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The Dark Room - Sam Blake


Delighted to be on the blog tour today.



Description

A pacey and thrilling tale from the author of the number one Irish Times bestseller, Keep Your Eyes on Me. 

 

Hare's Landing, West Cork. A house full of mystery... 

Rachel Lambert leaves London afraid for her personal safety and determined to uncover the truth behind the sudden death of a homeless man with links to a country house hotel called Hare's Landing. 

New York-based crime reporter Caroline Kelly's career is threatened by a lawsuit and she needs some thinking space away from her job. But almost as soon as she arrives, Hare's Landing begins to reveal its own stories - a 30-year-old missing person's case and the mysterious death of the hotel's former owner. 

As Rachel and Caroline join forces, it becomes clear that their investigations are intertwined - and that there is nothing more dangerous than the truth... 


Review

This is a bit of a slow burner, but once it takes off it's a real page turner.

There are two strong women characters in this book, who end up staying at the same country house hotel in Ireland - Hare's Landing. Both are originally from Ireland but Rachel visits from England and Caroline from New York. Both have separate reasons for being in Ireland, one for safety and one as an escape from a work lawsuit. 

There were a few threads to this book and some combined whilst another was really the back story of why Caroline was in Ireland. That was just as intriguing in its own way. I mentioned that the book was a slow burner at first, but I was enjoying the descriptions of the places, and once they were at Hare's Landing the hidden treasures they saw and discovered. 

Rachel brings with her from England, Jasper a German Shepherd ex police dog, and for me the star of the book. I just loved how he protected the two women and had his own agenda also.

An extra dimension to the plot was the eerie music that only Caroline kept hearing, and where this fitted in once the action began. It was a little unnerving and whilst I feared for the two women, I was also trying to be a sleuth and figure out what was real and what was ghostly!

I really liked that both women had a background that lent itself to them becoming sleuths. I had several theories myself, which were mostly wrong! - but it was certainly an enjoyable and atmospheric read. 

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars and my thanks to Random Things Tours for a proof of the book to review.



Sam Blake is a pseudonym for Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin, the founder of The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy and the hugely popular national writing resources website Writing.ie. She is Ireland's leading literary scout and has assisted many award-winning and bestselling authors to publication. As Sam Blake, she has written four previous novels and has topped the Irish bestseller chart. 

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