The comps for this book to The Fugitive crossed with Mr. and Mrs. Smith are spot on.

Jack and Gabe are a married couple of pen testers who work as a team when companies hire them to test their organizations for any weaknesses in security. When Gabe winds up murdered, suspicion automatically falls on his spouse, and Jack finds herself Suspect Number One. While the police are focusing their efforts on her, if Jack wants to figure out who is actually responsible for her husband’s death, she’s going to have to go on the lam and do some investigating of her own. On the run from the police and with few resources at her disposal besides a particular set of skills, Jack must try to uncover what her husband may have gotten mixed up in…and what it might mean for her.

As propulsive as this story was, it is far from Ware’s best work in my opinion (I am still waiting for another The Death of Mrs. Westaway!) The writing here seemed very plain and uninspired, making it a bit boring to work through at times. The dialogue was often overly simplistic, kind of silly, or straight up unbelievable, like when police officers discuss very pertinent details of a case in the corridor just outside the room where they have been questioning a person of interest, where they are easily overheard. Jack is alternately described as making herculean efforts to hold back tears at inopportune times and wondering if there is something wrong with her for not having cried yet–we are told how broken she is by the turn of events, but I never really felt that was the case. And I guessed the baddie the moment they were very first introduced in the story.

Things did pick up in the second half of the book, and it kept me flipping pages like a good thriller should. By then I was engaged by the balanced mix of mystery and tension. Overall I’d say this was a 3 star read for me.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.