What a gem this turned out to be! A really compelling read by a first-time author.
There's a serial killer in town targeting females and carving numbers into their hands. The story line follows the police investigation and describes vividly the effects these gruesome murders have on the entire community. It provides a fascinating look at human relationships in times of stress and anxiety, looking at partners, parents & children, neighbors, work colleagues. Told from multiple points of view, the reader is able to get right into the mind of the victims, the victims' relatives, the serial killer as well as the male and the female police detectives in charge of the investigation.
It took me a little while to get used to the style of writing. I found it quite unusual, really short and snappy. The plot is fast paced and very tense with some pretty disturbing and gritty scenes, but absolutely cleverly handled. All the characters felt very real and authentic. I've got to say when the serial killer was revealed in the penultimate chapter, I was somewhat confused and had to go back over earlier pages, but it all made sense, and although the ending was very abrupt, I really loved it. Very cleverly done. I would certainly read more by this author. Thank you to the author and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

When a normally placid small town becomes the center of a multiple murder investigation, the townsfolk begin to grow increasingly agitated. Police officer Victoria Bullrush is determined to bring the killer to justice and works meticulously to make sure that she has an airtight case. But the folks in town aren’t willing to wait, they want justice and they will have it, any way they can

What Lies In The Dark CM Thompson

The book starts with a young girl running through the woods. She is scared of the woods but she is more scared of the big boys at school who might be on her safe route home. The opening few pages explores and explains her fear. The rest of the book examines the fears of a community.

The main story starts with Detective Sergeants Victoria “Bullface” Bullrush and Aaron Fletcher attending a murder scene. There is a marking on the body which confuses the detectives, and about the significance of which they disagree about.

As the story unfolds it is evident that there is a serial killer in the area and that they are killing women, the attacks becoming more frequent.

Thompson looks at the fear of local people and the affect the crimes are having on them, and also looks at the affect the investigation is having on the Police Officers.

The story rattles to its conclusion with a bit of padding. The author uses case files to remind the reader about each of the victims, and by the time you get to them you need them to bring the story back into line.

I’m tempted to say this book is a series of very small stories linked by some slightly unbelievable main characters. It’s almost a scatter gun approach to a Police Procedural. For the first 2 chapters I wasn’t sure what country it was set in, and I still don’t know where in the UK it was set.

This all led to it being a very frustrating read

A great thriller, with 2 detectives on the hunt for a serial killer who is slowly working his way through the women of a town, cutting their throats and then carving a number into their hand. As his attacks become more and more audacious, the detectives become more and more desperate to find the perpetrator before they strike again in a town living in fear of the dark. A great debut thriller, with some wonderful flairs of style - I particularly liked the seemingly innocuous descriptions of the victims, as women going about their day, only for things to take a sharp turn as you realise that Thompson is in fact describing another victim's dead body. Well worth a read.

What Lies in the Dark put me in mind of a 2000 piece jigsaw I completed over winter. It was challenging, but rewarding.

I started by sorting out the pieces, and put together the outside edges, with a few pieces in the wrong places which I rectified as I went along, much like the investigation into these deaths.

There was a small pile of pieces that I was sure did not belong to the puzzle at all, that I pushed to one side, just like some of the evidence in these cases.

Then there was a point when I was almost finished (I had by this time found homes those pieces that I hadn't believed belonged) when I believed I had pieces missing....just like the detectives bent on solving these grisly murders.

But in the end, they were all there, I finished and had a magnificent picture of a bucketful of colourful wildflowers.

What Lies in the Dark is constructed much like a jigsaw - instead of little piles of pieces we have brief vignettes that, when you first read them, you are not sure where they fit. But by then end of the book (and WHAT an end!) everything has fallen into place, and you are left with the magnificent feeling of having just read a really well constructed and thrilling book.

The bodies of young women are being discovered, some left out in the open, some hidden, but all with one common feature - the numbers on their hands, sometimes carve, sometimes written.

As time passes, and more bodies are discovered, the police are helpless, baffled by the lack of clues. The public become angry and frightened and people begin to turn on one another, and some take things into their own hands.

This book is written in a slightly breathless style that is well suited to the heightened level of suspense artfully created by the author.

CM Thompson has perfectly captured human nature - our pettiness and rivalries; our emotions of apathy and anger, our righteousness and suspicions.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hookline Books and author CM Thompson for the gift of a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.