4.12.2023 | Wednesday

Darkness Peering

category: Book Reviews
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Darkness Peeringtitle: Darkness Peering
author: Alice Blanchard
published: 31 December 1998
publisher: Blue Gown Books
genre(s): thrillers
pages: 351
source: Kindle Unlimited
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | Goodreads

rating: five-stars

the blurb

The dead girl lay face-up on the edge of the pond, a snake coiled in the muddy hollow of one arm. For Police Chief Nick Storrow, it was a shocking reminder of the violence he thought he'd left behind when he moved his wife and children to Flowering Dogwood, a town where no one locks their doors. But his search for the truth leads to a chilling possibility... the killer might be his own son.

Many years later, Detective Rachel Storrow is obsessed with the unsolved case. When a young woman disappears, she realizes that a cunning psychopath is moving undetected through her hometown, plunging her into a terrifying world where darkness reigns.


❗❗ content warning: some language and violence ❗❗

a few notes

keywords/phrases: revenge, murder, family, secrets
mood reading:
a dark, twisty thriller

my review

This book, originally published in 1998, is the author’s debut. It’s one part psychological thriller, one part mystery, and one part police procedural, although what truly brings it together are the relationships/dynamics between the characters. The character writing is excellent, creating true-to-life people in a vivid way. The horror of the crimes committed is brutal, but germaine to the story and done so well. There were moments when chills went down my spine, when I was viscerally uncomfortable. That is something I appreciate, being drawn into a story so completely. There were just enough clues and moments of foreshadowing to make the “whodunit” part interesting for the reader, to keep the reader guessing. It was dark, scary, and incredibly engrossing!

quoteables

And silence sounds no worse than cheers, after death has stopped the ears.

page 13

Freedom is when you don’t give a rat’s ass what other people think.

page 229

About Alice Blanchard

Alice Blanchard is the award-winning author of the Natalie Lockhart mystery series and acclaimed standalone thrillers, “Darkness Peering” and “The Breathtaker.” She has received a PEN Award, a New Letters Literary Award, a Centrum Fellowship, and the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for her writing.

Rating Report
plot
five-stars
characters
five-stars
writing
five-stars
pacing
five-stars
Overall: five-stars

reading challenges:

  • 2023 Alphabet Soup: Author Edition Reading Challenge
  • 2023 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge
  • 2023 Linz the Bookworm Reading Challenge
  • 2023 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge
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