Into the Darkest Corner

BLURB: Catherine has been enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic and spontaneous – Lee seems almost too good to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell.
But Lee’s erratic and sometimes controlling behaviour makes Catherine feel increasingly isolated. Driven into the darkest corner of her world, she plans a meticulous escape.
Four years later, and struggling to overcome her demons, Catherine dares to believe she might be safe from harm. Until one phone call changes everything…
This is a dark, disturbing and extremely accomplished first novel from Elizabeth Hayes.

REVIEW : The book opens with in May 2005, with a transcript of a show more scene set in Lancaster Crown Court. Lee Brightman is giving evidence against Catherine who he says had some emotional problems and was violent towards him. He confesses he did hit her, once in ‘self defence’. At once we have a sense of how their relationship ended. The author then cleverly weaves Catherine’s story between two timeframes: her time with Brightman in 2003/4 and later in 2007/8.

Catherine, pre Lee, is vivacious and outgoing and anything but a victim and her descent into a life abuse and isolation is shocking and so believable. She is reduced to a lonely, terrified woman with OCD and PTS, constantly in thrall to her checking the security of her home and restricting her life. As a reader you engage with Catherine right from the beginning as she talks about her compulsive need to check the locks on the door to her flat over and over again whilst acknowledging how ridiculous it is.


Gritty, tense, compulsive reading, you actually can feel your anxiety grow as you read certain passages and you have no idea how this will end. The pacing is superb with the author slowly building a feeling of unease, tension and suspense until you are almost as wound up as Catherine.
This is an edgy and powerful first novel, utterly convincing in its portrayal of obsession, and a tour de force of suspense.

One of my books of the year show less

From the back of the book: “When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can’t believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee’s good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his controlling behavior, she tries to break it off and is stunned when her friends don’t believe her. Isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape. Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine – now Cathy – is trying to build a new life in a new city. The trauma of the past still haunts her. show more Then Stuart Richardson, her attractive new neighbor, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of a normal life. Until the day the phone rings…”

This book was actually “recommended” to me by someone I follow on Instagram – realistically, her review of this book was that it was chilling and horrific and it made her anxious and she wouldn’t want anyone to read this, yet clearly Haynes was a phenomenal writer to give her such feelings, so I just had to get my hands on this book.

What I Liked:
I have never been afraid while reading a book (sure, Stephen King books creep me out, but they don’t instill fear) until I read this…horrific masterpiece. I’d never heard of Haynes before and I honestly wasn’t expecting to be so affected by this book – despite the warnings from my Instagram friend. From page one you can tell that Brightman is a bad man, and as I read on I quickly began to realize that he was a monster. Most of this book is told from Cathy’s perspective alternating from past and present – her past in 2004/2005 as she meets Lee and starts her relationship with him, and her present life in 2007/2008 as she lives isolated and friendless, struggling with severe OCD and PTSD. Cathy is a slave to her routines, checking her flat before she leaves and when she comes home from work, making sure it’s “secure.” It’s clear that something deeply traumatic has happened to Cathy and as the book progressed and I read more snippets from her past with Brightman, I began to feel afraid of what was going to happen to her. The build up in this book was excellent – there are instances with Brightman where it’s clear he’s a bit psycho, but the whole time I knew this was leading up to a big finale of sorts – the crime that put him in jail. I took an instant liking to Cathy and genuinely began to fear for her safety.

I don’t know about you, but I generally put myself in a character’s shoes when I read – it’s not even really intentional, but when the writing is good, I feel as though the events are also happening to me. So as Brightman’s strange behavior began (moving little things around Cathy’s flat, random items going missing, stalking, physical and mental abuse) to emerge, I felt as though he was attacking me. Over the three days I read this book, I felt very anxious and afraid, like I was the one hiding from this man, rather than Cathy. I’ve never felt such strong feelings when reading a book before, and while I scared me and made me a bit paranoid, I can’t help but bow down to the power of Haynes’s writing!

