What's the book about?

Lacey is on the scene to save a baby who is yanked from its pram and thrown into the Thames. DCI Mark and his team have identified a new terrorist threat from the extremist, women-hating group 'incels' or 'involuntary celibates.' His team learns that the kidnapped child was only the first in a series of violent attacks aimed at terrorising women. Things become even more tense as Lacey appears to have been singled out by the movement's leaders as the embodiment of everything they despise, putting her in grave danger.

My thoughts:

Always good to see another installment of a series you've invested so much time and energy in. This topic is such a relevant one and it's creepy how my girl friends and I were discussing something similar to this misogyny just a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see Lacey is back and the book itself is a compelling, twisted and tense novel!

My first encounter with Lacey Flint resonates. The characterisation is so complete with snippets from the past illuminating the present that it reads well as a standalone book. It's fast-paced, contemporary and has a dystopian vibe, but given the current climate, it's believable, making it so dark and disturbing. There is a believably created investigating team dynamic with a good balance of investigation and personal experiences. Lacey's extraordinary secret past threatens to destroy her present, and this is cleverly woven into the investigation, making Lacey vulnerable.

I love the complex characters, the contemporariness of the plot and the atmospheric setting; interwoven with the menacing, mysterious ethos, this is a riveting read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

This was another excellent novel in this series. It was tense from the start and didn’t stop until the end. I enjoyed the interplay between the characters and found it sadly true to life. Recommended

Thank you to #NetGalley for my advance copy of #TheDark by #SharonBolton

What a read, starts with a bang and the tension grows and grows.
Detective Lacey Flint is near the Thames when a baby is grabbed from their mother and thrown into the fast flowing water.
Although the child is saved this is just the start of a reign of fear engulfing the UK.
A group calling themselves MenMatter are calling on men to rise up and put women back where they belong, in the Kitchen.
A terrifying read that seems to be far fetched but maybe it’s closer than we think.
Absolutely brilliant.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the first book I read by this author and it was a great discovery as this book kept me on the edge till the end.
It's one of those book I started just-to-check-how-it-is and left happy and sleep deprived as I read till late in the night.
The plot is tense and well developed, excellent storyteller, great characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Wow this book was such a rollercoaster ride. So exciting. Seemingly the fifth instalment of the Lacey Flint series ( I hadn’t read any of the previous books) although can be read as a standalone. The action starts immediately as a baby is thrown into the River Thames, by coincidence Lacey is there and attempts to mount a rescue. Action packed, believable and very much set in the modern day. I am definitely adding the previous Lacey Flint novels to my tbr list.

Thanks to netgalley for access to an arc.

You can read The Dark without having read the others in the Lacey Flint series, but I can tell you that if you do, you’ll be heading straight for the back catalogue to read the others, because this is an addictive series with a must read character in Lacey Flint.

This is a series I adore and Sharon Bolton has kept us waiting eight years for the next instalment. Has the wait been worth it? You bet it has!

Sharon Bolton’s timely and exciting novel focuses on a rising threat to women – the incel or involuntary celibate movement which is rearing its head in a number of places. In a tense, exciting and very pacy novel, Bolton cleverly mixes together current right wing political strands and tendencies with this movement to produce an ugly and compelling picture of what could happen without it once feeling at all far-fetched.

Lacey Flint’s background and the secrets she keeps are to the fore here as she faces up to a formidable adversary. This is someone she has met before; someone who can bring down everything she has worked for. Her relationship with DCI Mark Joesbury has been on the back burner for a while; getting too close was threatening both Lacey’s freedom and making her fear that she could bring Joesbury down with her.

But the upsurge in violent misogyny brings the two together as they combine to fight an enemy that has tentacles everywhere.

Sharon Bolton’s writing is piercing, brilliant, dark and seriously unnerving as she so cleverly cpatures the heart of the incel movement and how it could be used and manipulated to subjugate and terrify women. It is a very scary and horribly plausible scenario.

The Dark is a brilliant book with coruscating, intense writing, brilliantly unpredictable plotting and some characters who will strike a resonant chord with readers. Sharon Bolton isn’t slow to draw her own parallels with events that are happening elsewhere in the world either, lest any woman reading this book start to feel that this is after all, only fiction. I wish that were so, but as she scarily points out, the world is changing for women and in far too many cases, not for the better.

I think that’s one reason this book really got to me. Yes, it is a fantastic thriller with great characters, lots of action, danger, thrills and spills, but it is also highlighting a serious trend that women everywhere need to be alive to.

Verdict: Tense, scary, plausible with terrific characters, serious engagement with a clever and insidious plot and wonderful writing. This is Bolton on top class form and she is unbeatable. Just wonderful.

When off duty Lacey is chatting with friends beside the River Thames when a man snatches a baby & throws it into a child's inflatable unicorn. Fortunately Lacey is able to rescue the child. The event is a horrible one but DCI Mark Joesbury is not altogether surprised. Whilst monitoring the Dark Web there has been an increase in activity by 'Incels' - men who consider themselves involuntarily celibate & consequently hate women & would like to see them barefoot & catering to a man's every whim! As their activities grow more violent, it seems that they have in in for Lacey. She begins to suspect that something that happened in her past is connected but if it came out, her carefully constructed life could collapse around her.

