READALONG: The Dark by Emma Haughton

“ONE DEAD BODY. TWELVE SUSPECTS. TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR DARKNESS.”

The Dark by Emma Haughton is set in the most inhospitable environment – cut off from the rest of the world – where a killer is on the loose. A&E doctor Kate North has been knocked out of her orbit by a personal tragedy. So when she’s offered the chance to be an emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her past; no one is checking up on her. But when she finds out that the previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic accident while out on the ice, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc’s death wasn’t accidental at all. And the more questions she asks, the more dangerous it becomes for them all…

Rating:

Thank you to Tandem Collective, Hodder & Stoughton, and Emma Haughton for inviting me to join in the readalong for this book and for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was just in the mood for a new chiller thriller and The Dark filled that void nicely! Atmospheric, tense, and unpredictable, this is a brilliant locked-room mystery that will leave you desperate to find out who’s behind it all.

There’s two things I look for in a locked-room mystery: strong character development, and a setting that feels like a character in itself. The Dark excels with both of these things. The characters each have strong personalities and motives to question their actions, and the chilling and isolated location heightens all of the mystery.

This time, however, nowhere seems safe. Outside, the freezing cold temperatures mean that you wouldn’t last very long. But inside, something even more threatening seems to be lurking in the corridors. The whole setting gave me the feels of horror films such as The Thing and The Faculty, trapped with people you’ve come to like but knowing that any one of them could be lying.

The Dark is sure to get your adrenaline pumping and have you grabbing a blanket from the chill. A claustrophobic and twisty thriller, I certainly couldn’t predict how this one would end!