No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

No Other Darkness (Detective Inspector Marnie Rome, #2)

by Sarah Hilary

""The DI Marnie Rome series [is] one to watch" --Shelf Awareness. The gripping follow-up to Sarah Hilary's acclaimed debut Someone Else's Skin, No Other Darkness finds mystery's "impressive new cop-heroine" (The Times, London) on a case that hauntingly echoes her own family tragedy. Detective Inspector Marnie Rome and her partner Detective Sergeant Noah Jake are investigating the recent discovery of two dead boys in a bunker beneath a London garden. Terry and Beth, under whose garden the bodies were discovered, have two children of their own, and are also fostering a difficult boy named Clancy. Clancy reminds Marnie of her foster brother Stephen, who murdered her parents. Is Marnie's past blinding her to the truth? Only one thing is certain: when Terry and Beth's biological children vanish, Marnie can't waste a moment finding them"--

Reviewed by Leah on

5 of 5 stars

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Oh my word, Sarah Hilary is a genius! No Other Darkness is a book I absolutely flew through. I did not intend to read it in a couple of sittings, in the same day, but I just couldn't put it down, and isn't that just the best kind of book? Makes me feel like an idiot for waiting so long to read it, mind, because it was just THAT GOOD. Sarah Hilary is without a doubt one of the finest crime writers you will ever come across, and I am saying that after just two books, but I am hoping for so many more featuring DI's Rome & Jakes because their partnership is awesome.

No Other Darkness does not have the best plot in the world, in fact you need quite the strong stomach for this plot, because it involves dead kids. Which is just a no-no for crime shows or books, because you immediately get that pit in your stomach, like who could do that to their kid?!?! But it was actually do very sensitively, and there's nothing like dead kids to motivate a team of coppers into finding out what the hell happened, especially since the kids in question had been trapped in that bunker, dead, for four to five years. But as you come to expect with Sarah's books, it isn't all as it seems and the twist is out of this world, jaw-droppingly good. You'll literally sit looking at the book in shock, or maybe that's just me?

I just loved everything about this book. The pace of the book was phenomenal, letting us into the story bit by bit, dangling juicy tidbits, without fully explaining everything and it certainly left me wanting more, because I finished the damn thing within the day, didn't I? I just had to know what had happened, what kind of person leaves their kids in a bunker to die, and, hand oh heart, I never saw any of it coming. And it was so good to be back with Marnie Rome and Noah Jake. I love them both and they make such a good team, with Noah knowing when to keep his mouth shut, and vice versa.

*Sigh* This book was perfection. So well written, the plot was fantastic (and sad), the ending left me frantic, my heart beating out of my chest, hardly believing my eyes, it was just twist after twist after twist and I could barely take it all in. I do not know how I will recover, although Tastes Like Fear is winking at me from my TBR pile. Maybe I recover by just having more Marnie & Noah?!?!? SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN TO ME.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 May, 2016: Finished reading
  • 3 May, 2016: Reviewed