The story has a great premise and that’s always a great start. The story was an entertaining mystery, but it’s a slow start. There are some twists thrown in as I kept reading and it started to get exciting and interesting. I stayed engaged with the plot and comes to a wonderful conclusion.


Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this review copy, I received this review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I haven't read anything from Lisa Gray before but I would definitely read more from her in the future. I would recommend if you're looking for a quick read and a twisty, entertaining thriller. It was very well plotted and well written. Looking forward to reading more!

I'm a photographer, so naturally I was drawn to this book. The twist at the end was fantastic, but otherwise the story just kind of fell flat for me. The first half of the book I found a little bit slow. Leonard was such an unlikable character, I wasn't really sure if I cared how it things turned out for him. The plot just didn't seem completely believable. Everything is digital now, and yes, there are still a few photographers who like to use film and even develop their own photos, but they're pretty rare. I don't know that a hobbyist would realistically have their own dark room, simply because it would be so expensive! If the story was set in say, the 1980s or sometime in the pre-digital era, the story would have made a LOT more sense, but you'd have to replace social media and cell phones somehow, for the characters to learn the same things and communicate the same way.

Overall I thought this book had great potential, and a great ending that tied everything together nicely, but the progression of the plot was just slightly too slow for my taste.

I would definitely recommend this book to photography enthusiasts, as well as people who like a good murder mystery!

Good mystery with a solid plot! Really enjoyed the twist at the end. Book moved along at a good pace. This was a new author for me

I loved the unusual premise of this book - buying undeveloped rolls of film and discovering what seem to be pictures of a murder scene. What would you do in that situation? As if that weren't complicated enough, you recognise the victim!

With unreliable narrators and plenty of twists and turns in the mix, this kept me engaged the whole way through.

A new author for me to follow!

Thanks to the author, Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for the eARC of this book.

“The Dark Room” is a twisty thriller that will keep you guessing right until the very end. Just when I thought I knew what happened, it would twist into something else.

Hmm. That was interesting. A rather complicated plot that weirdly spoke to me in such a way that I had never anticipated. I though it would be boring but I was proven wrong by the awesome writing and pacing. Good job!

Cheers to Netgalley for the copy!

Interesting storyline. For some reason I didn’t warm to any of the the main characters. Found it a bit slow at times but it picked up towards the end with more than one very clever twist that I didn’t see coming.

3.5 stars

The Dark Room by Lisa Gray is a clever whodunit. The protagonist, Leonard Blaylock, is a down on his luck ex-crime reporter. Now he spends his time finding old rolls of film, developing them in his home dark room. A photo he finds of a dead woman shocks him, and he is driven to find the truth surrounding her death and his possible involvement in it!
The story is told from multiple points of view and moves from present time to lots of flashbacks regarding events of the past five years. While the characters are not particularly likeable, and at times unbelievable, the story is complex and well paced.
This thriller is a slow burn with good plot twists right up the final chapters. I will look forward to more stand-alone thrillers by Lisa Gray.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! I love Lisa Grays Jessica Shaw mysteries so I was excited to read this one. And it didn’t disappoint.

The Dark Room is a chilling, twisted and intriguing read. Lisa Gray is skilled in depicting the grey areas of her characters. Leonard Blaylock is a compelling character you want to keep at arm's length. He's made questionable choices and ruined relationships but finds himself embroiled in a vicious cycle of guilt and shame. The source of this is one night with a mystery woman. The supporting characters are well-spaced throughout the book and are introduced at critical points in the plot. As the pages turn, not everything is what it seems to be. Under the mask of revenge is an undercurrent of deception, secrets and lies. The relationship between Leonard and Martha is well written as they transition from being friends to lovers. The characters are not likeable at all, and as a reader, I found myself rather detached, which is excellent for this chess-game thriller. The ending was jaw-dropping, and the final chapter was the cherry on top. What never leaves you is a haunting fog of unease, distrust and suspicion. Do not skip this one if you love psychological thrillers with a dash of romance and suspense.

Thank you, NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK, and Thomas & Mercer, for giving me this e-ARC. This honest review is left voluntarily.

