In the Dark by Loreth Anne White
Blurb:
A secluded mountain lodge. The perfect getaway. So remote no one will ever find you.
The promise of a luxury vacation at a secluded wilderness spa has brought together eight lucky guests. But nothing is what they were led to believe. As a fierce storm barrels down and all contact with the outside is cut off, the guests fear that it’s not a getaway. It’s a trap.
Each one has a secret. Each one has something to hide. And now, as darkness closes in, they all have something to fear—including one another.
Alerted to the vanished party of strangers, homicide cop Mason Deniaud and search and rescue expert Callie Sutton must brave the brutal elements of the mountains to find them. But even Mason and Callie have no idea how precious time is. Because the clock is ticking, and one by one, the guests of Forest Shadow Lodge are being hunted. For them, surviving becomes part of a diabolical game.
My Reaction:
I listened to the audiobook version of In the Dark-- another selection made on the basis of availability through Kindle Unlimited-- and I'm happy with the choice. This is the best KU-sourced audiobook I've come across since I started listening to them on the Echo Dot. (So convenient for listening when my hands are
In the Dark is atmospheric and creepy-- it kept me guessing-- even the detective/search-and-rescue parts were engaging (which I didn't expect at first)-- and it also helps that it's geared toward fans of Agatha Christie (the master of the murder mystery).
Now, I still have some nit-picks (the narration felt a tad melodramatic to me at times, I couldn't stand the "kid voice" [a frequent irritation in audiobooks, I find], I got a little bored during the summing up scene, I'm not sure about the believability or realism of some of the motivations and decisions, I was a bit let down by the "whodunit"-- though I didn't have anything else specific in mind-- and so on), but over all, I really enjoyed it.
I will say that if you think you might want to read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (and want to avoid spoilers), you should do that first, because there are major spoilers for that novel in this one.
Speaking of spoilers...
Skip the next section of this review to avoid spoilers for not only In the Dark, but also both And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express...
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I'd already picked up on the parallels between And Then There Were None and this book before ATTWN was first referenced, so it was amusing when that novel became such an important part of the plot.
The parallels between this novel and ATTWN are very clear-- a group of (mostly) strangers invited to an isolated location under false pretenses, all turning out to be guilty of a crime, their being killed one at a time in shockingly violent ways, etc.
However, while listening, I also felt that there were similarities to Murder on the Orient Express.
MotOE is about a group of seemingly unrelated people all seeking revenge/justice for the murder of a child. The events of In the Dark are also triggered by the desire for justice after a child's murderer goes unpunished. Whereas in ATTWN (almost all of) the criminals don't know one another and are guilty of completely unrelated crimes (...as far as I can recall), in In the Dark the guilty parties are all linked to a single crime... And in MotOE, the group of revenge-seekers (who are also murderers, by the end of the book), are also all linked to a single crime (though they are the family/loved ones of the victims). The judge in ATTWN isn't a sympathetic character, from what I remember, but we do sympathize with the judge-jury-executioners in MotOE, as we are meant to sympathize with Stella. ...I don't know; there's more, though it's all kind of a jumble-- but while listening, I definitely felt that this novel was inspired by both ATTWN and MotOE.
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(Spoilers over now!)
It feels like this could be the first in a series, possibly. There's a complicated relationship that is still just beginning by the end of the book. However, on the other hand, it might be best left to the reader's imagination. The setting is supposed to be a quiet backwater town where serious crime is almost unheard of, so it's unlikely that there would be enough fodder for another crime mystery novel or three set in the same location. However, little things like that don't usually deter writers of crime fiction!
This author's name is one I'll remember for another time!
