Review: Zero Days by Ruth Ware

An adrenaline-fueled thriller that combines Mr. and Mrs. Smith with The Fugitive about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer in this unputdownable and heart-pounding mystery.

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As a resident Ruth Ware fan, of course I had to pick up her latest book. With its literal shiny new cover, I just had to read it and I am so glad I did. The last few weren’t my favourite (though they were still good), but I’d say this one really hit the spot and brought my love for her writing back up to the top.

Zero Days revolves around Jacintha “Jack” Cross, who works with her husband as a “pen tester.” I instantly thought this was a very interesting premise, and I almost wish there was a little bit more of it explored, though either way it created a great immediate suspense for the book. After her husband is brutally murdered in her own home, Jack is instantly the first suspect and must go on the run. How will she find her husband’s murdered, and just who can she trust?

The suspense was excellent in this book. Five out of five for sure. The suspense was so good I raced through this whole book in literally one setting. It is literally a chase basically the entire book, and I felt that it was executed really well. The suspense was very driving, and it never let off the gas pedal, but in a great way that felt like it wasn’t overly pressed, yet you could never put it down because you had to know what happened next.

The characters were decent. There weren’t too many of them, so it felt like quite the closed-room scenario. There was a main antagonist that we follow throughout the book, though he is not overly involved actively, just kind of in the background providing that spike at your back to make you keep reading. There wasn’t much of a dive into any character, as it was mostly a plot-driven book. However, we do get an understanding into Jack’s character, and how she perceives the world around her as she makes her way through a literal nightmare scenario.

Overall the plot was pretty good. Like I said, it was a very plot-driven book, so there was a lot going on. I felt like it was well-crafted, and made me really flip page after page finding out how it resolves. But the story basically never resolves until the very last page. The breadcrumb trails of clues were pretty good, and the amount of red herrings were also appropriate. I was certainly wondering what was going to happen and trying to make my predictions as it went along, and overall it was pretty well done.

I thought about giving this the full five Drink Me Potions, but I finally decided against it in the end because honestly looking objectively, it wasn’t anything to surprising at the end. The reveal was exciting at the time, and the resolution was still good, but ultimately it wasn’t anything overly creative. But I could forgive it all, because the suspense was just crazy and I just had to read everything all at once. I definitely recommend this one if you’re into fast-paced thrillers you simply can’t put down!

Overall Recommendations

Zero Days is about our protagonist, Jack Cross, whose husband is murdered while she is on a mission. When the police immediately turn around and suspect her, she is forced on the run, which becomes the entire book. As she slips out of the grasp of law enforcement to try and continue to find her husband’s killer, she faces obstacle after obstacle in pursuit of her ultimate goal. A very very fast-paced thriller that is impossible to put down, I definitely recommend this latest Ruth Ware novel!