3.5

It’s 12th February 2021 and the start of Dr Kate North’s year as a doctor for the United Nations Antarctic Ice Station (UNA). She’s been sent as replacement for the previous doctor, Jean-Luc, who dies in a tragic accident and it’s also a fresh start for Kate. She’s to care for the Winter Team of 12, Kate making it 13, unlucky for some. Kate narrates the tale.

This is a locked room mystery set in a vast inhospitable ice wilderness as winter dark descends. There are some good descriptions especially at the beginning especially of the silence, the cold, the impact of the altitude and it’s a great setting for a thriller. It lends itself to creating and conveying a feeling of claustrophobia, you’re totally cut off as there’s no way out for months which makes for some genuine intensity in the storytelling. There are some twists and turns, there’s a bunch of suspects (well 12 if we exclude Kate!), it’s a bit creepy at times with tension ramping as temperatures plummet and the Antarctic dark cloaks all. It’s good on the dynamics of the team, there’s a feeling of wariness and treading on eggshells especially as the mystery surrounding Jean-Luc grows.

However, the main problem for me is Kate. She blunders about, opens her mouth and blurts things out which is hugely annoying whilst popping pills. Perhaps that’s why! Her circular thoughts are also irritating, things dawn on her too late, she makes foolish decisions and she’s a real Debbie Downer having a negative effect on the other characters. Then suddenly towards the end she assumes the role of leadership?!! One (or two) steps too far. There are a lot of characters too which is a bit confusing and this also means they’re not well fleshed out. There are some fortuitous finds and some statements of the obvious. The present day events are interspersed with Kate’s back story which has little bearing on events in Antarctica and that could have been given at the start as an explanation for her accepting the post. The last part is quite exciting although no real explanation is offered for the perpetrator’s actions.

Overall, it’s a great setting for this type of thriller and there are some good, enjoyable sections and with a better lead character I think it would be a winner!

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the arc in return for an honest review.

gripping, tense and a true page turner. this book has everything I loved in a crime thriller. The atmosphere the author created was so real, I felt broken from reality and truly immersed into this book, the characters and environment. The pace was just right, it kept me gripped from the first page, and didn't go too fast or too slow. a great read!

I really enjoyed this book, it went in several different directions with a reveal i found to be quite shocking. The characters were faced with a range of problems and dealt with them in realistically different ways. It was also in a completely different setting and quite fast paced.

Thanks to Netgalley and Emma Haughton (and the publishers) for an advanced copy of this book.

I am a huge fan of a good thriller and this seemed right up my street. I found it took me a while to get into this story and it suddenly sucked me into this good book. I loved the descriptive writing and the way Ms Haughton describes the details in this book.

The story is set in the Antarctic, on a scientific base where a number of people have come together and it appears that there is a killer amongst them. The main character Kate is taken on as a doctor as the previous doctor had died, and this is the question "was it an accident or in fact a murder"?

I give this book 4 and a half stars as it was a different yet compelling read.

I will be looking out for more books by Emma Haughton.

A great read - twisty and turning. I couldn't put this book down!
Emma Haughton is an expert at pacy, gripping reads and this is no exception. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Emma Haughton and Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced readers copy of this book.

I'm so annoyed by this one, on the one hand what a fantastic atmospheric novel. The writer has a creepily good ability to make you feel claustrophobic in your own home. Brilliant suspenseful writing, that really is a page turner! (far too many books around claim that title but this one truly deserves it).

That brings me to the annoyance, there's so many twists and turns, a cast of characters full of secrets. But what certainly isn't a secret is who the murderer is. In what could have been a fantastic book its such a shame the central mystery is figured out by the reader so early in.

The Dark is a enjoyable read, atmospheric and kinda claustrophobic that makes a great setting for a good thriller. The writing is very good and easy to follow.
But from the start of the novel i couldn't shake the feeling that it's so how familiar to me.. and then the movie "Whiteout" came to my mind. It's not exactly the same but the concept and some of the main characters it's extremely similar, so it was very predictable for me the whole book. And beside that the main character really irritate me the most of the time and I get why she didn't understand some things, and I didn't actually like the ending...but i guess it is very difficult to be original these days especially in this kind of gender, still I really did enjoy the book and finish it very quickly.
I definitely would recommend it 😉

Big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This Antarctic based thriller is as compelling, dark and claustrophobic as I would expect an Antarctic winter to be. A small group of people on a scientific base are faced with the knowledge that there is a killer in their midst. Written from the viewpoint of the new base doctor, Kate, who saw the posting as a way of escaping her own personal trauma, we see a close knit group of twelve getting to grips with an isolated Antarctic winter and the gradual unfolding of tragedies and dramas. Each character is vividly drawn and Kate herself is a classically flawed heroine and outsider as the most recent recruit to the base. The plot is fairly predictable but it is an entertaining read.

This was a great who done it, I was flitting between people and really did not know who had committed the deed right to the reveal. I loved the sense of isolation and darkness the characters had to endure, and Kate’s addiction just added to the pressure of the environment.

