How easy is it for a man to simply disappear?

When rural banker Richard Harper is reported missing, DSS John (Archie) Baldrick and DC Ben Travers are drawn into the tangled details of the man’s life. Would Harper really have chosen to leave his seriously ill wife, and abandon his pregnant girlfriend? Or is there a real threat behind the abusive emails he’d been receiving from desperate clients in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis?

On the home front, Archie’s marriage is rocky and his two teenage daughters are giving him all sorts of trouble. The frail but beautiful Helena Harper and her magnificent house offer an oasis of calm as Archie struggles to discover who is responsible for her husband’s disappearance. Has he really been abducted, tortured or killed? Or is Richard Harper himself behind everything that has happened?

Archie and Travers ultimately face a race against time as the case descends into a bewildering morass of obsession, violence and murder.

Longlisted for the 2019 Michael Gifkins Memorial Prize for an Unpublished Novel

Finalist in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel

Purchase Links

US – https://amazon.com/Into-Void-Christina-OReilly-ebook/dp/B08529J3DY

UK – https://amazon.co.uk/Into-Void-Christina-OReilly-ebook/dp/B08529J3DY

Or readers can email Christina via her website christinaoreilly.com or her Facebook page Christina O’Reilly – Author for a paperback copy.

My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

Archie and Travers are working on a missing person case. Richard Harper went on a business trip and never returned. Has he been murdered or kidnapped or did he decide he wanted to start a new life?

There are several suspects in this case including Richard since he could have disappeared on purpose. The number of leads and suspects and twists made this story interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too surprised once the disappearance was solved.

Archie’s family life is troublesome, and I felt sorry for him. He’s a patient man, and I was impressed at how he was able to keep his cool with his wife and his girls. I hope there will be more books with Archie in the future. This is the type of book that could be made into a series not only because there are always crimes to solve, but his ongoing family problems keep him interesting.

About the Author

Christina is an author and proofreader living in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Several of her short stories have been published in anthologies, most recently in Fresh Ink: A Collection of Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand 2019. Into the Void is her first crime novel and was longlisted for the Michael Gifkins Memorial Prize in 2019. It is also a finalist in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel.

Social Media Links – https://facebook.com/Christina-OReilly-Author-102419694721372/?modal=admin_todo_tour