I have read fiona Cummins books previously and enjoyed them so was looking forward to this…it didn’t disappoint.

The Holden family have disappeared but how and why.

This is a gripping read that I couldn’t put down until I finished. Twists and turns throughout.

Great read

Wow! I loved this book from start to finish. I red it in one sitting. Not normally keen on police procedural type stuff, but this had an edge to it. A gripping plot with a really satisfying ending.

The Holden family have gone missing. Husband, wife and two teenage kids just vanished without a trace one morning; phones left charging, breakfast things out in the kitchen and cars left in the garage. In 15 year old Riva’s bedroom a message has been left on the mirror in what appears to be blood, make them stop. What has happened to the Holden family and what does the message mean? DS Saul Anguish is on the case but is there more to him than meets the eye?

“Into the Dark” is due to be published on 14 April by Pan Macmillan. I was fortunate to be approved for an e-Arc via NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

I love Fiona Cummins’ writing style. She’s so good at working in those twists and turns and keeping the reader guessing but it also makes this a really difficult review to write as it’s hard to say much without giving anything away.

The story isn’t told in a straight forward, linear fashion. The reader starts in the middle of the story with the discovery of the disappearance of the Holden family. The action then shifts back and forth from there to show how our characters got to where they are and what happens next. I know this style wouldn’t be for everyone but I never felt lost, Cummins always made it clear where we were in the story and it was really effective.

There is a lot going on and whilst on the whole Cummins’ writing makes the action easy to follow my one tiny complaint would be that some of the bits of subplot felt unnecessary and took me away from the main plot a bit too much at times, particularly as some didn’t feel fully fleshed out so either needed more time given to them to round them off more or could have been removed without really effecting the main plot.

The story was gripping and well written but this is definitely a book where you need to have your wits about you and not get distracted or you’ll miss something. I loved the twists, which left me open mouthed at times. If you love twisty thrillers this will definitely be a book for you.

"The only way to keep a secret is to make sure there's no one alive to tell it"

Absolutely brilliant read. Fiona Cummins is becoming one of my favourites for dark and twisty thrillers! Some bits had me smiling with how clever the twists were and I absolutely loved how the personality of one of the main protagonists slowly revealed itself, especially towards the final part of the book.
If you love a book intertwined with bitterness, obsession and revenge then this book is for you!

Definitely a book of two halves, it started promising but then lost its way. I'd still recommend it though due to the many twists and turns.

This book is so dark and twisted! Nothing, not one single thing, is as it seems.

Each character had their own dark intentions and evil agenda. And don't get me started on Detective Constable Saul Anguish!

What starts as a normal missing family mystery soon descends into multiple threads of a gripping thriller.

This is my first book by this author, but after reading this I will definitely be looking out her other books.

A superb read which I'd have happily given more than 5 stars to! The book starts with the sudden disappearance of the Holden family. We are then treated to a twisty, dark, well-plotted book as the truth is unravelled. The book is so compelling with perfectly observed, flawed characters and a plot that keeps you guessing to the end. The final chapter was absolute perfection. This was my first read of a book by this author but it definitely won't be my last! A very clever writer, and a truly stunning novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This book has so many twists you won’t be able to work many of them out.
The Holden Family, Piper, Gray and their children Riva and Artie, have gone missing. The story weaves its way around this event, going back and forth from days before the event to present day as the police look into what might have happened to this affluent family.
Pipers best friend Julianne has arrived at the house for their daily run. The house is locked and no one is answering. When the cleaner arrives she lets Julianne in and it looks like the family just vanished in the middle of breakfast.
Enter Detective Saul Anguish, newly seconded to the investigation, and as with all good stories he has dark secrets of his own. He soon teams up with Dr Clover March or Blue as he calls her because of her hair. She is a forensic linguist with quirks of her own, main one being she suffers from narcolepsy. These two form a partnership both publicly and privately and between them they start to unravel this twisted web of deceit and misdirection that seems to surround the Holdens disappearance.
It’s a deftly executes novel and will appeal to fans of the authors previous novels. Great read.

