The Empty Bed by Nina Sadowsky – a Review

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Description:
Eva Lombard is being followed. Or so she suspects

Eva and her husband, Peter, are in Hong Kong on a romantic getaway from London when Peter wakes up in their hotel room to an empty bed, his wife gone without a trace. His worst fears are confirmed: Eva wasn’t imagining things. Suddenly, he finds himself the number one suspect in his wife’s disappearance, trapped in a foreign country with no one to turn to. He calls his boss, Forrest “Holly” Holcomb, who enlists the help of Catherine, his ex-flame and the enigmatic operator behind the darknet witness-protection program known as the Burial Society.

As a favor to Holly, Catherine sends her team of highly trained Society members on a dangerous chase through Hong Kong to find Eva–while she takes care of pressing business at home. Not only is she tasked with a mission in Mexico City, protecting a family that knows too much from a vengeful pharmaceutical company, but an FBI agent tracking down the missing wife and child of a charismatic businessman is about to come dangerously close to exposing the Society’s secrets.

In these intertwining story lines that converge in unexpected ways, not everyone is who they appear to be–and not everyone who is lost wants to be found.

Review:

The Empty Bed by Nina Sadowsky is the 2^nd book in her Burial Society series. I did not read the first book in this series, but once I got used to the multiple POV’s, it did read well as a standalone.  As noted, in each chapter, it was a different POV, which was a bit confusing early on; but about a ¼ of the way in, I knew the characters., though I was a little stumped as to where this was heading.

Catherine is the lead in this series, as she runs The Burial Society, who help rescue people in dangerous situations, and helps them escape to sort of a witness protection system.  She has a group of trained members, whom she sends to various missions; in The Empty Bed, some of these missions will tie in.

The story starts with Eva and Peter Lombard going on a vacation to Hong Kong to fix their failing marriage, which Peter surprised his wife with.  Eva notices a strange man seemed to be following her, and when she tells Peter, he just brushes it off as her imagination.  The following morning, when Peter wakes up, with his wife not in the hotel room; after trying to call her, he decides she is playing hardship with him, and goes out on his own.  Along the way he gets mugged, and when he gets help, he realizes that Eva was right, someone must have been following her and now she is missing.

When Peter calls his boss for help, Catherine, who is a friend of the boss, is notified and sends a team to Hong Kong.  Stevie and Jake (not their real names) try to work with Peter to find Eva, as well as protect him from those chasing him.  We learn that Eva has old powerful friends in Hong Kong who are helping her, as she has no idea who is after her and why.  As they get close to finding each other, the danger escalates for all of them, as the villain has ties to someone closer to Peter, and Eva might have a picture on her camera that they want.  While Stevie and Jake protect them, it is Catherine who realizes her old friend may have something to do with whatever is going on.  Can she trust him?

Catherine is also working with a couple of other members to help a woman and her child escape an abused relationship from and powerful enemy.  There is also another POV of an FBI agent who is trying to find the woman and child that are missing.

The Empty Bed is an intriguing, exciting, action filled and intense mystery that had three storylines going at the same time, with two tying in.  There were some twists and surprises along the way, though I will say it at times it was difficult to keep up with.  With that being said, The Empty Bed had an excellent premise written very well by Sadowsky, and interesting society protecting those in danger and lots of action.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher