Paul Behrens is missing and Annie, his wife, has no idea where he has gone. He never made it to his teaching job at Brookwood Middle School. Instead, he just left the house, at some point, and vanished. Annie, who works nights as a nurse hardly ever saw him. It isn’t until after he vanished and police start asking questions, that she fully realizes how far they had drifted apart in their marriage and how little she knew of his day-to-day activities.

She did not know all of his secrets, though she did know some things. Of course, she had her own secrets as well. She thinks her husband had no idea, but is that really true? When a spouse goes missing, everything is on the table and there are no more secrets. As the fiction of their marriage gradually tears apart, Lieutenant Eddie Mahler and the other members of the Santa Rosa Violent Crime Investigative Team start finding out various truths in the missing persons case.

As in the first book of the series, The Silenced Women, things are very complicated in The Day He Left: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery by Fredrick Wesel. There is the current case as well as the ongoing backstories of numerous characters, and other cases. While this reader did not enjoy this book as much as the first one, it is a good book that builds solidly on the first. As such, it is recommended to read in order.

My reading copy came by way of Lesa Holstine who, months ago, sent her copy to me.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022 ( )

Paul Behrens got up early one morning, dressed in a suit, got in his car and drove off, not to work at the middle school, but off … where? When his wife Annie gets a phone call that staid, boring Paul hadn't shown up for work, she immediately goes to the police who note the oddity of Paul's disappearance and begin immediately to investigate.

The circle of characters is small – a handful of detectives, a cluster of relatives, friends, colleagues, students, parents – but these are interesting characters, far more interesting than I expect in a detective story. The police officers especially. They are reflective and developed as individuals. Not a clown among them. Very nice.

I received a digital review copy of "The Day He Left" by Frederick Weise from Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley.com. ( )