I think it's fair to say that Neve thinks she has everything under control and that her life is perfect. The truth is harder to acknowledge. She likes a drink, or two or perhaps a few bottles. She is unreliable when it comes to work, which is taking its toll on her colleague.

She blames it on her crumbling relationship with her fiancee, but perhaps the turbulence in her past has a lot to do with it. Something to do with the fact her best friend disappeared into thin air when they were teenagers.

Now another one of her friends has also mysteriously disappeared and she has no choice but to return to the scene of her teenage nightmares. Perhaps this time she can actually help solve the mystery that has caused years of anxiety and dark thoughts.

It's a psychological thriller that creeps up on you and surrounds you silently.

At the end of the day it's hard to balance the right and the wrongs in this story. When you do something you categorically know is wrong, even if it is to save your own skin, then a part of you will always dwell on the fact it was wrong. How that guilt manifests itself can be different for each person. Substance abuse, inability to have stable relationships or mental health issues. Unless you have some sort of psychopathology you will probably feel your conscience in some way or other.

When you take the entirety of the plot - not giving anything away - the way certain people ease their own conscience by placing blame on others is perhaps the most interesting element of the story. Probably one that will lead to discussions about guilt and blame. The stories that sit on the boundaries are the ones that make you think.

This was a very complex story with lots of twists and turns. Great descriptive writing and the characters seemed very real. A great twist in the tail. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing this story.

This is a gripping thriller centring around Neve and events that happened in the small mining village she grew up in more than twenty years earlier when her best friend, Chloe, disappeared. Shortly after Neve left the village and has only visited briefly for an hour or two twice in all those years......When Neve learns that her first boyfriend, Jamie, has now disappeared she feels forced to return and reconnect with her previous friends to help find him.

The story is told on two timelines -one from the present and the other sharing what happened all those years ago. There's plenty of tension as the story unfolds, a feeling of pressure, being watched and definitely not feeling safe . . . . but you aren't sure why. It is a story to keep you figuratively on the edge of your seat, a fast paced thriller packed with mystery and intrigue along with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing right to the very end. It is a real page turner and one I have no hesitation in highly recommending for when you want something darker to read . . . . It is a story about discovering you can never totally escape your past, that things aren't always as you seem and you can never really tell just who you can trust . . . . 

I requested and was gifted a copy of this book via NetGalley and this is my honest review after choosing to read it.

I have been a fan of Darren's work for a little while now. I love his books and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of his next book called 'Dark Corners'. Well ladies and gents, the wait is over as 'Dark Corners' was released in paperback and e-book format on 2nd April 2020. It's another deliciously dark and creepy story and I absolutely loved every single second of it.
Neve is the main character of this story. She is a complex character. It's clear that something happened in her past, which haunts her to this day. Neve is just about holding it together but the brittle ties are in danger of cracking. Neve has never properly dealt with what happened and she has turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism. I am not sure whether or not she is an alcoholic or a heavy drinker. Neve works in a coffee shop with her best friend, but her best friend's patience is wearing thin as Neve has pushed her luck a bit too often. Things start happening that freak Neve out and she wonders who appears to have it in for her. Neve has spent a lot of time trying to forget what happened in the past but somebody is determined to make her remember. What happens? Well for the answer to that question and so much more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
Oh my word, 'Dark Corners' is Darren's best book to date. It is a deliciously creepy and twisty tale, which had me gripped and on the edge of my seat throughout. I was hooked on this book from the start and reading 'Dark Corners' became a serious addiction. It was an addiction that I wasn't willing to break. I binge read the book over the course of a single day, which is pretty good going for me. Normally I am easily distracted and I have the attention span of a gnat but not in this case. The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out how the story concluded just grew and grew. All too quickly I reached the end of the story which I had mixed feelings about. Don't get me wrong I was pleased to finish because I knew how the story ended but I was enjoying the story, the characters and the author's writing style so much that I just wanted the book to continue.
'Dark Corners' is superbly written but then I think that to be true of all of Darren's books. Darren has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. He grabs your attention from the start and draws you into the story to the extent that you live the story as if you were the main character. That's how I feel at any rate. The story is written using different timelines. One timeline details events as they happen in the present day and the other timeline describes events as they happened roughly twenty years earlier. The two timelines interlink really well and the story flows seamlessly as a result.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Dark Corners' and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I will definitely be reading more of Darren's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Dark Corners is the latest standalone psychological thriller from Mr O’Sullivan and is compelling from its opening pages. It revolves around thirty-something Neve Chambers who is a resident of Brent Lodge Park in Hanwell, London, having escaped the small ex-mining village in which she spent her formative years due to her childhood friend Chloe Lambert's baffling disappearance over two decades ago. It was then that Neve decided she would not be going back there if she could help it as it holds far too many bad memories for her. However, she recently received a message from old school friend Holly who informed her that her first love, Jamie Hardman, had gone missing in much the same way Chloe did. Neve now feels she has to face her demons head-on and head home but once there she quickly realises someone is keeping tabs on her and watching her every move. Out of a gang of seven friends, two have now gone missing under suspicious circumstances. But who is involved and what exactly is their endgame?