It's been a long time since there was a Lacey Flint book. As it is one of my favourite crime series I was thrilled to see this one. It's been a long wait but it was well worth it. The story like the title is dark & frighteningly believable. I loved it! I do hope this means we won't have to wait so long before me meet Lacey & Mark again. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Another great read from Sharon Bolton.
This book features Lacey Flint who has been in other books but I’m not sure if I’ve read them.
There’s enough of a backstory though so I was able to follow.
This book is a bit of a shocker in places as a group of men are attacking women and want them to be treated as inferior to men as punishment for how they’ve made men feel in the past.
They think nothing of attempting to harm babies and even using acid on defenceless women.
Lacey is drawn into the case but soon it turns personal and her secret is threatened to be exposed.
This is a gripping crime thriller.
Thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The Dark is the 5th in a series of books but if you haven’t read the others ( I hadn’t) you are in with the characters within a couple of chapters and totally drawn in. Sharon Bolton is brilliant at creating fabulous, believable characters and throwing them into an unbelievably tense situation.
MenMattter is an incel group operating on the dark web, they embark on a series of violent stunts which begin to threaten the safety and freedom of every woman. Trying to unmask the shadowy figures behind the movement are Lacey Flint and her friends and colleagues Mark And Dana. However, Lacey isn’t sharing some key information linking her to the ring leader, AryanBoy.
The plot ratchets up the tension to the point that you almost can’t read on, it’s very cleverly done and brilliantly written. Sharon Bolton just writes the perfect thriller, I’m going to find the rest of the series!
Thank you to #netgalley and #orionbooks for allowing to review this ARC

I had not realised that this title was the fifth in a series but it was easy to read as a stand alone. The tension created from the Prologue and then Part One was intense and it never eased. This was edge of the seat reading from the start.
Lacey Flint and DCI Mark Joesbury find themselves working together again in the fight against a group of incels (involuntary celibates) on the dark web who appear to be intent on putting women back in their place - in the home, serving their menfolk and inferior. It is unnerving and Sharon Bolton's writing makes this sound feasible and terrifying. From start to finish an edge of the seat read.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Sharon Bolton/Orion Publishing for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Dark is just that... Dark! It deals with abduction, misogynism and mayhem, and that's just to begin with. Very well written and very thought provoking at times too, with a storyline that you can't put down! Only having read it did I discover that it's part of a series however it reads well as a standalone.
Overall 4.5*
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.

Sharon Bolton is one of my favourite authors and I have read almost all of her books.
This is the newest instalment in the Lacey Flint series. You can read it as a stand-alone but you will struggle to understand some of the back story and character relationships without reading the previous 4 books.
This picks up where book 4 left off with Lacey still working on the river, she is yet again pulled into a police case and becomes a target.
As always I was pulled into the story immediately and struggled to put it down!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Dark is the latest in the Lacey Flint series by Sharon Bolton and you are immersed straight into the action from page one. We have a group of ‘incels’ (involuntary celebrates) terrorising women across London and Mark Joesbury’s team are trying to infiltrate them to bring their terrible plans to an end, however it seems the leaders have singled out Lacey as their main target putting her in great danger. A captivating, pacy read that will keep you hooked. Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and the author for the chance to review.

I love Sharon Bolton’s writing and once again I was so impressed with this book. It was gripping from the start! I will review this on my instagram soon @rosereadstoomuch 5/5⭐️

This is a fast paced thriller which has no shortage of twists and turns. What I didn't realise when I started reading this book eas that it is the fifth in a series however that did not put me off reading it. It reads very well as a stand alone.
When a baby is snatched from its mother and let loose on the Thames on an inflatable, Lacey Flint, a member of the Met police marine unit, is on hand to rescue the baby. This however was just the start of a terror campaign against women which Lacey found herself at the heart of due to an incident some twelve years previous.
A special task force led by DCI Mark Joesbury set out to catch the leaders of this terror group of incels who conducted their campaign on the dark web.
This read an intriguing read which was very well written and kept you in suspense from the outset.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book 5 in the Lacey Flint series and she is still a police constable in the River Thames Marine unit. Although I have read this author before this is my first read in this series. The prologue gave some background to Lacey’s past but I still felt there was some information I needed to know. Lacey is a great character, strong and single minded but restrained by the secrets from her past. This is dark, very dark (no pun intended) and so well written - I was on the edge of my seat at times with the tension.

Briefly, a baby is thrown into the River Thames and Lacey rescues it but then becomes a target herself; the terrorists know about her past. DCI Mark Joesbury has been monitoring a extremist terrorist group known as ‘incels’ - a woman hating group targeting women in extreme and unpleasant ways.

Good plot twists and a great pace keep my attention to the last page. It’s clear the dark web and incels have been thoroughly researched which makes this even more terrifying. It seemed to me that this could easily happen. The plot is very twisted as are some of the characters, their plans are horrendous; as a woman this was disturbing. Their intention to return to when the life of a woman was one of drudgery, with no rights, and their intended means to achieve this aim was nothing less than shocking. A good, thought provoking read that is going to stay with me for a while. I definitely need to read the earlier books in the series ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I haven't read any of the other Lacey Flint books but I will now seek them out, I am intrigued to find out more of the back story. The Dark is a good thriller with interesting characters and teeth-clenching action. I did wonder why one of the women, warned that it was dangerous to go out, still went out when she didn't absolutely have to but that's just me, I suppose. Well worth a read.

Grabbed me from the first few pages. Obviously a back story in a previous book that I have not read but that did not spoil my enjoyment of the story and the characters.
The twists as the tale speeds along with the cast of characters meshing and conflicting unexpectedly.
The ending is stunning so find a comfortable chair and escape into the adventure.

Loved this book and the characters. I had not read the first 4 books but will gave to now. A truly memorable read that kept me on the edge of my seat. Picking g it up at every opportunity.