Disclaimer: I really don’t read these types of books (I’ve mentioned I’m not good with genres – not sure if this is a thriller, crime drama, horror, or what) so maybe I was so affected because it was way outside my comfort zone. But this book was very graphic in nature and I was constantly unsettled while reading it. I also think part of what scares me is that this book is so realistic – what happens to Cathy could easily happen to any woman who happens to meet a psycho like Brightman. I’m fortunate enough not to have experienced anything remotely close to the events in this book, but the fact that it could have happened to me really instilled a deep sense of worry in me as I read.

What I didn’t like:
The graphic nature of this book and the deep sense of horror I felt while reading! It was a double-edged sword. I didn’t want to be paranoid – it’s just a book after all! No one was breaking into my apartment, stealing my things, stalking me, waiting in the darkness to attack me, yet I felt like someone was! The fact that this book had such power over me was scary all on its own. But this was a good kind of dislike, if that makes sense?

Like my friend on Instagram said – I wouldn’t really recommend this book to a fellow female, just due to the sensitive subject of the book. Yet, I really feel that Haynes did an amazing job writing this beast and that any book that gave me such intense feelings (no matter how negative) should be experienced by others. Who knows, maybe you won’t be as scared as I was, but if this genre (whatever it is!) sounds like something you’d enjoy, give it a shot. I don’t think I’ll be reading anything else by Haynes just yet – I’m still recovering from this! show less

When Catherine meets Lee in 2003 at a local night club, shes young, happy and has been enjoying the wild side of single life, he's beautiful, fit and disturbingly alluring, the sparks between them can almost be ignited and soon the two are exclusive. The relationship escalates very quickly and the sexual intensity almost scares Catherine, but shes never met a man who has brought such passion and tenderness into her life and despite a few warning signs she dives into the relationship with everything she has. When the intensity of new love dies down a more obsessive reckless persona takes over the charming man Catherine first met. Lee seems to always be hiding something, his long trips for work, his shifting personality his dark intense show more behavior truly terrifies Catherine and his mental and physical abuse begs her to ask the question, how did I become this woman trapped in an abusive relationship? However Catherine is not just stuck in a domestic type situation, she is laying next to a serial killer sociopath, who will never let her go. A horrific incident though changes everything and Lee winds up going to prison. Catherine is left to pick the pieces of life and slowly try and rebuild the woman she once was.

Four years later as Catherine is slowly beginning a new relationship with Stuart and working through the baggage Lee turned her into a small light is starting to shine through. Having been unable to trust anyone Catherine is finally at a point where her OCD and PTSD is manageable, with no friends and really no one to lean on, Stuart is the first person and only person she lets in. Happiness is attainable, its right there at the tips of her fingers, that is until Lee is released from prison early and decides his first phone call will be to Catherine and what follows is a goose chase of terror.

From page one this book was hook, line and sinker. Its the fastest moving, well developed thriller I've read since Watson's Before I go to Sleep. The first 75 pages are a tad confusing as you discover how Haynes is building her story, but once I caught on to the flow and figured the present characters name things flew by smoothly. For me the hardest aspect about reading this book (outside of the obsessive murderous creep) was the inability to relate to main character Catherine. She was certainly a dynamic character who boldly walks the reader through Dark's frightening tale, but due to the way the story was told and the constant shifting between past present, Catherine was always a hard to follow combination of two characters, the before and the after.

Her before character irritated me with her flippant attitude about sex and men, her nightly mission to be drunk and have sex with random strangers was a big turn off and easily you could blame her carefree personality for attracting a dangerous relationship into her life, however I think perhaps this was the authors intent, not so much the danger of casual sex but the carefree attitude so many people have about their own safety. The private information we so easily give away and the easiness of which a person can stalk, find and torment another by way of Internet, work or public places. In the after Catherine was 180 degrees different, going from the happy wild woman to the reclusive agoraphobia character we are left with. It was often sad to see what this man did to the vivacious character we meet in the beginning, but it also signified the importance of who we actually let into our life and who we really trust.

