In the Dark - A Review

IN THE DARK by Chris Patchell

This book is described as an “edge of your seat suspense novel” and it certainly lives up to it’s billing!

Brooke was last seen two days ago.  Her roommate thought she was at her mother’s house and her family thought she was in her dorm.  When Brooke missed attending her sister’s school concert it was a sure indication that something was very wrong.  She was last seen in a bar, where she went to see her high school boyfriend Jesse, who she heard was back in town.  Brooke’s mom, Marissa, had never liked Jesse.

The police don’t seem interested in investigating a college student who has only been off the radar for a couple of days.  But Marissa knew her daughter would not just go off without letting someone know … especially without her life saving insulin.

Life had never been easy for Marissa and her girls but despite her bad choices and failed relationships the one thing that was a certainty was that Marissa loved her daughters and nothing would stand in the way of her finding Brooke.

I found “In the Dark” to be a well-written, extremely suspense filled book with plenty of twists, turns and red-herrings to keep me guessing right up until the point that the author wanted me to know the “who” in the “who-dun-it”.  I suspected everyone until slowly, at exactly the right point, Ms. Patchell let me know who the bad guy was.  But rather than slow down at that point the story picked up to an exciting ending.

I would highly recommend this to any reader who enjoys a truly suspenseful read.

My only two (very mild) criticisms would be that some of the descriptions the author uses were a little questionable.  So much so that sometimes I had to stop and reread them to make sure I had actually read what I read.  This made for a bumpy read in some sections in a book that was, in all other ways, a real page-turner.  One example was a passage describing a main character, the police detective.  Our character describes the scene … “The pre-dawn air smelled like car exhaust and bacon grease.  A line of squad cars set the perimeter.  Blue and red light flashed in the muddy gray dawn.”  It just jumped out at me that “bacon grease” might not have been the best descriptor for a scene where many police officers were in attendance.  It seems a bit nit-picky (and I found it humorous) but there were other instances as well.   Also, although the love interest and job prospects came as no surprise and did serve to move the story along, some of Marissa’s actions had me questioning whether this would be the way a mother would react if her daughter was missing.  Small things that should not stop anyone from picking up this book.

All in all a good read and I’m giving it 3 ½ stars … I liked it … and I definitely plan on picking up Ms. Patchell’s other book, “Deadly Lies”.

I received this ebook at no charge in exchange for an honest review.  I would also like to apologize to the author and Bostwick Communications for taking so long with my review.
The ebook got a little lost on my Kindle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (from Amazon)

When Chris Patchell isn't hiking in the Cascade Mountains or hanging out with family and friends, she is working at her hi-tech job or writing gritty suspense novels. Writing has been a lifelong passion for Chris. She fell in love with storytelling in the third grade when her half-page creative writing assignment turned into a five-page story on vampires. Even back then Chris had a gift for writing intricate plots that were so good her father refused to believe she didn't steal them from comic books.

Years later, Chris spent long afternoons managing her own independent record store and writing romance novels. After closing the record store and going to college, Chris launched a successful career in hi-tech. She married, had kids but amid all the madness, the itch to write never really went away. So she started writing again. Not romance this time - suspense filled with drama, and angst, speckled with a little bit of blood.

Why suspense? Chris blames her obsession with the dark on two things: watching Stephen King movies as a kid and spending ridiculous amounts of time commuting in Seattle traffic. "My stories are based on scenarios I see every day, distorted through the fictional lens. And my stories come with the added bonus of not having to be restrained by socially acceptable behavior."

Recipient of the 2015 Indie Reader Discovery Award for DEADLY LIES