A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Following an extended absence, Heather Evans returns to her family home after her mother commits suicide.
Not only is Heather plagued by the regular grief you experience after the death of a loved one, but she’s genuinely dumbfounded as to why her mother would have chosen to end her own life.
Reading the note her mother left, Heather is even more confused. It seemed her mother felt extremely guilty over something, but what?
Also, the note is written in a way that leads Heather to believe it wasn’t intended just for her. The context makes it seem like she is apologizing to someone else as well, but who?
It’s apparent her mother had secrets and Heather feels like she needs to discover them if she is ever going to make sense of her death and put it behind her.
Then she finds the letters. Her mother had been corresponding for years with the Red Wold, a infamous serial killer, Michael Reave, who has been in prison for 20-years for his crimes.
Heather teams up with an old friend and the two begin to look into her mother’s past.
Meanwhile, a copy cat killer has begun kidnapping and murdering women in their area, reopening the case of the Red Wolf for police and citizens alike.
This was interesting. There was a lot going on, a lot of threads to follow.
Various perspectives were given and occassionally I would forget where I was in the timeline and with who. We get Michael’s past perspective, which was interesting and his past with Heather’s mother is unveiled over the course of the story.
I will admit to feeling my mind wander at times and I never felt super compelled to pick it up once I stopped reading. Always a sign to me that I’m just not that invested in the characters, or their outcome.
With this being said, this is a good book. It’s a solid story that I think a lot of people will enjoy. While I won’t be including it on any of my favorites lists, there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with it.
It appears that this author has written a lot of Fantasy novels, so this may be her Thriller debut. If that is the case, it definitely shows her skill and I would pick up future novels from her in this genre.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review.
I always appreciate the opportunity to provide my feedback!