This is a thriller full of dark, disturbing secrets and is based upon the dredging up of those sins committed in the village years ago as well as the new case of missing Jamie. It's a story that grabs and grips you from the initial chapter and I was eager to find out who the culprit was and their motives. Moving at a swift pace I read well into the night as the lives of the characters unravelled and their secrets were revealed. I had guessed the conclusion in advance but strangely this didn't detract from the overall story as I was enjoying it that much. This is a creepy, intense and entertaining thriller that packs a punch from the get-go and the way the narrative shifts seamlessly between past and present creates a fully rounded and clever story. The author manages to craft an intense and highly atmospheric read with all the qualms of living in a place where everybody knows you; his writing brought both the village and characters vividly to life. Many thanks to HQ for an ARC.

It’s the summer of 1998 and seven friends have just finished their final exams. School is over and now all they have in front of them is warm, relaxing days before college starts in September.

Coming from a small mining village in The Midlands just outside Nottingham, Neve and her friends try to make the best of their time off without causing too much havoc for the locals. There isn’t much to do however, other than sit around on the field smoking, drinking and experimenting with a bit of weed. That is until friends Michael and Baz discover a small hut close to the entrance of the mine that has been disregarded.

This hut becomes their haven and each night they meet here. To make it seem less tragic they have added posters, a couple of bean bags, a coffee table and even a fridge to store their drinks, although with no electricity available they don’t stay that chilled.

Then one evening, catastrophe strikes. Chloe, Neve’s best friend, goes missing and after weeks of searching, all hope finally fades after a bloody top belonging to the sixteen-year-old is found.

Fast-forward to 2019 and Neve is struggling. Her fiancé has left her. Well he left a note telling her he was leaving her but hasn’t actually reappeared to collect any of his belongings and she is now using this as her main excuse for her dependency on alcohol. Of course, she doesn’t have a real problem; she is still functioning daily, albeit only just.

For three years she has been part owner in The Tree Tea Cafe in London with her best friend, Esther. They went to university together and have been thick as thieves ever since. Except, in recent weeks, Neve is beginning to feel like she has become more of an employee as Esther struggles with her friend’s tardy nature and her lack of consideration for how her actions impact the business: their livelihood.

To try and make up for her wayward nature, Neve offers to close up so that Esther for once, can get home early to spend time with her young child. However, even this doesn’t go to plan. Exhausted and still hung-over from the previous day, Neve decides a little pick me up is in order and opens a bottle of wine to help calm her nerves while she cashes up. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she notices a shadow lingering outside and before she can think too hard about it, she goes out to see who is there.

The street is empty but Neve has a distinct feeling that she was personally being watched. Paranoia is clearly kicking in. Hurrying now, she finishes closing up and heads home trying to shrug off the uneasiness that is beginning to bubble.

Trying to be a better friend and business partner, Neve is the first one in the following day, only to realise that they have had a break-in. Initially, it looks like nothing has been taken but once Esther arrives and takes a proper look at the place she can see that the safe is wide open and the takings for the last few days have gone. Neve, of course, had screwed up again. In her drunken fog, she did place the takings in the safe but forgot to actually close and lock it which means their insurance company won’t payout.

