My Thanks to Netgalley and publishers Michael Joseph/Penguin for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. Having read all Tim Weavers books about the journalist turned missing person searcher, David Raker, and enjoyed every one bar the last, I was really looking forward to this one. I wasn’t disappointed, with a few minor reservations. Tim Weaver has always pushed the boundaries with his hero and it’s necessary, frequently, to remind one's self that this is only fiction. Definitely so this time.

This novel has David Raker in search of nine people all living in four adjacent houses, who mysteriously disappeared without trace ,all together, two and a half years previously. Extensive police searches have never found any sign of them. These houses are referred to as a village. Four houses do not a village make. The word settlement would be more appropriate - just. But I do appreciate that for the purposes of the publicity blurb it does sound more dramatic to report that a whole village has vanished. Further, the houses consist of an original farmhouse and three new build homes built by the farmer on his land, making him a very big profit. It is highly unlikely that planning permission would ever be granted for such a scheme on agricultural land out in the middle of remote moorland which is expertly described by the author. Without any knowledge of planning it’s obvious this is a non starter or farms up and down the land would be covered with housing estates large and small, Perhaps this is a minor gripe in what is a work of fiction, but when an author prides themselves on understanding the workings of the police other aspects of their story should be researched too.

David Raker is assisted by his friend Culm Healy, who is in deep hiding and by other off the record sources, both of which have appeared in previous books. It’s worth mentioning here that although part of a series this novel can be enjoyed as a stand-alone tale. As Raker gradually begins to uncover details, people appear from the shadows who, in an attempt to dissuade him from looking further, threaten his well being and finally his life. Interspersed with this story are chapters about an almost lifetime search by a female detective from the Hollywood area for the perpetrators of two murders in 1985. And she never gives up searching. They take place at the same time as the infamous and real life Night Stalker attacks in the same area. Eventually the significance of the American thread becomes obvious.

Tim Weaver uses all his considerable powers of description as ever, and his ability to bring to reality, odd run down, creepy settings remains undiminished. They are always a huge feature of his books. I was constantly terrified of what disaster lay around each corner for Mr Raker and over the next page for me. We finally came to the truly horrific, but rather muddled ending and I was left completely shaken up. As ever I was glad I was reading a Kindle and not a paper edition, or I might have been tempted to commit the unthinkable sin and red biro scribble over the bits that were just too far fetch. But this is fiction and highly enjoyable fiction at that.

Perhaps it’s a factor of not having read the previous books in the series, but I’ve found the opening quarter of this an incredible struggle. An intriguing concept is weighted down by leaden prose, and I’m afraid I’ve abandoned this

Having read most of these out of order, and in retrospect would have been much better off doing it in order, the latest David Raker novel was equally as nail biting as the others. The saga of Healy continues and though he does play a part in this one, he is still much in the background. What intrigues me is that the cliff hangers seem to be larger and larger. The last novel ended with the 'possible' death of Raker and this one ends with another big question mark which I won't elaborate on. It seems to me that the whole plot is central to what is going to happen in the end and that isn't necessarily the outcome one expects. Whatever happened to closure? Whilst I can see that there needs to be an incentive to read further, I do think that perhaps this is a bit extreme, and all in order to sell more books?

I have read some others of this series and thoroughly enjoyed them.This was going pretty well up until that last 20% then the time-line went really strange - the book seemed to finish, the story was wrapped up, then we went back in time for another bit of the ending, which finished in mid-air. This seemed a bit pointless and plain confusing as we'd already been beyond this point with the main character. It just spoilt a good book for me.

How do nine people go missing? They all live in Black Gale in the Yorkshire Dales in a small secluded village and they all disappear at Halloween 2015 at a dinner party. The police can find no clues and now, after two years it is the private investigator, David Raker, who becomes involved at the request of some of the remaining family of the missing. It becomes his obsession.
in Los Angeles, 1985, Joline Kader is trying to prove herself as the only woman in a police force of men. She is called to investigate a body found in a bath. Who is the victim and who murdered him. It becomes her obsession.
Is there any connection between the two?
This is a real roller coaster of a book with a terrific twist at the end!

