Into The Dark, by Fiona Cummins {Book Review}

If you’re a book lover and a long time reader of my book reviews, you may know that Fiona Cummins’, The Neighbour, is one of my favourite psychological thrillers of all time. Any time I have an opportunity to review a book by her, I’m on it like white on rice! When I was approved to read an advanced review copy of Into The Dark on Netgalley, I squealed like an excited school girl!

What is Into the Dark about?

THE PLACE: Seawings, a beautiful Art Deco home overlooking the sweep of the bay in Midtown-on-Sea.

THE CRIME: The gilded Holden family – Piper and Gray and their two teenage children, Riva and Artie – has vanished from the house without a trace.

THE DETECTIVE: DS Saul Anguish, brilliant but with a dark past, treads the narrow line between light and shade.

One late autumn morning, Piper’s best friend arrives at Seawings to discover an eerie scene – the kettle is still warm, all the family’s phones are charging on the worktop, the cars are in the garage. But the house is deserted.

In fifteen-year-old Riva Holden’s bedroom, scrawled across the mirror in blood, are three words:

Make
Them
Stop.

What happens next?

My Thoughts

Into the Dark has such an intriguing plot, where a whole family disappears without a trace! I’m a huge fan of Fiona’s writing style, so I already knew I would not be bored reading this book. The book is told in multiple timelines and also from multiple POV’s. The timelines range from 2 months ago, 5 days ago, the day of…..but it wasn’t really difficult to keep track of the different timelines and POV’s, which is great, as it could prove to be quite confusing.

As we unravel the mystery, it becomes clear that the Holden family has a lot of secrets and all may not be as it seems. We think we know these characters, but with each chapter, we learn something new and I really didn’t know who to trust anymore…did somebody say unreliable narrator??? I love me an unreliable narrator or 4!

Into the Dark was quite the page turner and I really wanted to solve this mystery….BUT as interesting as the book was and engrossing, I did find there was some disconnect for me…and I think it’s because half way through, I felt like I was in the middle of a Samantha Downing book! It didn’t seem like the writing/plotting of the author that I know. I love Samantha too, so that’s not the issue at all….this is more an issue with me and what I expected…an author is allowed to have a different writing style!

My Rating

Into the Dark has a Goodreads rating of 4.14 stars and I am soooooo close to 4 stars, but I’m going to cap my rating at 3.75 stars. If the epilogue made more sense to me, I think I could have gotten there. Otherwise, this was a really wicked and entertaining read, with plot twists galore that any thriller lover would enjoy!

Disclaimer: I was provided with an ARC by Netgalley and Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.