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nietzschesghost's review
4.0
Darkness Falls, first published in 2002, is the first instalment in the Clara Pascal series and it turned out to be a lot more captivating than I initially thought it would be. Clara is a prominent local barrister for the prosecution but when she drives her daughter Pippa to school one morning she is abducted outside the school gates in broad daylight with only Pippa as a witness; she was forced to stand and watch as her mother was bundled into a vehicle and she could do nothing about it. We learn that the kidnapper had this planned for a while proving she was the target and that it was not simply a crime of opportunity. Chained to the wall in a cold, damp cellar Clara can't keep from wondering who could've done this. There are many suspects and she likely had made lots of enemies as a prosecutor although it may be worth looking a little closer to home. The police have few clues and only Pippa’s hysterical description of the white van that took her mother.
This is a superbly plotted, absorbing and totally riveting read with a plot that grips you early on. It starts off at quite a pedestrian pace in order to introduce the characters but it soon picks up and has you racing along turning the pages. It is a terrifying and chilling psychological thriller that plays with your mind and is written in a gritty and gripping fashion to ensure you're engrossed from start to finish. There are many twists some that were shocking and others that we're foreseeable but it didn't detract from the storyline one bit. Ms Murphy takes the time to develop the cast of characters meaning you really care about what happens to them and even the settings are wonderfully described. Clara is a fascinating character and I hope to learn more about her and see her evolve over the next instalments. If you enjoy menacing and tension-filled stories with killer climaxes then give this a try. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Many thanks to Joffe for an ARC.
This is a superbly plotted, absorbing and totally riveting read with a plot that grips you early on. It starts off at quite a pedestrian pace in order to introduce the characters but it soon picks up and has you racing along turning the pages. It is a terrifying and chilling psychological thriller that plays with your mind and is written in a gritty and gripping fashion to ensure you're engrossed from start to finish. There are many twists some that were shocking and others that we're foreseeable but it didn't detract from the storyline one bit. Ms Murphy takes the time to develop the cast of characters meaning you really care about what happens to them and even the settings are wonderfully described. Clara is a fascinating character and I hope to learn more about her and see her evolve over the next instalments. If you enjoy menacing and tension-filled stories with killer climaxes then give this a try. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Many thanks to Joffe for an ARC.
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