#IntoTheDark #NetGalley

This is a fantastic gripping crime thriller that has me completely gripped from start to finish. I loved the twists and turns and all the surprises that came with it. There are time hops but these are written so well. I really liked all the characters and believe this is going to be the must-read for all crime and thriller fans this summer.

Into The Dark maybe my first five star read this year and so deserves it.
Julianne Hillier arrives at “Seawings”, a large seafront house in Midtown-On-Sea where her best friend, Piper Holden lives. It’s early morning as they go jogging most mornings. There’s no answer at the door though, their cleaner arrives and lets Julianne in, there is no sign of the Holden family, the kitchen looks like it was in mid breakfast when something happened and there appears to be a message in the daughters room mirror written in blood. What has happened to this family and where have they gone? The police are phoned and Detective Saul Anguish is a newbie to the job and is treading a very narrow line between light and dark.
This was a very well written, very dark psychological thriller that I struggled to put down. The twists were really good, the characters were likeable and for the most believable which made a big difference. The storyline had a good pace and didn’t let up at all throughout the book making me reach the end far too soon! I can’t wait for the next book by Fiona Cummins.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Julianne arrives at her best friend Piper's house for their usual morning run and finds the place deserted; Piper, her husband Gray and their teenage children Riva and Artie have vanished, breakfast is half eaten, schoolbags ready by the door, phones still charging and Gray's car still in the garage and in Riva's bedroom the mirror is covered in three blood streaked words; MAKE THEM STOP! New detective DS Saul Anguish is brought in to join the investigation team on the case and get to the bottom of exactly what happened at Seawings, the Holden family home.

The story begins on the day the Holden's disappear, and switches throughout between the days leading up to and after the event. Most of the characters are self centred, not very likeable and all of them have a secret that they are desperate to avoid being revealed. I particularly liked the relationship between Saul and Clover, or Blue as he affectionately called her due to her hair colour. Its a complex, well crafted plot, but when the lies start to unfurl everything just clicks into place. There are many twists and turns throughout and a very fitting end to this tale. I read When I Was Ten by the same author last year and loved it, so I was excited when I heard she was releasing another book. If you like a compelling read that will keep you guessing, this is one for you.

I'd like to thank Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for inviting me to read this, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

This started out really well and had me gripped early on. The characters were intriguing and made you want to know their secrets. However, three quarters of the way through I felt this book really lost its way, becoming somewhat farcical in places and rather disjointed. It’s a shame because this could have been a really good read. But I appreciate the opportunity to read this advance copy.

Absolutely loved this book. Just what I needed too, as was looking for something absorbing and I got that and then some! A brilliantly told thriller, which time hops, but is never confusing and every single chapter made me either gasp, or rethink what I thought was happening. The detective duo, Saul and Blue are a genius creation and I hope they signal that this is the beginning of a series. A highly refreshing and original suspense novel.

One morning, Julianne Hillier arrives at her best friend's house to go for their regular run together, but finds no one home. The family's phones are there, charging, the kettle is still warm, and their passports haven't been taken. Upstairs in the daughter's bedroom, a message is scrawled in blood: "make them stop".

I read [book:When I Was Ten|52208908] by Fiona Cummins last year and rated it one of my top books of the year, so was excited to give this one a go... and knew to expect it to be <i>dark</i>. And dark it is, but I also was a little disappointed.

Whereas When I Was Ten feels carefully planned out from the beginning, Into The Dark feels less tightly plotted, with occasional threads left loose and hanging. The b-plot of the new detective Saul Anguish and the forensic linguist "Blue" he connects with feels largely unrelated to the central mystery, and I was disappointed that there was no real connection by the end other than him working on the case.

