Reviews: The Murder Between Us and The Night Of by Tal Bauer

Titles: The Murder Between Us and The Night Of

Author: Tal Bauer

Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited

Length: 280 Pages and 292 Pages

Category: Mystery/Suspense, Romantic Suspense

Ratings: 4 Stars/4 Stars

At a Glance: If you don’t have a book picked out for this weekend yet, either one of these would be a smart choice! Mystery and suspense fans, and especially Tal Bauer fans, should be super happy with both of these releases.

Reviewed By: Jules

Blurbs: The Murder Between Us: It was just one night. It was just one mistake.

FBI Agent Noah Downing had questions about his sexuality that a single night in Vegas should have answered. But dawn finds him on a plane back to Iowa, back on the trail of a vicious serial killer who disappeared six years ago and has suddenly resurfaced. There’s nothing like a murder investigation to escape an existential crisis.

FBI profiler Cole Kennedy is still reeling after finding a heart-stopping connection with a seemingly perfect man, only for him to vanish. When he’s sent to Iowa to profile the killer terrorizing America’s heartland, he finds more questions than answers – both about the murderer and about Noah, the last man he ever expected to see again.

A twisted secret stretches between Cole and Noah, tangled with questions they both have about each other. But now, thrown together, they’ll have to unravel the killer’s profile and follow his trail… back to the very beginning, to where everyone’s questions are answered once and for all.
~ * ~ * ~
The Night Of: You’ve heard this story before: a guy supposedly kills himself, but his best friend can’t accept it. He calls in an investigator he knows to take a second look, certain there’s more going on.

I’m the investigator. Secret Service Agent Sean Avery. The guy who called me? My ex, Vice President Jonathan Sharp. And the guy he doesn’t believe put a bullet in his brain?

That was President Steven Baker.

The deeper I dig, the more things fall apart. I’ve got a dead president inside a locked room. A hidden note. A secret gun. A missing CIA officer.

And no one I can trust.

Now Jonathan’s in the crosshairs, and if I don’t figure out what really happened that night at Camp David, the love of my life might be the next president to die.

Review: Tal Bauer has had a busy 2021 already, releasing two fantastic romantic suspense books—The Murder Between Us and The Night Of—within less than four weeks of each other! And honestly, I regret nothing about the two weekends I spent largely ignoring my family and devouring both books. Fair warning, though…I did have an itty bitty book hangover after finishing them. Bauer has such a talent for this genre, so easily weaving together adrenaline-filled action scenes and swoon-worthy romance. I find myself unable to put my Kindle down, and in turn often needing time to decompress and just process it all when I’m done.

In The Murder Between Us, Noah, an FBI agent from Iowa, in Vegas for a convention, meets a handsome, sophisticated man at his hotel bar and finally allows himself to explore the fantasy he’s had and repressed for so long. He’s instantly smitten with Cole, and they seem so well matched, that Noah quickly becomes intoxicated by the idea that maybe he really could have the life, and the partner, that he genuinely wants. But, of course, reality comes crashing down, and instead of spending another night with Cole, he gets called back to Iowa to lead the investigation on a murder case.

I love me a good FBI procedural. Fast-paced, intriguing, often creepy, as is the case here…this one has it all. And I’ve said it before, but it struck me again so forcefully while reading this book, how many of Bauer’s books read like a movie script. He is so adept at setting a scene, getting the most out of every action sequence, I can literally see it playing out in my head. In fact, and this is the honest-to-god truth, my husband and I had just watched Denzel’s new movie, a crime thriller called The Little Things, the night before I read most of this book, and I said to my husband while reading, “This scene right here is better than anything in that movie last night.”

There was one scene that had my Pet Peeve sirens going off, when a phone call led to “the big misunderstanding” —something I absolutely can’t stand—but, it wasn’t unnecessarily dragged out, and other than that I enjoyed pretty much every darn bit of this book. Good mystery, complete with plenty of twists and red herrings, excellent supporting cast, well-developed characters and relationships, and a heart-stopping climax that I’m sure will have many people gasping out loud. So good from start to finish. This story was absolutely gripping.

Tal Bauer is probably most well-known for his Executive Office series, which is where I fell in love with his writing. I never realized how much I would dig a political thriller, but boy do I love that series! In Bauer’s newest release, The Night Of, he takes us back to the White House, and on another wild ride into the world of politics and the Secret Service. And while it definitely gives Executive Office vibes, it is in no way a rehash of any kind. The Night Of is the story of Special Agent Sean Avery running a solo, secret investigation into the death of the POTUS, as a favor to the former vice president, now president, who is also his Ex. Eeep, right? Yeah. Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe how things start out for these two.

I was all in from the get-go on this one. So fast-paced. So intriguing. I honestly couldn’t put it down. I love that Bauer was able to write another president, but give us something completely different. As I said above, he writes great romantic suspense—but, in particular, he is incredible at writing political thrillers. From the breathtaking opening chapter throughout Sean and Jonathan’s exhausting hunt for the truth, it’s completely spellbinding. The suspense part of the romantic suspense formula was much more the win for me here, but I did like how Sean and Jonathan’s second-chance romance played out.

I don’t want to say much more about The Night Of, for fear of giving stuff away, so I’ll leave it there. But you guys will definitely want to pick this one up. In fact, if you don’t have a book picked out for this weekend yet, either one of these would be a smart choice! Mystery and suspense fans, and especially Tal Bauer fans, should be super happy with both of these releases.

You can buy The Murder Between Us here:
[zilla_button url=”https://smarturl.it/TheMurderBetweenUs” style=”black” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon/Kindle Unlimited [/zilla_button]

You can buy The Night Of here:
[zilla_button url=”https://smarturl.it/TheNightOfBauer” style=”black” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon/Kindle Unlimited [/zilla_button]