An interesting & intriguing read. Took me a while to get onto but amazing once I did. I’d recommend this to anyone.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tim Weaver and Penguin Michael Joseph for my arc of No One Home in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: In the tiny village of Black Gate, four couples are enjoying a meal and party at the farm for Halloween. That's the last time they are ever seen. Overnight the entire village disappears. Their houses are tidy, their possessions and vehicles still there so where have they gone? After two and a half years with no leads the police have all but abandoned the case, so the families of the missing couples ask private investigator David Raker to step in.

This was the first book I've read in this series (this one being book 10) but it worked well as a stand-alone and provided enough information to make me intrigued about reading others to connect some missing pieces. The story was intriguing in itself, a village going missing, no clues etc. There was plenty of suspense although the story sometimes felt a little slow towards the beginning. I really liked the way everything began to tie in as the story progressed and I started to figure somethings out for myself. The only thing I didn't like was towards the end where there were some time shifts that didn't really make sense and I was left a bit confused by what had actually happened.

Halloween. The only 9 residents of Black Gate sit down to dinner.

And that's the last known thing - they all vanished....

I really couldn't get into this at all

The concept of this book is really brilliant. All nine residents of a small farm complex disappear without a trace – on Halloween night, no less. There's no sign of a struggle, or even anyone visiting from outside. What happened to them?

I think it's inevitable with this kind of seemingly impossible problem that the solution will have to be a little far-fetched; nevertheless, I enjoyed the gradual unfolding of the twists and turns it took to get there. There were some genuinely tense, creepy and chilling moments, and some surprising revelations.

I've not read any other books in this series, so I did occasionally find some of the backstory a bit confusing. I also found the multiple fakeouts of the ending to go one step too far (without getting spoilery, the 'dead – no, alive – no, dead after all!' fate of one character felt a bit emotionally manipulative).

Overall, though, these were minor niggles; it's a well written and well plotted book, and I would certainly be interested in reading other books featuring David Raker.

Absolutely superb. This book has all the ingredients = mystery, good character portrayal, twists and turns. I'm delighted to say I don't remember any of the lead characters acting stupidly. Two story lines run in parallel - Los Angeles in the 80s and Yorkshire this century. You know there is a link but you don't know exactly how until much later in the book.
Definitely not to be missed

My thanks to NetGalley and Publisher Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for the ARC.
The initial premise of this book really intrigued me - 9 people from a UK 'village', Black Gale, disappear after enjoying a Halloween party. Investigator David Raker has been engaged by the relatives of some of the residents, 2 1/2 years on, to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Perhaps if I had read any of the author's previous books I may have had more of a clue as to Raker's relationship with Holm - because really I was completely baffled.
Anyway, go back 30yrs to Los Angeles to Jo Kader, a detective battling sexism within the workplace at that time, where she has an unsolved case of a man found in a bath of acid.
Admittedly, gradually, the two stories finally come together. There are lots of twists and turns but I found the format of the writing between the initial two timelines and then bringing the LA investigation into the present day UK investigation really, really confusing.
I didn't find the conclusion satisfactory, I was left with some unanswered questions.
In all, It seemed just so overly complicated; if I feel I have to get out a notepad to try and make sense of a story, then I'm not really reading a good story - just trying to analyse and make sense of what the author's plot-line is.
Very disappointing.

Gripping crime novel with a slam dunk ending

A tiny village. Just three houses and a farm. Empty. Why? David Raker investigates on behalf of Ross Perry's parents, who lived there before disappearing one Halloween, along with the rest of the villagers. Good characterisation and interlocking narratives make for a strong story-line. I haven't read anything else by Tim Weaver before, but will certainly do so now!

A great story with lots of twists and turns, building to a dramatic climax with one final twist at the end.

This is the first book by Tim Weaver that I have read, and I will definitely read more. The idea behind the story is compelling - nine people go missing from a village one Halloween and there is absolutely no trace of them, nor any reason behind their disappearance. The author cleverly weaves in an ostensibly unrelated murder mystery in America in the 1980s to make a complex, page-turning thriller, with interesting and believable characters. I loved it.

