The Day He Left - (Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery) by Frederick Weisel (Paperback)

About the Book

"A middle school teacher leaves home one morning and never arrives at his job. He leaves behind his briefcase and his phone, along with photographs of some of his female students. Across town, a detective on Santa Rosa's Violent Crimes Investigations team joins a colleague from the narcotics division as they investigate the killing of a dealer and local heroin smuggling operation. As the two cases converge in unexpected ways, secrets rise to the surface, and everyone is a suspect"--

Book Synopsis

2023 NERO AWARD WINNER

After he was gone, the only things left behind were secrets

Annie has fallen out of the habit of listening to her husband. She and Paul have been married for a long time; it's easy to nod as he drones on, responding to his voice while completely ignoring every word he says. That becomes a problem, of course, when Paul disappears and the police have questions. Was Paul having issues at work? Is there any reason to think he might harm himself? Annie doesn't know.

But someone does.

An unsettling photo found amongst Paul's things turns the investigation toward his job as a middle school teacher and a troubled girl who is hiding secrets of her own. But what exactly happened to Paul on the day he left for work and never made it to the classroom? Is his disappearance related to a local heroin trafficking operation? As Eddie Mahler and the members of the Santa Rosa Violent Crime Investigations Team rush to find the teacher, they discover the members of his family have hidden lives of their own, and that Paul may not have been running away but toward something that could ruin his career and marriage--and even cost his life.

Review Quotes

"[An] excellent sequel to 2021's The Silenced Women...Weisel does a terrific job blending police procedural with character study." -- Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review

"A beguiling mix of literature and crime." -- Booklist

"An excellent police procedural...get in on the ground floor with this series. You won't be sorry." -- Dana Stabenow, author of the award-winning, bestselling Kate Shugak series

"An interesting police procedural that will give fans of the genre a new team to get excited about. [The Day He Left] is a well-paced and intriguing story." -- The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

"Compelling and utterly original, both as a procedural and a novel of human frailty, Frederick Weisel's The Day He Left begins as a missing-persons investigation that blossoms into a much larger story touching all of the players, detectives, and survivors alike: a novel written with remarkable compassion and understanding." -- J.P. Smith, author of The Drowning

"Frederick Weisel expertly weaves together an intriguing cast of characters in The Day He Left, pulling us along for the ride at breakneck speed. Atmospheric, peppered with humor, laced with suspense, this story kept me on my toes until the very last page." -- Gina LaManna, USA Today bestselling author

"The word-for-word writing in the novel is flawless. The suspense is handled well." -- Criminal Element