Zero days: My second stab at a Ruth Ware novel

Zero days is my second attempt to read a Ruth Ware novel. See also my review of The It girl . I have to be honest and say that neither book sparked my interest. I'm not sure whether I will seek out any further novels by Ware. I know she's extremely popular, but I don't really get her appeal.

Zero days | Published June 2023 | Read January 2024

I loved the premise of Zero days and found the computer stuff super interesting. Jack and Gabe are at the centre of the story. They are penetration specialists who are hired by organisations to break into their offices and hack into their systems to test the company's security. The opening part of the novel that steps the reader through one such assignment is tense and fascinating. After this assignment goes wrong, Jack returns home to find her husband murdered and herself a suspect in his death.

The book is a cat-and-mouse kind of thing so if you enjoy stories that unfold like that, you might like Zero days. The pacing works well and the premise for the novel draws the reader in. Unfortunately, the book relies on the hunt for Jack as the chief suspect in Gabe's murder (based on pretty flimsy evidence, I might add) and that is all there really is to the story. The chase was not particularly thrilling and I wondered why someone as seemingly smart as Jack would run like that. She also made a bunch of silly decisions along the way. A better story would have been Jack trying to get to the bottom of the murder in a clever way, not just running from the police. She's a penetration tester, for goodness sake, so why were those skills not put to better use to formulate a plan to find Gabe's killer?

The killer was easy to spot as there was no one else it could be other than a suddenly-introduced character. I think that's why the story had to rely on the chase as there was not much to it other than that. There was a lot of focus on Jack's injuries as she ran from the police. I get that Ware wanted to show how athletic and capable Jack was, but it became repetitive. The book ran out of steam for me, even though I persevered to the end. I could not connect with Jack as her characterisation was shallow (beyond her super cool tech and athletic capabilities) so I was not invested in the outcome. Ware made an attempt to show the depth of Jack and Gabe's relationship AFTER he was murdered, but the banter technique Ware used did not work for me.

I understand Ruth Ware is a well-loved writer for her Gothic mystery novels. I might give one of these a go, as the two thrillers I have read so far have not lit my literary fire.

Rating: ⭐⭐