I’ve read all of Tim Weaver, David Raker books having enjoyed them all immensely., and this book was no exception. The story moves between a female detective Jo Kader, in LA and David Raker in the U.K. At first I found this a bit disconcerting, I thought I was reading two separate books, but it soon becomes apparent why and the story comes together nicely. It is a riveting read about Raker’s investigation into the disappearance of 9 residents of a remote Yorkshire Village called Black Gale and the female detective, Kader, in LA. The plot line is excellent as Raker tries to discern what has happened to the villagers with the assistance of his old friend Colm Healy, theirs is a complex relationship. I found the ending a little but unsatisfactory as it did not say clearly how Raker had been rescued or whether Jo Kader lives, that may just be me, I like loose ends to be tied up. Overall a tense and fast paced thriller keeps the reader interested until the end. Thank you NetGalley, Penguin UK-Michael Joseph for the advanced digital copy of the book

Tim Weaver does it again another Thriller for David Raker this time it's nine missings people all from the same village actually they are the village. 9 of them 4 couples 3 retired and a young lad all disappear on October 31st and the press love it halloween the headlines and mystery keyed them going but as the story faded those left the loved ones living elsewhere. 2 and a half years later Black Gale is still empty no one any wiser to the whereabouts of the nine and enter P.I. David Raker who specialises in finding missing people.
This is his latest case and unusual in the amount of people that are missing and all in one night, but also is there a connection with a case way back in the mid 80s in California. This will keep you guessing with plenty of twists and turns all believable as are the characters but that doesn't mean they are necessarily very nice but do all the bad guys have no heart, there could well be forces at work and just like any true thriller not everything is as it seems and why should it be.
As I said the characters are realistic helping to make this a book that I didn't want to put down and I didn't think you will either. This is a book that definitely warrants a five-star and trust me if you're like me you will want to give it more. Tim has tied the various ends of this case in a clever and very gripping manner that did have me guessing all the way through, It's never a story line you expect when David Raker is invoked and he doesn't make it easy for himself or rather those involved don't but you will know that if you have read any of his previous cases and if not don't worry they all work as stand alone but you are probably going to want to read more after you have read any of his books.

In this book David Raker is investigating the disappearance of nine people who made up a small village. The story alternates between UK present day and America in 1985. The American part of the book interested me a lot more than the UK. I really liked the woman detective and would have liked a whole book based around her. My true rating for this book would be 3.5 stars.

This book is compelling , enthralling, captivating. You want to find out more. You want to find out how? How could this happen? How did this happen? How could this happen?
Nine people, neighbours, disappear one hallowe’en. No trace is found. No signs of struggle. No signs of force. No tyre marks. No strange footprints.
Enter Raker. His job is to find out what happened.
This book flips between the past in LA and the present in the UK . The stories seem disparate, disconnected, is there a connection?

Read this book one weekend when you have nothing else planned because I promise you will not want to put it down

I have a lot of books to read and they were all abandoned due to receiving my copy of this book. I love this series of David Raker. "You Were Gone" being my favourite. This was still an impressive story. Love how 2 different storylines seemed to have no link whatsoever but just be patient. It's a gem!

It's obvious that David Raker is still suffering from the last case that was too close to the bone, personally. It shows through the narrative.

This book is separated down to a few parts and they aren't necessarily easy to follow but that is probably due to my style of reading due to personal constant distractions. I'm sure if you have the time to read in bigger time segments then it probably flows.

Looking forward to David Raker #11

This is a compelling read.
The story switches between time zones as the story starts and progresses and moves towards its startling conclusion. Several chapters are really scary - read while forgetting to breathe and the detail is complex and clever. but still takes the reader along.
The main character is easy to relate to - in spite of his tendencies to take very unwise action in the interest of searching out the truth. The contrasts between the good and bad guys is marked but yet believable and certainly adds to the story as the twists develop.
I loved it and thoroughly recommend this book

This is the second Tim Weaver novel I have read and had very mixed feelings with regard to it.

The premis appealed..... nine people disappearing in one night. What happened where had they gone. But I found the first chapters dragged and kept wanting to actually know more about this rather then about Raker and his mate. The ending was far more compelling but I was left confused by the last chapter. What actually did happen to Raker and Jolene?

I also felt that the disappearance of the nine all at once just wasn’t convincing especially in view of the last chapter. Some bits also jarred in my mind three houses and a farm do not make a village. Not even a hamlet. A village is a few hundred villagers at the least. Also for a man who is trying to avoid all contact and to disappear doesn’t run in the London Marathon watched by thousands including on TV..

I do believe this would make an excellent movie though.