In the Dark

In the Dark, the fourth in the Jonathan Stride series is a suspenseful thriller about jealousy, lost love, and revenge. When Tish, an old friend of Jonthan's deceased wife, Cindy, returns to Duluth—supposedly to write a book about a thirty-year-old murder—Jonathan's world is turned upside down. Forced to reopen the murder case of his wife's sister, Laura, the investigation unearths old secrets that some people think were better left buried. As usual, the plot twists are many and surprising. I liked how the author reveals more of Jonathan's past, even though he almost kills our hero in the process. I must say, this book does not speak well of the inhabitants of small rural towns in the northeast. I won't be visiting Duluth anytime soon.

Freeman is not for the fainthearted: his books are dark, edgy, tragic and compelling, and improve with every new title. This Watcher, his fourth novel, is no exception as we follow the further adventures of Lieutenant Jonathan Stride.

Despite his unsettling content, Freeman writes with an almost English sense of domesticity: characters are nuanced and well-rounded, seldom simply black or white, and his setting – Duluth on Lake Superior in Missouri, a welcome change.

Jonny Stride was devastated when his teenage sweetheart and wife died of cancer five years ago, but for the last few years he has a new woman in his life, the gorgeous former cop turned PI Serena Dial.

As readers of his previous books know, the relationship has been show more fraught but, after several bumpy episodes Serena and Joe have returned to Duluth, he is back in the police force and re-united with his Asian-America detective partner Maggie, and all appears to be plain sailing.

Until Tish Verdure, the spitting image of his late wife Cindy, makes an appearance and informs him she needs his help: she is writing a book about a 30 year old murder, that of Cindy’s older sister Laura.

Tish claims to have new information but while Jonny is reviewing the case and investigating her leads, Maggie is busy with the issue of a peeping tom, targeting teenage blondes. When one of the victims, a mentally retarded teenager, drowns while trying to escape her ‘watcher’, Maggie takes the death very seriously.

Cold cases stories are always intriguing – finding the answer to a perplexing puzzle satisfies that higher part of the mind that makes us uniquely human and programmed for impartial intellectual curiosity.

Our baser instinct, just as much a part of us although not uniquely human, is our desire for revenge, for punishment and retribution. Solving and intellectual riddle is one thing – far more emotionally rewarding is pointing the finger at a living miscreant and actually seeing him suffer for what he has done.

The Watcher is full of the sort of sexual perversity those of us who have read deliverance expect of small-town America: incest, rape, parental sexual abuse, paedophilia, voyeurism, dark secrets and twisted, abnormal desires.

Add racism, intolerance, ignorance and corruption to the mix and it is no wonder the result is murder: it might have taken place 30 years previous but many of the elements are still in place, and the killer has never been found.

It sounds drear and tortured enough to be Russian, deep as the waters of Lake Superior, gloomy and forbidding as the Missouri woods: the bare bones of the story alone are harrowing enough to make this a literary novel instead of a mere thriller.

Freeman is not a feel-good writer but his intention is to provoke thought and shudders in equal measure, not to plunge the reader into existential depression, and he is very good at what he does.

Well plotted and nicely paced, the Watcher is a fine example of good, old fashioned story telling, not dependent on the tiny chapters and radically different points of view too many writers employ, like a TV soap, to engage our interest.

It kept me guessing until near the end, and the end satisfies that part of us which eschews the bible – Vengeance is Mine, says the lord – and prefers payment in blood.
Be warned however that there is a lot to avenge, and a lot of blood. I repeat, Freeman is not for the faint-hearted…. show less

Il passato torna per l'ispettore Stride, sotto forma dell'omicidio, ancora irrisolto, della sorella della sua defunta moglie.
E tra passato e presente tutti i personaggi sono costretti ad andare nel fondo di se stessi, tra abusi e perversioni, per ritrovare se stessi e la loro umanità.
Bello, ben scritto e ben tradotto.
Una prece invece per il titolo italiano.

Another riveting Stride mystery. A case from Stride's high school years involving his dead wife's sister's murder that was never solved. An old classmate comes to town writing a book about the unsolved murder and provides evidence and clues that may or may not help the cold case. Revisiting his past, Stride is plunged into murder, deceit, unanswered questions about his late wife, old resentments, and crooked colleagues. He & Maggie work to untangle the webs that have been cast for so many years while Serena is seemingly working with the enemy. Trying to piece the past and present together draws out a murderer, a stalker, & new suspects that throw Stride off his game.

Thirty years ago, Jonathan Stride was a seventeen-year-old boy in love with Cindy Starr, the girl he eventually married. The very night they expressed their love, Cindy's sister, Laura, was savagely murdered, a crime that was never solved.

Today, thirty years later, Lt. Jon Stride is head of the detectives in his hometown of Duluth, Cindy is five years dead from cancer, and woman claiming to be a friend of Cindy's and Laura's has returned to write a book about Laura's death and its aftermath. As she proceeds, Stride is forced to dig into a part of his life he had tried to get past, and confront secrets many wish left undiscovered, secrets of money, power, corruption, even secrets about Cindy that Stride feels unprepared to know. With a show more number of plausible suspects, lost evidence, and traces of a cover-up, can Strider even hope to close this ancient case?

Mr. Freeman delivers a sufficiently-twisted plot, but more importantly, tells the stories of these characters with a verisimilitude that helps us feel the pain of betrayal and loss they experience. As he continues to write, his books just get better. This one you shouldn't miss. show less

Our hero, Duluth Lieutenant Jonathon Stride, is back for his fourth remarkable adventure. And this time it is personal.

An old acquaintance from the past arrives, writing a book about the murder of Stride's late wife's sister back in high school (circa 1977). A suspect who vanished at the time was presumed dead, and also presumed to be the culprit. A more likely candidate was a jilted boyfriend from a wealthy family, but money talks. This writer is more than just someone with an interest in the story however, and in time, the investigation reveals more suspects...one that just happens to tie in with another hot case.

Freeman is really starting to push the bounds of coincidence and credulity in this book. As suspicion shifts to a new show more suspect, the target of a current investigation, one wonders what the guy had been up for the past 30 years. Innocent people are being uncharacteristically obtuse and not forthcoming with important information that could better direct the investigation.

Even so, the book is paced well with plenty of action to keep the pages turning. I'll keep following the adventures of Jonathan Stride; but for the moment I'll keep waiting on the paperback editions. show less

The narrative structure of this novel detracts from the story. While the flashback scenes are compelling and help to propel the story forward, the narrative of the flashbacks is inconsistent. Some are told from the main protagonist view, in third person. Some are told via a "novel-within-a-novel" written by another character (though the novel-within-a-novel is written in first person point of view of a third character). It's not as confusing at it sounds, but it is definitely distracting. I think the author could have done a better job of giving the reader the backstory without the multiple types of flashbacks.

In terms of story, however, I found the mystery compelling and I didn't predict the ending, which is always a good thing in a show more mystery novel. show less