Sarah Hilary

An overcrowded prison is a tinderbox waiting to explode and when HMP Cloverton does so the outcomes are devastating. Prisoners dead, brutally attacked by other inmates, several prisoners in hospital suffering from the effects of smoke from the fire and one escapee. Michael Vokes is a talented artist and known psychopath, although he had not been convicted of anything more than aggravated burglary his former cellmate hung himself and Vokes has a string of women writing to him. Marnie Rome is show more tasked with finding Vokes and after visiting his home her team is in a race against time. However it is hard to work out who wants to harm Vokes and who wants to help him.

This is a slightly different episode in the series and works incredibly well. The emphasis is less on the team and more on the psychology, the way people are manipulated by words. The twist was flagged up fairly early on but Hilary managed to keep the crucial point until fairly late on. I particularly enjoyed the parallel tales about Rome's parents murder and the questions being put in her head alongside the questions being asked by the people under Vokes' spell. This is a really strong series of police procedurals and it is only getting better. show less

I must admit this had been sitting on my to-read pile for ages and when I finally picked it up I thought it would be just another police procedural novel. How wrong I was. Sarah Hilary has written a gob smacking first novel. She takes the highly emotive issue of battered women and messes with our preconceptions and prejudices. As a reader I could tell Marnie was on to something but when I found out what was going on it really flipped my thinking around. I won't give too much away but if you show more want a novel that will truly surprise you, you won't go far wrong with this one. show less

I picked up Sarah Hilary's debut (and award winning) novel, Someone Else's Skin last year and thought it was fantastic. Hilary's second novel, No Other Darkness is newly released - and just as fantastic.

Detective Inspector Marnie Rome returns - and this latest case is a doozy. A homeowner in a newer subdivision is digging in his back garden when he uncovers the entrance to an old underground bunker. But what he finds inside is heartbreaking - two small skeletons curled up together on a camp show more bed. And there are tins of food, toys and clothing stored about as well. Who are these children? Why would someone provide for them, then leave them to die?

DI Rome's team is incensed, as is the public. But, as they dig deeper, they find there is much more to the story. I'm going to leave it at that, as I don't want to give anything away. But - Hilary's plotting is inventive, complex and oh, so very good. There are many tendrils, threads and paths to pick from on the way to the final whodunit. And best of all, I wasn't able to predict where the story was going to go. I really enjoy being kept on my toes. Hilary's first book explored domestic abuse, racism and homophobia as part of her plot. She again includes salient issues as part of the investigation.

And speaking of complex, let's talk about Marnie Rome. For, as much as I applaud Hilary's plotting, it is this character that had me eager to read the next book in the series. Rome's own background mirrors many of her cases - her parents were horrifically murdered. And that past is never far from the present. She knew the killer - and they are still in contact as she tries to find the answer as to why he killed them. Rome is a strong female lead - smart, driven and intuitive. She does prefer to operate on her own terms - sometimes to her detriment. The past effects her view of the present and she often makes judgement calls with those memories colouring her decisions - not always the wisest move. Rome's right hand, DS Jake is a great character as well. He has his own back story and it too is fleshed out even more in this second book.

The pace is quick, the crime is arresting and the characters are captivating. (And that cover is creepy!) An absolutely recommended book - but do yourself a favour - pick up the first book as well. show less

Foster child Nell invites herself into Doctor Robin Wilder's London home, Starling Villas, after overhearing that he needs a personal assistant, but who is taking who for a ride? Nell has been living on the streets since she and her foster brother Joe Peach ran away from the children's home in Wales, hoping to escape both the grasping woman controlling their lives and the tragedy that befell another younger child. Doctor Wilder and the attic room he offers her in exchange for cooking and show more cleaning could be Nell's fresh start, except that she is still haunted by her foster family and doesn't know if she can trust her new employer, especially when his estranged wife returns home.

Blurbs and summaries can make any book sound intriguing, if not exciting, and comparing the author to Daphne Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith is sure to draw many readers - like myself - into taking a chance. Unfortunately, Sarah Hilary's book fell way short of expectations - she's certainly no Du Maurier! The chapters in Nell's first person voice are filled with YA clichés, like the character describing her 'indigo blue' eyes and 'creamy neck', and how brave and honest and hardworking she is. 'If Robin Wilder imagined his wife’s stones only skipped the surface of my skin, he had no idea how deep I ran, what fears and furies I felt,' she puffs at one point. The other chapters, from the perspective of the foster mother who is like a Welsh Cruella DeVil, seemed to have been written only to boost the heroine from a second angle:

Back at the beginning, Meagan thought Nell was like the sea. Wild and choppy but you could learn its tides, chart its patterns. That summer, she’d started to see the girl was more like their precious pool. Deep and treacherous, full of caves where currents flowed to an ancient rhythm, stealing through the spaces in the stone, taking fish and rocks and anything lost, sucking it into a place no one could ever follow or find.

Who in the hell talks like that, about a teenager she can't stand and used for child labour in her foster home? This was my biggest problem with the writing - to paraphrase a description of Starling Villas, the book is full of rich words but empty inside. None of the characters had any emotional impact. Nell's 'woe is me' act got old very fast. She always has to be the victim, claiming that she fell in love with her older, married boss within the space of a few months and in the same breath accusing him of misleading her when she practically forced her way into the job and his house! ‘I know nothing about you. We’re strangers, yet I’m living in here, cooking your meals—’ she cries at one point. And whose plan was that, idiot?

The plot was equally unconvincing and so very, very slow! There is a subplot about a dead foster child that Nell and Joe grew attached to, which until the last chapter is little more than an excuse for Nell to beat herself up and pretend that her crappy life choices are actually karma preventing her from being happy, and the mildest threat about Robin and Carolyn Wilder's kinky lifestyle. That's over two hundred pages of Nell fawning over Robin and his creepy house while thinking back over her idyllic summers full of young love and child abuse in Wales. I think the memories were possibly meant to build Nell, Joe and the dead child, Rosie, into sympathetic, believable characters, but if so, that exercise failed for me. I didn't care about any of them, actively hated Nell by the halfway point, and found the whole Disney does Dickens take on foster care patently ridiculous. So parents can just hand over their kids if a baby cries too much or if they want to start a second family, hey? Good to know! I'll file that fact with manmade lakes in old quarries storing heat and being the perfect place for a swim!

Honestly, poor old Daphne must be spinning in her grave. This is slow, silly drivel with a deeply annoying lead character, who could have done with a little of the second Mrs De Winter's nervous charm, and a plot that is sacrificed to introspection and self pity. The 'nods' to Rebecca only added insult to injury. show less