A prequel to the Aector McEvoy series that sets the scene for some of his backstory. Dark is the most often used adjective for this series and in DARKNESS FALLS, readers will learn why. This is an excellent police procedural/ thriller that has enough twists to warrant your joining the McEvoy fan club.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I was excited to try this series as I love UK crime novels. I also like books with corrupt cops whether they are the main character or the problem. The murders were intriguing and I liked the killer’s view point . The main detective is weird and not a good weird. He is bland. His wife is weird and how they met and came to be together creeps me out. I just couldn’t bring myself to have any connection with him. It’s a shame I liked the plot and the writing for the most part. I will say despite not liking the main character it did keep me entertained.

Having read all if the books in the Aector McEvoy series, it was great to read this as a prequel. I enjoyed seeing the development of Aector as a detective, as well as his origins with Roisin which is a true love story. Typically gritty murder and characters in the darkly described setting of Hull.

I really enjoyed this from start to finish. Got into it straight away, characters you love to hate. It was dark & gritty till the very end.

I found this one hard to get into at first and I ended up putting it aside and coming back to it much later on. On the second attempt, I made my way through the rest. It's dark and twisty and I found it more engrossing as it went on.

This one wasn't really my cup of tea, I didn't love the characters and I wasn't engrossed. It had some good elements and might be perfect for someone....just not me :)

A dark complex psychological crime thriller full of twists and surprises. A prequel to the Hull based DS Aector McAvoy series. But this tale focuses primarily on the violent and bloody exploits of journalist Owen Lee.

Darkness Falls is an interesting crime book full of gritty characters and even grittier settings that is part of a series that has piqued by interest.

Told and narrated in a 2011 sensibility maybe a bit much for the social changes that have happened to the world since this year but it is an asset to David Mark and to carry these through to give a true sense to Hull during this time period. His characters are unique and rough around the ages and there is a Mamet feeling about this characters. They are not polite or mince words but hard as nails mentality dealing with murder and crime along the drenched streets of Hull.

Personally, this book was a bit difficult getting into to begin with as I have not read the other books in the series but with some perseverance and once I was a third of the way through, I was totally invested. Coming into a series in the middle does have its draw back from a readers perspective but this has nothing to do with the author and more to do with my lack of experience with this series.

The plot twists and dives keep the reader interested and although there is a lack of likability with any of the characters, this did nothing to keep me invested in the outcome. There is enough descriptive text to give me the lay of the land without drowning in over narrative passages. The characters were well described and kept true to their personalities.

Mark’s new book is an interesting hard edge crime novel that will appease people who are fans of this genre. It is hard hitting, edgy which some may find offensive but if you look at the world through the author’s lens, it all fits within this world. I liked the book and it has made me interested in the series. It is a five star book if you love the series but if you are coming into the series on this book it is a solid four.

This was very good. It was dark and gritty and had an atmosphere of unease and gritty reality throughout. The world of a journalist in a Hull was well described.

A dark, gory, character-driven, psychological thriller, a prequelt to the DS Aector McAvoy series - one that I have not read bu now wholly intend to!

A superb gritty book introducing a fascinating detective.

A city united in grief
A journalist ready to kill to keep his secrets
A copper capable of darker deeds than any of the murderers he puts away
An unworldly detective ready to do whatever it takes to save an innocent man.
Throughly enjoyable read

This book took me ages to read, and if I’m honest, I really couldn’t make head nor tail of it. I think, it would have been better if I’d read the others in the series and then gone back to this.

I must say, the only character I liked was the Scots lad, Aector, but the others were nondescript. In fact they were all a bit odd. I’m sorry, but I don’t normally leave a review for a book I haven’t enjoyed, but felt on this occasion it was necessary as I’d been given it by the publishers and Netgalley as an ARC. I’m not saying I won’t like the others in the series but this was not my cup of tea at all. I actually found the reporter quite offensive where women were concerned.

I read other books by these author and liked them, it's the first I read in this series and found it excellent.
It's dark, gritty, disturbing at times (sometimes a bit too disturbing for me). The plot is well crafted and the characters are fleshed out.
I want to read other books in this series as I liked it.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Big fan of the McAvoy series so was excited to see we were getting a tour through his backstory. A great step back in time to how McAvoy started out, and written in the same gritty, visceral style we've come to expect.

Having read all eight of the McAvoy novels I did wonder how he would be portrayed in this prequel. Although McAvoy is not the main character in this book he comes across as the same big cuddly bear as in previous novels.Although I would have liked to see more of him the main protagonist, Oen Lee, a journalist is a fascinating character.. As usual Mr Mark has described an extremely dark, damp atmospheric Hull. There's plenty of blood to keep you satisfied. I absolutely loved it as David Mark is one of my favourite crime writers.

EXCERPT: McAvoy freezes, his mind filling with pictures as his fading dream surges back to fill his vision. Suddenly the whole world is her, his nostrils clogged with the smell of spoiled meat, his vision nothing but torn silk and sticky blood. He wraps his arms around Fin. Holds his son until the moment passes.

They have been getting worse, these visions. As the court case has inched closer he has found himself thinking more and more of the dead girl he had so hoped to find alive. He found himself thinking of Shane Cadbury - the plump, slow-witted sex pest who had plunged a knife into her again and again and laid her out in his bed like a trophy. He has never truly felt clean since that day. He knows that scents are particularl, that each aroma is made of tiny fragments of a source. Each time he smells Ella Butterworth, he remembers that she drifted inside him. She has done more than climb under his skin. Her body, corrupted, defiled, is within him. She is his responsibility.