Can things actually get any worse?

Her once strong friendship is quickly disintegrating, Esther has sent her home, probably because she can no longer look at her without wanting to scream and she is worried that she will lose not only her best friend but the business they have spent so long trying to build up.

The solution: a sabbatical. Neve works out that she can afford to take a few weeks off, get herself up straight again and then throw herself back into being a good friend and an exceptional business partner.

Just when she feels like she is getting a grip on reality however, a blast from her past gets in touch. Jamie Hardman, her first love has gone missing, just like Chloe did all those years ago.

Could everything that has been happening to her recently be just a coincidence, or is her past coming back to haunt her? The only way to find out is to return to the village and help with the search.

Dark Corners by Darren O'Sullivan

My Thoughts on Dark Corners
Mixing two different stories, the reader learns about both Neve’s present-day life alongside what happened to her and her friends 20 years previously. I was already hooked by the time Neve heads back to the mining village to help look for her lost friend, wanting to know more about both timelines.

Reading the chapters, I began to feel the tension that Neve must have felt walking back through the streets and her old memories.

This is an emotive story about how friendships can be lost overnight. How a decision made as a teenager to leave can cause pain and suffering for a lifetime to others. This is a novel that sees a group of young people torn apart by the loss of a friend; a loss that should have brought them closer together, but actually rips them apart.

As with any good crime writing, it’s the twists however, that capture the reader and Dark Corners has a twist that hits you like a sledgehammer. As realisation slaps you in the face, the story you have already read begins to unfold in a new way. You reflect on aspects of the plot and see a new possibility hidden behind the words; a new meaning that you hadn’t picked up on before. This is a crime novel that grasps and squeezes so tightly at your heartstrings, you feel a real need to cry for the fictional characters that have lost so much.

Sorry this book was not for me. I found it too slow and it took effort to keep reading to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Hell hath no fury like someone scorned....
Thoroughly enjoyed this thriller from author Darren O'Sullivan....
As much as I love debuts, I also love getting to know an authors work and how they write so much so that when they have a book coming out, I just buy it as I know I will love it.
Darren has become a firm favourite of mine..
I follow Darren on social media and he is just so nice and humble and so very grateful that people take the time to pick up his books to read them.
Dark Corners is his fourth novel and it is a cracking read...
It is about a group of friends in school together, bored and counting down the days until school is over forever....
Something happens and we see life move on for each of them as they try to deal with it all in the aftermath....
There is anger and resentment and some deal with it better than others....
This story is told in a dual narrative giving us a great insight leading up to the event....
A great storyline, completely sinister and creepy and did give me shivers I will admit....
Hugely atmospheric in that I could feel the Drifters eyes on me at all times while I read....
I think Dark Corners establishes author Darren O'Sullivan pretty good in the whole book world...
His books are well worth taking a crack at...
You will thoroughly enjoy them....💞

Book Tour. Dark corners.
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Synopsis from Goodreads: You thought you’d escaped your past
It’s been twenty years since Neve’s best friend Chloe went missing. Neve has never recovered and promised herself she’d never go back to that place.
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But secrets can come back to haunt you
When Neve receives news that her first boyfriend Jamie has gone missing, she’s forced to return. Jamie has vanished without a trace in a disappearance that echoes the events of all those years ago. Somebody is watching and will stop at nothing until the truth about what took place that night is revealed …
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My Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a truly fantastic read. Have @hqstories ever published a bad thriller?! I was absolutely hooked. So gripping and I honestly didn't some of the twists coming. I spend the entire book trying to guess where the author Is going to take it (don't we all?) And this kept me completely on my toes. The only reason I dropped a star is for one scene but it absolutely doesn't detract from this exciting read. I devoured it in 2 sittings and would urge anyone who loves a thriller to add it to their wishlist 😍
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Thank you to @hqstories for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

A brilliantly written thriller gripping from the start!

I loved the dual timelines. The characters themselves are well-drawn and it was obvious they were hiding something and I could not turn the pages quick enough to find out what.