And the aforementioned darkness — in this book it seems that every character harbours a murderous desire, and as more and more of them revealed this side of themselves, it was hard to suspend disbelief, especially with Saul — whose backstory really needed to be explored much more to make him feel real, as the nuggets dropped about him along the way were wild.

Overall still a fairly gripping read, and I might have marked it higher had my expectations not been so high.

Content warnings: domestic violence (one short explicit scene), implied sexual assault

When Julianne arrives to her friend Piper’s home for their usual morning run, she finds that the whole family has vanished and their phones are at home. Who does that, why did the whole family of Holdens vanish? Julianne daughter Emelie and Piper’s daughter Riva also seem to be having issues at school. Would Emelie know what happened?
DS Saul Anguish is one of the team when detectives are called in. As the story moves forward, Saul’s background has a dark past.
This was a very twisted book with many twists which of course I didn’t see coming. Fiona Cummins has used some really fancy words too!
Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the ARC

Piper and Julieanne have been friends for years, so it goes,without saying that their daughters would befriends as well. Both are married but Piper i s not content with her idyllic life she's the woman who has everything the wonderful husband two beautiful children and a house to die for but it still isn't enough she has to manipulate people into doing what she wants. Her husband is siphoning money from wealthy clients and has been for years but Piper knows about this, after all she's the one who told him how to do it!
When the whole family goes missing is all as it seems, there's blood found but whose and what does the mirror message Make them stop mean?

This book would make a fantastic film would love to see it brought to life on the big screen!! Many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this and to Fiona Cummins for writing it. Highly recommended

An excellent read.
Murder,fraud,family dynamics,friendship dynamics,grisly secrets,dark desires,darker deeds this book has everything!
Great characters ,especially liked the women. Thought I had guessed the 'bad guys' early on but the ending floored me.

Another brilliant book by this author. I really liked the characters in the story and felt theyj were written really well. Highly recommended xx

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This story centres around Piper and her husband Gray, and their best friends Julieanne and Quiller. Piper and Julieanne have been best friends for years and years, and have a routine of sorts. Julieanne knocks for her friend one morning for their usual morning run, and her friend doesn’t answer the door, which is highly unusual. The cleaner turns up and they both enter Piper’s home. Everything looks as though the family were in the middle of the usual morning routine but it wasn’t finished, and Piper, Gray, and their two children are missing. Vanished, it seems, into thin air. What follows is an untangling of lives and lies.

This was a great story, a real tangled web of mystery. We are seeing this story unravel and we think we know it’s clear cut but it isn’t. There’s lots of secrets and lies. And everyone seems to have something to hide. The characters were all awful but in a great way that added to the story. The writing was great, and we read from the current time to previous times, so we can thread the story together. I would recommend this book.

Julianne Hillier runs to her wealthy best Friend Piper Holden’s house one Tuesday morning for a planned run only to get no response at the door.  Joined by the Holden family’s cleaner, they let themselves in to discover that all of the family members comprising husband Gray and their 2 children Riva and Artie are missing but there is evidence that the family had made it down to breakfast and there are signs that something “dastardly” may have occurred.

The major Crimes Unit including newly arrived DC Saul Anguish arrive at the house in Midtown-On Sea to investigate the possible abduction.  They are joined by blue haired unconventional Dr Clover March (nicknamed Blue by Saul) a forensic linguist, there to make sense of the message “Make Them Stop” on a mirror.

The story switches between the weeks leading up to and the days directly after the apparent abduction.  As the story unfolds as told by the family members, Julianne, her daughter Emelie, best friends with Riva and the remaining characters, clearly something is not right in the relationships. 

All of the characters are  fundamentally flawed and there are clearly issues in the marriages and friendships and they are really “not nice” people.

This is a very twisty thriller which draws the reader in trying to figure out what is going on.  The kind of novel I love and I read this in a little under 2 days, not wanting to put it down.

I highly recommend this book and others by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and Pan Macmillan for the advanced ARC copy of the book in exchange for a true and fair critique of the book.