ABOUT 'DARKNESS FALLS': A city united in grief
A journalist ready to kill to keep his secrets
A copper capable of darker deeds than any of the murderers he puts away
An unworldly detective ready to do whatever it takes to save an innocent man.

Welcome to Hull.

In this masterful prequel to the Sunday Times bestseller Dark Winter, Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy is the outsider who must confront his darkest fears while hunting a killer that nobody else believes in.
In a landscape at once tender and brutal, McAvoy must tread the path between the darkness and the light, before facing an enemy who will brand him for life.

MY THOUGHTS: My trio of 'go to' crime writers when I am looking for a dark gritty read complete with black humor, has just expanded to a quartet.

A prequel to the Aector McAvoy series, Darkness Falls is dark, disturbing, thrilling and addictive. David Mark has created a compelling central character in McAvoy, a man haunted by his own demons, just not ones that you would necessarily expect. He is a man who cannot lie to save himself, a good man, a kind man, a man with a conscience, a man for whom justice means getting it right, not just getting a result.

And yet it is not McAvoy, a misfit amongst his peers, who takes centre stage in Darkness Falls. That distinction is shared between Owen Lee, a Press Association correspondent who has reached the end of his tether; and Head of the Major Crimes Unit, media darling Detective Superintendent Doug Roper, a man adept at manipulating not only the media, but anyone else he is able to dig up dirt on.

Mark's vast experience as a crime reporter shines through in his graphically realistic and chilling descriptions and obvious understanding of the criminal mind.

This is my first encounter with McAvoy, and author David Mark. I am pleased to see that I have many more books in this series to look forward to.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#DarknessFalls #NetGalley

I: @davidmarkwriter @ariafiction

T: @DavidMarkWriter @Aria_Fiction

#fivestarread #crime #detectivefiction #murdermystery #serialkillerthriller #suspense #thriller

THE AUTHOR: David spent more than 15 years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post – walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the internationally bestselling Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels.

His writing is heavily influenced by the court cases he covered: the defeatist and jaded police officers; the inertia of the justice system and the sheer raw grief of those touched by savagery and tragedy.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Aria and Aries, Head of Zeus, for providing a digital ARC of Darkness Falls by David Mark for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage.

This is the prequel to the DS Aector McAvoy series A huge fan of the McAvoy series and David Mark. Couldn’t put this book down once I started to read it. As always well written and with such detail. Living near Hull it takes you to all the places he writes about.
Great book, keeps you on edge and just have to keep reading.
Thanks to NetGalley and AriaAries for early read.

When young Ella Butterworth is murdered just before her wedding it causes an outcry in the media. The man charged with her murder, Shane Cadbury, is protesting his innocence saying he found her dead. The man handling the case DI Roper is convinced Cadbury is guilty and is unwilling to look at anyone else. He is more concerned with impressing the documentary crew following him.
Two men are found dead in a country park DS Aector McAvoy is first on the scene but he knows that Roper will take it from him. Owen Lee is a journalist covering both cases but Owen is hiding his own secrets. McAvoy only wants to find the truth but that is harder than it seems when no one else is interested.
Dark and edgy this has a really good plot that will keep you guessing until the end.

DS Aector MacAvoy is apparently the protagonist of 8 books so far and counting, but don’t worry if you haven’t read any of them yet, because this is a prequel to the series. MacAvoy is newly transferred to Hull’s Major Crimes Squad after discovering the body of a young woman murdered in a particularly awful crime. The aftermath of that, the trial of the man accused of the murder, and the truth of the matter is what the book is about, as well as MacAvoy learning to navigate the deep waters he finds himself in with a boss who is far more concerned with public appearances than justice.

The book is largely told from the first-person point of view of Owen Lee, a journalist covering the murder trial, who starts out the book in a suicidal frame of mind. Things take a dark turn when Owen stumbles across a murder in progress - a drug deal gone wrong - even when trying to end his own life, and suddenly discovers when his life is threatened that he doesn’t want to die after all. It’s obvious from this point on that Owen is in a bad place mentally, and we keep delving deeper and deeper into his troubles as the story progresses.

I actually found MacAvoy and his relationship with his wife Roisin really fascinating. Roisin is from a Traveller family, and the Travellers and the police generally do not have an amicable relationship - we even find out that there is an asterisk in MacAvoy’s file and a note that his wife is a Traveller, and he comes in for some prejudicial treatment for it, as well as slurs directed at Roisin. There is a ten-year age gap between the two and it’s revealed that they got together when Roisin was just 17 (legal in the UK, FYI as the age of consent is 16) which felt uncomfortable at first, but Roisin has so much agency I actually changed my mind. She is unapologetic about who and what she is, and so is MacAvoy, who absolutely adores her for it.

The point of a prequel like this is to tempt you to want to read the rest of the series, and I definitely do, but mainly because I absolutely adored Roisin. I liked MacAvoy, but his wife’s the real star of this show. Too often Travellers are antagonists in police procedurals, and even if not actually villains, they’re frequently portrayed stereotypically (and negatively) but Roisin, her family, traditions and language are appreciated here.

This is a dark and gritty story, but as a prequel to a series, it definitely did the job of luring me in and getting me interested. Five stars.