The perfectly picked eerie setting is sure to give anyone the creeps. It is packed with twists and turns with a chilling ending I didn't see coming.

If you are looking for an edge of your seat thriller, look no further you have found it!

This was my first O'Sullivan book, but it definitely won't be my last! I am glad I have the rest of his back catalog to read whilst I wait for book number five.

Thanks to HQ Stories for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Leaving your natal city is not always something you choose; if you don’t believe me, you’ll have to take a deep look at Neve’s story. She left to forget her friend’s disappearance, sadly now after 20 years her first boyfriend has disappeared the same way… maybe it’s time to return to the roots and face her fears. Ready?
I always love a twisted story with dark secrets, so this was a win-win for me! It’s not difficult to predict that someone near Neve knows something more that they are letting on, so you only have to start guessing who could be and why… And let’s be honest, these are my favourite type of books, knowing that there’s someone that is not telling the truth but guessing the motive.
The story is told between the present and the past, but it’s really easy to follow and to feel part of the plot, the need to know more about the story possibly will keep you reading for a few hours, but this is one of the side effects of a good book, don’t you think?
Darren O’Sullivan loves to create detailed thrillers that they feel real and full of surprising twists, making the reader to always enjoy the adventure. In this case, be prepared for some dark scenes… the title of the book will fit perfectly with the plot, don’t be surprised if you check the dark corners at your home for a couple of days after reading the book… as I said, these are only the side effects of a good book!

"One way or another, secrets were debts that had to be paid."

Dark Corners is an eerie, mysterious and gripping thriller that had me hooked from the first page. It is a story about friendships, secrets, lies and revenge. How we can run from the past but it will always catch up with you.

Neve Chambers left the small mining village where she was born and raised after the disappearance of her best friend, Chloe, and has tried not to look back. But when an old friend gets in touch to tell her that Jamie, her first love, is now missing, she feels she has no choice but to go back. Returning to the claustrophobic village, she immediately feels everyone’s eyes on her and the whispered rumours resume. As she reconnects with the friends she left behind and searches for Jamie the evidence seems to suggest that his disappearance is connected to Chloe’s, forcing Neve to confront the part she played in events twenty-one years ago.

The story is told in dual timelines. In flashbacks we go back to the summer of 1998, when Neve and her six friends are hanging out and celebrating the end of their exams, unaware that before the summer ends one of them will vanish and the rest of them will see their lives changed forever. The flashbacks made the book feel part coming-of-age story, which I enjoyed, and felt authentic, bringing back memories of my own teenage years with friends in the late nineties, when we would hang out with just a curfew and there were no mobile phones and social media. I loved that these flashbacks gave the reader a sense of why Neve was so anxious about returning to the village while also providing a dual sense of mystery alongside what had happened to Jamie.

In the present day we follow Neve as she returns to the village and searches for Jamie, finding herself embroiled deeper in mystery and danger than she’d anticipated as it seems The Drifter, a mysterious man the friends saw near the mine when Chloe vanished, is back and taking his revenge on those who saw him all those years ago. The author did a great job of keeping the reader guessing and I was totally at a loss as to who The Drifter might be or what had happened to Chloe and Jamie.

The atmospheric, chilling, ghostly and claustrophobic small mining village was the perfect setting for the story, adding extra layers to the mystery and foreboding and casting its shadow over all who live there. The dual disappearances and timelines were easy to follow and as the tension was raised in the flashbacks, you could feel it increasing in the present day too as like Neve you became suspicious of everyone and didn’t know who to trust.

Dark Corners is a twisty, intriguing and cryptic thriller that I devoured in just a few hours. Cleverly written, it is filled with twists and turns that keep you guessing right up until the jaw-dropping finale. A great read for anyone who enjoys this genre.

