Darkness Falls

Darkness Falls by Margaret Murphy is a mystery within a mystery and is suspenseful from the first page. Clara Pascal is an English barrister with a full life: a busy career, a loving husband and a young daughter. While dropping her daughter off at school, Clara is attacked and thrown into the back of a van, while her terrified daughter looks on. She regains consciousness shackled in a damp and dark basement, not knowing what just happened or why. DI Lawson is tasked with hopefully finding the barrister alive and bringing her back to her family. She is deprived of food, heat and lights and her masked kidnapper is unknown to her or is he! He taunts her cruelly and he obviously will not tell her why he despises her. Why is Clara in this show more basement? What will her kidnapper do to her? Why is he so angry? Will he ever release her? This is a riveting story. Thank you to Joffe Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. show less

Darkness Falls by Margaret Murphy
Clara Pascal #1

Have you ever had a day that looked promising only to have everything start to slip and slide away from you? You are ready and eager for work, not expecting to drop your daughter off at school and definitely not expecting to be kidnapped. And, that is just what happens to Clara Pascal...she is snatched from the street and carried away, put into a dark place and treated abysmally for days. All the time she wonders who took her, why she was taken and how she can get away.

This book has more than one thread to be followed:
* Clara’s time in the dark
* Police Procedural aspects
* Glimpses of how Clara’s husband, daughter and the nanny are doing
* Side story relevant to one of her cases
* And a show more few others

What I liked:
* The intensity of the part dealing with Clara’s experiences in the dark
* The why of the taking of Clara
* Clara’s insights
* Pippa – Clara’s nine year old daughter
* The twists and turns
* The slow revelations
* The real feel of it all
* The psychological insights some experienced
* The resolution

What I did not like:
* The evil people I was meant to dislike
* That justice wins – sort of
* The slow revelations – sometimes too slow for me
* The police procedural part sometimes lost me
* The sexism, female degradation and such

Did I enjoy the book? Eventually...almost gave up in the beginning
Would I read more in this series? I think so
Why? Because by the end of the story I was invested and wanted to see what would happen in book two of the series

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars show less

Although kidnapping thrillers are not one of my favourite types, I found that Margaret Murphy covers the topic exceedungly well. Which should come as no surprise as I have found her other two books: The Disspossessed and Now You See Me were also very well written.

I loved to see the development of the newbie Young as she grows to learn how to deal with harrassmeht at work, and task force life as a whole.

This is a terrifying thriller. A young woman, a prominent British lawyer is kidnapped in broad daylight while dropping her daughter off at school. The police have no clues other than an hysterical description from the little girl of a white van. There is also a serial killer on the loose and the police are hot on the trail but there is uncertainty as to whether this kidnapping was by him or whether this crime is more personal which may have something to do with the victim herself. The ending is a superb twist. I highly recommend this book

crime-fiction, thriller, suspense, British-detective*****

Intense psychological thriller filled with suspense and some really good writing. The publisher's blurb is really good, but the story is even better. My only complaint is that it kept me up reading until almost morning!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Joffe Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Gevangen gehouden, vastgebonden, geblinddoekt en doodsbang. Een jonge vrouw pleit voor haar leven.

Als Clara Pascal spreekt, luistert iedereen. Dat is altijd zo geweest, al zolang Clara zich kan herinneren. Het is een van de vijf redenen dat ze zo'n getalenteerde advocaat is, die door vriend en vijand wordt bewonderd.

Dan wordt Clara, onder ogen van haar dochtertje, door een gemaskerde man ontvoerd. In de verstikkende duisternis van haar gavangenis heeft ze plotseling niets meer aan de wetten en regels waar ze normaal mee te maken heeft. Haar aanvaller is degene die bepaalt wat er gebeurt. Maar Clara weigert bij de pakken neer te zitten. De stem van haar ontvoerder komt haar bekend voor en als ze erachter kan komen wie hij is, kan ze show more hem misschien overhalen om haar vrij te laten. Dus begint ze aan wat misschien we haar laatste pleidooi is, een pleidooi voor haar leven.

De politie wordt intussen zwaar op de proef gesteld: dit is de tweede ontvoering in slechts twee weken tijd. Wie de ontvoerder is en wat zijn motieven zijn is onduidelijk, totdat in een nabijgelegen rivier het lichtaam van een vrouw wordt gevonden. Op dat moment begint de jacht op de moordenaar, om hem te stopen voordat hij opnieuw toeslaat. show less

Advocaat Clara Pascal wordt voor de ogen van haar dochtertje Pippa door een gemaskerde man ontvoerd. Clara, vastgeketend in een donkere ruimte, probeert erachter te komen waarom zij ontvoerd is. Is het voor losgeld of vanwege haar rol in het proces tegen drugsbaron Casavettes? Inspecteur Steve Lawson en zijn team stellen alles in het werk Clara te vinden. Zelfs Hugo, de man van Clara, wordt verdacht. Dan wordt in een rivier het lichaam van een vrouw gevonden. De politie tracht de moordenaar te pakken voordat er meer slachtoffers zullen vallen. Intussen, in haar donkere gevangenis, begint Clara te vermoeden waarom de ontvoerder haar tot nu toe niets gedaan heeft. Deze thriller speelt zich af in het Engelse Chester. Op de website van de show more schrijfster zijn enkele foto's te zien van locaties uit het boek. 'Zenuwslopend, angstaanjagend en niet weg te leggen', show less