This book takes place on a station in the artic, cut off from the world for several months.
There are 12 people on the base, everyone of them seems friendly when welcoming the new Dr to the research station. But is someone hiding a deadly secret ? Or was the death of the previous Dr really just an unfortunate accident?
When Kate joins the base as a last minute step in Dr for the winter she thinks it will be a way for her to start over after a recent accident left her world turned upside down, but what she didn't count on was what lurks in the dark.
This is a book that slowly pulls you in and then turns everything you thought you knew on its head. Keeping you guessing right up until the last page, this is a thriller that will deliver so many twists and turns you honestly don't know where you'll end up. A great read and I really would recommend it.

A great fast paced book with dramatic events set in the middle of a cold nowhere with a group of scientist and a fill in doctor due to the mysterious demise of the last on. Lots of twist and turns that kept me guessing to the end.

I am more of an outright horror than thriller fan, but if more thrillers are more like this one, then I could easily be swayed. The writing was perfect, easy to follow, with no condescending tone or hard rhythm to it. I liked how the author explained things (that may not be obvious to anyone who hasn't been to the Antarctic) and yet I was not left feeling dumb for not knowing them. The Characters were brilliant, you could feel each one was different, had a different personality, and they were not just all side pieces for the main character, who is beautiful and flawed and broken and mending (all my favourite tropes.) And as for the story, it got me a couples of times, and while I guessed who it was, I did not get why entirely. Brilliant read, highly fun.

Kate North starts to work as a replacement emergency doctor at the UN research station in Antarctica. The previous doctor died in a tragic climbing accident. But, was really just an accident?

Only a small group stays through winter at research station and not every psyche is robust enough to deal with the extreme isolation. Minor issues can easily escalate into major feuds, hostilities break out over a simple misunderstanding. There is someone dangerous on the station, someone they couldn't trust.

Stunning, captivating and atmospheric debut thriller. Freezing temperatures, constant darkness, snow and nerves on the edge.

Highly recommended.

Loved this one! So easy to read and lots of twists and turns along the way. Definitely a quick read and one I recommend.

One thing I liked was that it got straight to the point. The book started with her already in the place.

It's not best but it's still good. Reads like a young adult novel which is one a good thing in my preference

I have to admit that it's been a while since I've read a thriller, especially a good one but this was pretty solid. I am probably slightly biased because I love a contained setting but once this book picked up I did enjoy it.

Some issues did annoy me. I understand it's a base and it's realistic but there were a lot of characters, some who were not relevant at all which made it hard to ascertain who's who for a large amount of the book. The focus also shifted about halfway, away from a few of the characters which made them seem unnecessary.

In addition to this, the other characters that you did know about were very bland at times. Some were pretty humanised but others I did not care about at all. And this included Kate.

I also had an issue with Kates addiction. Aside from professionally, there didn't seem to be any stakes or change in her or even very little wrong with her behaviour as an addict. I guess you could attribute her bad decisions which there were many of to addiction but that was not clear. It seemed more like a convenient plot device. I also found her pretty irritating, her decisions at times were questionable and she acknowledged it but then either did them again it made the decision.

Despite this, in the last 50 pages it did pick up and it was very much a who's who which I did enjoy. Overall it was very meh until the ending but a solid read.

Absolutely brilliant suspense thriller. This book tells the story of Kate, a doctor, posted to the Antarctic for the winter. Keeps you guessing right to the end and describes the wild Antarctic very vividly. Not sure I want to visit!

The Dark, Emma Haughton

A&E Dr Kate North needs a big change so she accepts a new job as far away from her life as she can find it: UN Research Station Antarctica. The previous Dr died on the ice and not long after her arrival, after 24 hour darkness sets in for the winter Kate begins to feel unsettled, was the previous Drs death an accident? Or is a killer lurking in the dark?

My second snow based thriller in as many weeks! This setting offers something different to other thrillers the genuine feeling of being trapped. To leave the base means the risk of dying from exposure and the truly isolated setting means those trapped are genuinely trapped. A perfect and claustrophobic setting despite miles of open snow as far as the eye can see for Dr Kate.

Years of delving into thrillers gave me a head start on who to suspect however Haughton does a fabulous job here, she has a cast of people to work with and each one is tinged with just enough suspicion, just creeps into the darkness enough to point a finger at. Every twist and turn are gleefully swallowed.

This is a solid thrill, if you are new to the genre or fancy cutting your teeth on a slightly different spin then this is for you.

A tense, atmospheric thriller which keeps the reader gripped till the very end.

As the sun sets on the Antarctic ice station for the long winter, it becomes apparent to the resident doctor, replacing the previous doctor who dies in suspicious circumstances, that all is not well in the camp. Alienated and confused, she is forced to come to terms with her own problems as well as navigating a treacherous course through the complex interrelationships between the occupants.

Well worth reading for those who enjoy psychological thrillers

#TheDark #NetGalley
Suspense.
Kate North has been knocked out of her orbit by a personal tragedy. So when she's offered the opportunity to be an emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. The previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic accident while out on the ice.The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her past; no one is checking up on her. But as total darkness descends for the winter, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc's death wasn't accidental at all.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder Straighten for giving me an advanced copy.