Dark Corners by Darren O’Sullivan is a cracking psychological thriller that will have the hairs on the back of your neck rising as the tension builds.
The novel has two time frames – now and twenty one years earlier – the action is inextricably linked. The reader holds their breath as the novel counts down from six weeks before the event. It was to be an event from which no one recovered and an event which would forever bind the people together.
Secrets unite and secrets split apart. A secret shared may be a trauma released or a burden picked up. PTSD follows the characters down the years.
Someone is out for revenge – but who could it be? Try as I might, I failed to guess (again.)
For years the small town was united by the mine, but now it is empty. Will it ever reveal its secrets?
A cold case is connected to present day disappearances. Can you solve the case before the police do?
Once again Darren O’Sullivan has produced a fabulous novel that consumed my every waking moment. I totally ‘lived’ the action and cannot wait for more by him.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

A solidly written thriller, this book was slower to develop than I had expected. I kept thinking why hasn't the author let us find a body and then get on with working the rest out. Then, as I got into the book, I started to relax to the developing plot and enjoyed the detail flipping back and forward in the years intervening the occurrence of the original events at the mine and the latest discovery of the escalating number of missing people.

O'Sullivan develops the scenarios well, bringing to life the town,its decay and the characters within. Each has a parallel story to tell of the effect of the disappearance of Chloe on them and the demise of this previously vibrant mining town.

The climax of the plot(s) is very satisfying, with all the loose ends coming together.

I think it is worth a read. Crawl up in bed, in self-isolation from Coronavirus and get away from it all.

Dark Corners tells the story of Neve Chambers, in her late thirties, who lives near Brent Lodge Park in Hanwell, London and is the joint partner, with her university friend, Esther, of a coffee shop called The Tea Tree, which they’d set up three years before. Her fiance, Oliver, splits up with her after nearly seven years together and Neve starts drinking heavily and begins to let things slide at work. After an incident at the cafe, Neve decides that she needs to take control of her life and when she coincidentally hears from an old school friend, Holly, who says Neve’s first boyfriend, Jamie Hardman, is missing, she decides it’s the perfect time to get away for a while.

Neve hasn’t been home to the small, ex-mining village for several years. She left after the disappearance of her school friend, Chloe Lambert, over 21 years ago, and has only been back a couple of times to see her father, Sean, who used to be a miner.

There was a gang of seven of them from school, Baz, Chloe, Georgia, Holly, Jamie, Michael and Neve, who used to hang around together and they often met up in an old abandoned and boarded-up security hut near the mine. Chloe went missing in the summer of 1998 after exams, when they all turned 16, and was never found, despite numerous searches. A mysterious man who was nicknamed the Drifter was blamed for her disappearance as the gang had spotted him lurking at night around the village and near the mine, which had been closed the year before.

When Neve returns to the village, she gets a rather cold reaction from most people, especially her old friends, who were disappointed that she just upped and left straight after the tragedy, leaving them to deal with things, and never returned. Neve ran away to live with her mum who herself had left the village and her family, just before Chloe disappeared, and didn’t return.

Neve stays with her dad but even he is a bit off with her and is frail and seems to be suffering from memory problems as he keeps forgetting things and leaving the oven on. Him and Neve rarely spoke over the years, except on the phone occasionally, and they have to get to know each other again after all this time and everything that has happened.

Set in two timelines, June to August 1998 and November to January 2019, we learn about the events leading up to Chloe’s disappearance that summer. And the current day, with Neve reacquainting herself with old friends and trying to work out what has happened to Jamie while laying the ghosts of the pasts to rest. All of Chloe’s friends were deeply affected when she went missing and none of them have been able to put things behind them.

I really liked the atmospheric and dark setting of an old mining village for this intriguing tale; it was something a bit different and the mine’s headstocks and past seemed to cast a shadow over the whole area, even decades later, with many of the men who used to work there still struggling to move on after its closure in 1997.

The story was cleverly written with several twists and turns and I didn’t guess the truth of what had happened to Chloe and Jamie. There were definitely a few of the characters who were not to be trusted and I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to be revealed at the end!

I liked Neve’s friend, Esther, who was very supportive and kind despite being let down several times by Neve and having her own family, a two-year-old daughter, to look after. Neve didn’t have a very good relationship with her father as he felt that he’d failed her and her mum when he lost his job at the mine but it was good to see things between them improve as the story went on.

