost You by Haylen Beck is an enthralling domestic mystery  that is impossible to put down.

Life has not always been easy for Libby Reese, but she is finally in a good place. Her three year old son Ethan is the light of her life and she is about to become a published author. Despite a few misgivings, Libby decides to book a vacation for herself and Ethan. But their vacation in paradise goes terribly wrong when Ethan disappears inside their hotel. Who would want to take Ethan? And more importantly, will Libby locate her son before it is too late?

Libby and her now ex-husband Mason struggled for years to have a baby and she now is a devoted yet over-protective mom.  She leads a solitary life which is just fine because she enjoys her own company.  Libby and Ethan’s vacation is off to a wonderful beginning when they are befriended by a couple of guests at the resort. Finally kicking back and relaxing, she is not quite as vigilant as she normally is.  When Ethan vanishes after a moment of distraction, Libby is frantic to locate him. But why is she so reticent to answer Lieutenant Michal Cole’s questions?

With a breathless cliffhanger in the present, the story goes back in time and presents a heartrending portrait of a couple desperately trying for a baby.  Libby will do anything to fulfill her dream of motherhood even when Mason has doubts about their next step. But how does their decision in the past result in Ethan’s possible kidnapping in the present?

Lost You is a brilliantly executed twist-filled mystery. The characters are surprisingly sympathetic in spite of their troubled lives and deep flaws. The storyline is completely engrossing and Haylen Beck builds the suspense with each jaw-dropping revelation. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this clever, multi-layered mystery to readers of the genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crown, Haylen Beck, Lost You, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense

Review: Here and Gone by Haylen Beck

Title: Here and Gone by Haylen Beck
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense
Length: 306 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Blogging for Books

Summary:

Here and Gone is a gripping, wonderfully tense suspense thriller about a mother’s desperate fight to recover her stolen children from corrupt authorities.

It begins with a woman fleeing through Arizona with her kids in tow, trying to escape an abusive marriage. When she’s pulled over by an unsettling local sheriff, things soon go awry and she is taken into custody. Only when she gets to the station, her kids are gone. And then the cops start saying they never saw any kids with her, that if they’re gone than she must have done something with them…

Meanwhile, halfway across the country a man hears the frenzied news reports about the missing kids, which are eerily similar to events in his own past. As the clock ticks down on the search for the lost children, he too is drawn into the desperate fight for their return.

Review:

Haylen Beck’s Here and Gone is an edge of the seat suspenseful novel about a woman who falls victim to a corrupt sheriff and his deputy in a small town in Arizona.

Audra Kinney, along with her two children, ten year old Sean and six year old Louise, are nearing the end of their cross country flight from New York to California when she is pulled over by Sheriff Ronald Whiteside. Nervous and fearful since she is fleeing from her abusive husband, Patrick, Audra is shocked when the routine traffic stop results in her arrest for drug possession. Worried about what will happen to her children, she complies with Whiteside’s orders and  she is only mildly relieved when her children are picked up by Deputy Mary Collins. But it is not until Audra arrives at the local jail that events take a truly terrifying turn when she asks about her children and the sheriff very chillingly replies, “what children?”

Right from the beginning of her horrifying ordeal, the deck is completely stacked against Audra. Her history of drug and alcohol addiction is used against her by the authorities and the media and her wealthy husband and mother-in-law do everything they can to smear her reputation. Crucified in the media, Audra tries to convince FBI Agent Jennifer Mitchell to look deeper into Whiteside and Collins, but Mitchell has no reason to doubt the law enforcement officers’ account of events.  Audra’s alarm about her children’s well-being increases as she tries and fails to  persuade anyone to take her claims seriously. However, just as she is running out of options, help arrives from a very unexpected source.

Danny Lee might not know Audra but her story about what happened to her and her children is all too familiar.  His arrival in the small AZ town does not go unnoticed and Whiteside immediately begins trying to intimidate the newcomer.  While Danny’s offer help is not altogether altruistic, aiding Audra might help him find answers he has been searching for the past several years.  Danny and Audra are soon in a race against time to locate Sean and Louise before Whiteside can carry out his end of a thoroughly evil deal.

Here and Gone is a fast-paced thriller without much mystery to the storyline since readers know exactly what happened to Audra, Sean and Louise.  The motivation for Whiteside’s despicable actions is also crystal clear right from the start as well. However, there is no shortage of suspense as Audra continues to try to convince anyone who will listen that her children are in terrible danger and that she is innocent of any involvement in their disappearance. With the clock ticking down to find Sean and Louise before it is too late, Haylen Beck brings the novel to a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-filled conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crown, Haylen Beck, Here and Gone, Rated B+, Review, Suspense