I really enjoy Lisa Gray’s Jessica Shaw series but this standalone wasn’t for me. It sounded like a great premise but in my opinion, the characters let it down. None of the characters were likable so it’s a struggle to work out who you’re actually supposed to be rooting for. The amount of twists and lies was a bit much but I didn't see some of them coming. The story is told from multiple POV’s which was fine but the ones from the detective were unnecessary and didn’t add anything. Overall this was a miss for me.

I received a copy of the ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The whole premise of this story was really interesting. I think I would like to develop old reels and see what they hide .
The story reads more as a cozy mystery type than a pulse racing thriller for me but I still enjoyed it a lot. The characters are pretty easy going and the suspense in the investigation of finding out who was the woman in those pictures kept me guessing until the last page.
A great read for a cozy fall/winter evening

Now this was a 50/50 for me and I'll tell you why.

Whilst I couldn't put it down, it really did have me turning the pages.. it just didn't feel like the crime thriller that its marketed as. There was zero thrilling involved!

I loved the originality of the plot. Finding old photo reels and developing them, never knowing what you're going to find or who the people in those photos are. A 'hobby' I'd never actually heard of but since found out it is a thing and people do it for fun.

Leonard is one of those people and one day he develops a film that produces a photo of a dead body. Intriguingly this gives Leonatd a weird flashback to something that has happened to him previously *no spoilers*

Enlisting the help of an online 'friend' Martha who also has the same hobby, they start investigating where this film came from and who the victim may be.

The characters were a bit hit and miss in my opinion, rather two dimensional but I did gravitate towards Red.

There were enough twists to keep me interested and the final outcome ending wasn't what inwas expecting at all, which was a shock as I thought I'd had it all figured out 🤣

Thanks to netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the ARC.

Leonard Blaylock's life fell apart 5 years ago after a one night stand went wrong. He was a successful journalist, but now he freelances to pay the bills, drinks too much, and pursues his new hobby of buying and developing forgotten and discarded rolls of film. But that night 5 years ago comes back to him when he develops a film that shows a murder. And not just any murder, but that of a woman he thought died 5 years ago. Leonard enlists the help of a fellow hobbyist to figure out what's going on. The plot had some good twists and I enjoyed the book, but I never really felt a connection to the characters.

The Dark Room is the story of Leonard Baylock who used to be a crime reporter. Now he spends his time buying old film reels and developing them. While developing the film he finds a murder scene of a woman stabbed to death. He is shocked by what he sees. This is the woman he believed he had been involved with her death five years ago.

The premise of this story was interesting but unfortunately for me it didn't hold my interest. I didn't care for the characters at all, I had no vested interest in reading until the end. Sorry but this was not for me.

EXCERPT: In the more than two years since Angela, his finds had ranged from complete garbage to pretty fascinating. The latter were the ones that made it onto the bedroom wall. There had never once been anything even close to illegal in what he'd picked up from e-Bay, estate sales and flea markets.

Anything could be on those rolls.

Even so, Leonard knew he was wise to take precautions; that there was a chance he could come across a roll of film one day that contained something so damaging, so shocking and horrifying that the police would be called, no doubt about it, if anyone other than Leonard was responsible for developing it.

Today was that day.

ABOUT 'THE DARK ROOM': Ex–crime reporter Leonard Blaylock spends his days on an unusual hobby, developing forgotten and discarded rolls of film. He loves the small mysteries the photographs reveal to him. Then Leonard finds something no one would ever expect, or want, to see captured on film—the murder of a young woman.

But that’s impossible, because the woman is already dead. Leonard was there when it happened five years earlier.

He has never been able to shake his guilt from that terrible night. It cost Leonard everything: his career, his fiancée, his future. But if the woman didn’t really die, then what actually happened?

MY THOUGHTS: The Dark Room by Lisa Gray is a book best gone into cold. For that reason I am not going to expand on the plot whatsoever, other than to say that it's clever. Very clever. And I loved it.