Overall, I really enjoyed this intriguing, absorbing mystery, which was well plotted and entertaining. I sped through it in my rush to work out exactly what secrets everyone was hiding and where the missing were. I already have the author’s other books, Our Little Secret, Close Your Eyes and Closer Than You Think, on my Kindle so will have to read them all soon!

Another great book from Darren which is a very enjoyable read. Following Neve in a story that covers 2 timelines, one from 21 years ago and one up to date which alternate as you read giving you all the information of some great characters. The story is gripping making you want to know exactly how it ends with some nice twists along the way and of course at the end.

I felt the book did a wonderful job counting down both timelines to explain the trauma from Neve’s past to the finale in present day. An absolute corker of a book, and if this is your first by the author then I thoroughly recommend having a read of his others. I’m already looking forward to his next!

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Well Darren has well and truly done it yet again, he has provided us with another outstanding brilliant and gripping read.

Darren has such a way with words that he just draws you in right from the beginning, keeps you enthralled/captivated throughout and leaves you with bated breath right to the very end. Which is exactly what he did with this amazing book.

The story plot was so well written that it had me sitting on the edge of my seat in eager anticipation as to what would happen next and I was forever guessing throughout as to how it would all end and who the hell was the Drifter!! I never did guess correctly thanks to all of the twists and turns that were cleverly woven into the story.

And as for that ending, well that left me somewhat speechless I can tell you. So didn't expect it to end the way it did at all. I'm not going to say anything more with respect to that as I certainly wouldn't want to ruin it for you all.

I have to say that I also felt somewhat freaked out by those mines, but that's purely because I'm not a fan of dark underground places that are closed in and so I would have found those mines highly claustrophobia. It certainly gave me the shivers whilst reading this story.

So if you are looking for a book that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat in eager anticipation as to what will happen next then and be completely captivated throughout, then you really need to read this book.

And in addition, if you haven't read any of Darren's previous books yet, then please do not wait any longer, I have read all of his books and can highly recommend them all.

Having read and loved this author's previous three book, I had high expectations going into this, his latest offering. I'm pleased to report that, once again, he did not disappoint. This book hit the ground running, held me captive throughout and spat me out at the end, exhausted but satisfied.
Ok so, for full disclosure, I mostly guessed the ending. That said, all the way through I might have been wrong so it didn't take away any of the enjoyment of the journey the book took me on.
Something horrible happened 20 years ago when Neve was a child. Her best friend Chloe went missing, never heard of again. Did she run away? Or did something happen to her? This shattered Neve's world so much that she escaped her home town shortly after, promising to leave that part of her life behind. Back in the present and Neve is doing OK, ticking over, but her past still haunts her. It's all dragged up once again when she hears that one of her other friends from back then, indeed, her first boyfriend, Jamie has also gone missing, echoing what happened before. This forces her to go back, return to where it all started, to help to try and find him. A decision that she didn't want to make but felt she had to. But will it be a decision she will live to regret...
One of the things that really made this book for me was the use of the dual timelines. Easy to distinguish as they are written in first and third person, the parts in the past inject just enough of the right information to complement what is going on in the present. It's obvious that the characters have a BIG secret that they are hiding, all coping with what happened in different ways, but it's the drip-feeding of that which kept me on my toes throughout. Enough was exposed to keep me interested but enough kept back to keep me intrigued. Needing to read on. Wanting to know the absolute truth. Apart from this, there were also a few side-stories along the way which actually made this a more rounded read rather than just being about the main story. I hasten to say that these did not distract at all from the main aspects of the book, rather they just fleshed it all out a bit.
With now four winners in my eyes under his belt. I am really chomping at the bit to see what he could possible serve up nest time to top this... My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was a good psychological thriller.

Neve left her hometown 20 years ago after the disappearance of one of her best friends. When another of her friends goes missing, she feels like she needs to go back and help to search for them. But it opens a lot of old wounds around the reasons she left in the first place and she is not sure she how long she can stick it out.

With some twists and turns and an interesting ending, this was a good read. My only issues were, lots of characters to keep track of and it did drag a little in the middle.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. This book grabbed me and sucked me in. But it kind of slowed and got a bit boring half way through. It was a good story, just not for me.