Into the Darkest Corner could be summarized into one word: RIVETING. However I think a more fitting word would be terrifying and not in the sense of a slasher flick horror movie but real world horror, the type that makes you check the locks before bed and makes you think twice about that good looking guy next door.....or that hot man at the gym who always smiles. I think the Miami Herald worded it the best by saying this book was and I quote "A terrifying tale of modern relationships".

Grow your nails out so you have something to bite on cause this tale is one you don't want to miss. show less

When I finished reading this book (at 5am in the morning mind you), I immediately wanted to give it 51/2 stars, that's how good it is.

Into the Darkest Corner is the debut novel from Elizabeth Haynes. She has worked in the UK as a Police Intelligence Analyst and is now an accomplished author with four books to her name.

In this one, Catherine is the protagonist and the novel is divided into two perspectives: Catherine's life a few years ago, partying with friends and falling in love with a handsome man called Lee, and Catherine now, living in fear with severe OCD and trying to recover from an abusive relationship.

It's hard to believe Into The Darkest Corner is a debut novel, it's expertly written and Haynes does a marvellous job creating show more tension and building up to the climax of revealing exactly what happened to Catherine.

The steps Lee takes to subdue and control Catherine - and later to scare her - are incredibly clever and creepy, and I began to understand Catherine's obsession with checking doors, locks and windows. Her OCD is a great part of the book, and an aspect of the main character's personality I found thoroughly fascinating.

With such an engaging plot, I was a little concerned that the ending might not be a satisfying one, but I needn't have worried. Haynes gives the reader an ending that lives up to the rest of the book, and one that had me spooked. It was brilliant!

I recommend Into The Darkest Corner to all readers who enjoy a psychological thriller and a good scare. A warning though: you will be compelled to continue reading long after your 'bed-time' and may end up checking your locks more than once. show less

Into the Darkest Corner was an intense read with a major creep factor. As I was reading I found myself looking over my shoulder and double checking the door locks. It was a scary story about a woman's knight in shining armor turning into her worst nightmare... She tries to escape him, but he is a cop and has more resources than expected.

Talk about a wild ride... I was shocked by this story and especially by Catherine's rotten friends! No wonder she was struggling with OCD. She was left alone, with no one in her corner. Her friends became her enemies. Life changed and everything she knew was thrown out the door. When Stuart comes into her life she begins to change for the better. It isn't an easy journey, but he puts a bit of light into show more her life.

It was such a gut wrenching read that left me on the edge of my seat. I felt the dark energy seeping off the pages and it affected me like no other book. It pulled me in and held me captive long after the last page.

My only complaint is... It did become slow at times because the book was so long. There were repetitive situations and overall it just had a slower paced plot. However, that didn't take away the fact that it is a must read!

I highly recommend! show less

I've been reading books while holidaying at my daughter's house. It seems her book club likes women writers (fine with me), and more than one novel about women suffering abuse. I think I'll take a rest, and maybe more alcohol, after this one.
Extremely well plotted and drawn out over 400+ pages, this is a thriller that maintains the tension right to the end. You almost know what's going to happen, and I worried that the nice characters might turn out bad. You can find out for yourself.
In the end, the resolution is a bit Hollywood, but satisfactory if not original. I need to get my heartbeat back to normal now.

From Amazon:

When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can't believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee's good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his controlling behavior, she tries to break it off and is stunned when her friends don't believe her. Isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape. Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life in a new city. The trauma of the past still haunts her. Then Stuart Richardson, her show more attractive new neighbor, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of love and a normal life.

My Thoughts:

A few warnings. This is a story of violent physical and mental abuse. It incorporates rape and other methods of physical and sexual torture. In many other books these types of plot turns would simply be for sensationalism. In this incredible tale, these plot turns are vital and fundamental to the story that Haynes is telling. It is not for the weak of heart or stomach. The book is both harsh and gripping, and alternates chapters between two different time periods. With each chapter you feel you're on a roller coaster heading for disaster. The ending leaves you thinking. show less