My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed”
----Thomas Moore
V.M. Giambanco, an Italian-English author, has penned a thrilling crime fiction, The Dark which is the second book book in the Alison Madison series. Alison Madison is the detective in the Homicide department of Seattle PD, who is working on a twenty-five year old abduction of little boys case, but on her investigation, she is shadowed upon by a stalker who has other intentions to stop her from investigating to the core of the horrific crime, while her own demons from her dreams are threatening to take away her career from her.
Synopsis:
Seattle Homicide Detective Alice Madison is bound to jailed murderer John Cameron and attorney Nathan Quinn by a debt that cannot be repaid, by a nightmare that changed their lives forever.
When the remains of Quinn’s younger brother – murdered when he was a boy – are discovered in a shallow grave, Madison vows to follow the trail of brutal deaths that leads to the truth.
A sadistic killer stalks the investigation as Madison’s own demons threaten her future career with the police and darkness closes in. How far is she prepared to go to save a life?
The original Spanish title of the book is En lo profundo del bosque which has been translated into English as, The Dark. The first book in the series is called, 13 días in Spanish and The Gift of Darkness in English, the third book is in draft and is called, Blood and Bone and the whole series follows a same mystery revolving around the abduction of three young boys among whom the remains of only two boys surfaced and in this book we see that the remains of the third boy, named David Quinn, is found, followed by Alison's investigation that takes her back to-and-fro from the past to the present, connecting all the dots and the missing links left twenty five years ago to that of the present day, unfortunately her past is haunting her and a mad killer-cum-stalker is shadowing every move of Alison whereas the men behind the crime of killing those criminals who abducted the kids are also trying their best to stop Alison from following the respective protocols and the police procedures.
Well, one thing is very sure to understand the gravity of this crime as well as the characters, one have to read the first book in the series to comprehend the whole mystery more perfectly. And unfortunately, I've not read the first book, so it was bit difficult to see through the layers of the conversation or see through the flaws as well as goodness of a particular character. But judging by this book, I would say that there were lots of loose ends to the story that can be more tightly and skillfully portrayed to make the plot intriguing.
The writing is quite strong and the way the author have featured the whole police procedural with less actions but with lots of brain work and thoughts makes it pretty kick-ass, and if the detective is a female heroine, Alison Madison, who takes no shit before her job with a daring attitude, what more can you ask for.
The pace is really fast and the narration flows freely and the author have layered the plot with lots of brain-twisting clues and turns that keeps the readers hooked on to the story till the very last page. The mystery itself, present in the story, is compelling enough to keep the readers engaged and lost in the tangled web of the mystery. A twenty five years ago abduction case opens up in the present times and the Seattle PD is investigating hard to find the motive and what went wrong when the first boy died.
The characters are all okay, not that strongly sketched with lots of blank spaces, that is hard for the readers to understand the motive or the nature of these characters, although I pretty much liked the protagonist, Alison, with whom I could connect well and her solid determination and brave demeanor kept me rooting for till the very end.
Overall, the book is quite enthralling as well as riveting that will unravel the minds of the readers as Alison goes on a twenty-five year old mysterious journey to find the killer.
Verdict: This book will appeal to the crime lovers a lot and also if you want to read about an unusual heroine who apart from her dangerous job, also faces her own demons and fears and how hard she fights with it, then do grab a copy of the book.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author, V.M. Giambanco, for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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