This is an intense slow burn psychological drama with some great twists. The Dark Room is the second book that I have read this week that is reminiscent of the detective/crime pulp fiction that my dad used to read, and I used to surreptitiously sneak from his bedside table when he wasn't home. There are a few cracking one liners, sleezy bars, and a beautiful woman with 'legs longer than a ten year stretch in Sing-Sing'. I have a real appreciation for those early crime novels.

The main character, Leonard, is a reporter rather than a detective. There are conniving, manipulative characters: a private investigator/photographer who sets up 'honeytraps' for people who suspect their spouses of cheating; a woman who will do whatever it takes to get to where she wants to be; and another who is only to happy to help other women to get real revenge following her own betrayal.

I was intrigued by the premise that some people actually go around buying up old undeveloped rolls of film, and develop them. It is something that never would have occurred to me, but now, I'm tempted.

The characters are not particularly likeable, except for maybe Martha, but even she surprised me in the end.

I liked the twisted sort of justice that is delivered. Unconventional, twisted, yet somewhat satisfying.

And I loved the final words in the book: 'Just in case'. Which, to me, indicates that nothing is ever really over.

A one sitting read for me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheDarkRoom #NetGalley

I: @lisagraywriter @amazonpublishing

T: @lisagraywriter @amazonpub

#contemporaryfiction #crime #murdermystery #psychologicaldrama #romance #suspense #thriller

THE AUTHOR: Lisa Gray decided at a young age that she wanted to write features for magazines and somehow ended up working as a football journalist for almost 20 years instead. She now writes novels full-time.

An avid reader, she was hooked on Sweet Valley High and Point Horror books as a youngster, before turning to crime.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Amazon Publishing UK, Thomas & Mercer, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Dark Room by Lisa Gray 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

All’s fair in love and revenge in this taut thriller from bestselling author Lisa Gray.
Ex–crime reporter Leonard Blaylock spends his days on an unusual hobby, developing forgotten and discarded rolls of film. He loves the small mysteries the photographs reveal to him. Then Leonard finds something no one would ever expect, or want, to see captured on film—the murder of a young woman.
But that’s impossible, because the woman is already dead. Leonard was there when it happened five years earlier.
He has never been able to shake his guilt from that terrible night. It cost Leonard everything: his career, his fiancée, his future. But if the woman didn’t really die, then what actually happened?

What a gripping read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

The Dark Room is a stand-alone suspense novel by the author of the Jessica Shaw series, all of which I have read and enjoyed. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for this one, because of the unlikeable characters, implausible plot and contrived twist ending. This is a shame because the premise sounded intriguing.

Leonard Blaylock is a down-on-his-luck crime reporter from New York, who lost his career and his marriage five years earlier, when he blamed himself for the death of Red, a beautiful stranger he picked up in a bar for a one night stand. His only hobby is developing rolls of film lost by strangers, but when his latest image turns out to be of Red lying dead of stab wounds, he is compelled to investigate.

This is told from multiple different character perspectives, which felt unnecessary and became confusing. Leonard is one of the most unappealing protagonists I’ve come across - an unapologetic cheat, and it’s really hard to see what Martha sees in him. My biggest problem with this book, however, was the quaint idea that anyone would still use film professionally these days - especially private investigators and baby photographers. I started wondering whether this was set in the 90s, just not stated, but then smartphones and Instagram were mentioned so it’s clearly meant to be present day or thereabouts. (No mention of Covid.) The plot kinda hangs on this idea, which meant I couldn’t take it seriously. (I’m sure there are people who maintain dark rooms to play with film as a hobby, but the cost alone would make it unfeasible to use it for work purposes.)

Then there’s the ending - clever in that I didn’t guess which way it was heading but I was left feeling cheated, rather than outplayed, and ultimately dissatisfied. This wouldn’t put me off reading more from this author as she writes well and has interesting ideas, but this one missed the mark for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon UK for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily.
The Dark Room is available now.

I really tried with this one. I liked the synopsis well enough to request this ARC. I love thrillers and honestly I just did not feel the genre in this one. The MC is all over the place and the plot fell short. The only character I liked was the mysterious Red. I was hoping for a fast paced twisty thriller. This one was just not for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC.