All Through the Night

Davis Bunn
Bethany House (2008)
ISBN 9780764205422
Reviewed by Nikki Pringle for Reader Views (8/08)

Wayne Grusza grew up as the son of a preacher and always felt that he was not good enough in his father’s eyes. The choices Wayne has made during his adolescence and adulthood have run on a course directly opposite what his father sees as the right way, as God’s way. His sister Eilene followed in their father’s footsteps and became a pastor herself, which caused Wayne’s choices to reflect in an even more poor light. Back from serving in Afghanistan Wayne finds himself adrift, with no real home or sense of family. He is able to fall back on his accounting background and his sister’s reputation to secure a job reviewing the books for a retirement community that lost everything to a scam artist. Using both his finance and Special Ops training, finding and retrieving the money the senior citizens of the Hattie Blount Retirement Community lost should not be a problem. Fitting in with this rag-tag crew and putting down roots in another story.

Based on the work he does for the retirement community, Wayne is pulled in to try and unravel an even more dangerous and devious scheme. Lured by his attraction to the woman seeking his help, Wayne will have to use all of his physical and mental prowess to get to the bottom of the clandestine warning received by Easton Grey, a successful Florida businessman, and its subsequent fallout. For the first time in his life, Wayne will need to trust and rely on the help of others if he is going to come out of this mess alive.

“All Through the Night” features some notable characters and unusual mysteries, as well as fast-paced action and more than a little suspense, but does not pack the punch I was hoping for. Over and over again as I read the novel, I keep getting the feeling that I was missing something. The storyline for what was occurring in the present time was there, but too much of the background, the “how” and “why,” was lacking. Davis Bunn manages to deliver an interesting tale, but too much is left to the reader’s imagination for the story to feel complete.

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