Darkest Place(CD)(Abr.) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

There are serial killer novels, and then there are literary gems that involve serial killers. Dan Judson's THE DARKEST PLACE is the latter, a gorgeous, ambitious novel equal parts exploration of loss and up-till-dawn page-turner.

The plot, which follows the investigation of a series of drowning murders in the bleak post-tourist winter of Long Island's Shinnecock Bay, is filled with enough twists and reversals to keep diehard mystery readers guessing. But it's the characters that make the book hypnotic; wounded, wanting, and set on a collision course, they are richly textured and completely believable. Judson's deep empathy makes their pain and desire and trembling hope personal, and you'll find they haunt you long after you close the book.

The result is a can't-put-it-down thriller reminiscent of the best in the genre, works like MYSTIC RIVER and CLOCKERS.

Bravo!

The narrator was Dick Hill...
So the narrator was awesome - that is a given.

My first Daniel Judson book.

I mostly liked the book.

I was engaged from the beginning...and wanted to know what was going to happen next.
Even though the book was moved at a good pace, there were some areas that I considered to be slow and a little wordy.
Yes, sorry, that is my biggest complaint with books.

The book does take some concentration - there are several characters.
And they are introduced at different times, both with first and last names.
I almost had to take notes to keep them straight in the beginning...too much thinking for me!

I didn't love the ending.
I didn't feel like everything was tied into a nice bow.
I felt like there were a lot of unanswered issues.

All in all I would recommend it.
But don't expect everything to come full circle.

Novelist Deacon Kane is haunted by the death of his son by drowning four years ago, and his reputation has slid in the college where he teaches creative writing and English lit, slid to a point where everyone's watching him to see if he makes it to class, which he rarely does any more. His boss, Dolan, really has it in for him. Just one thing seems to amuse Deacon Kane, his affair with a married woman, Meg, a painter with a huge house on top of Peconic Bay, who hustles him out of her bed whenever she thinks her husband might arrive, but otherwise she seems totally uncaring and absent. It isn't a good relationship, but hey, any port in a storm especially if you're a human wreck.

Meanwhile someone is running around abducting male students (18, 19 years of age) and somehow managing to drown them in a way that leaves forensics baffled. Could these deaths be accidental?

Possible Spoilers Ahead--Minor:

The police are beginning to believe that Dunk is behind them. Maybe he's gone right off the deep end. Maybe he's a serial killer with a sexual kink that forces him to re-play the tragedy of his son's drowning by casting older boys in his young son's role as victim. His frequent blackouts leave him without an alibi.

Daniel Judson embodies this mystery within a David Lynch atmosphere of conspiracy, cover-up, immoral doings, and a mysterious giant black man who seems to be watching out for Dunk--or is he trying to kill him? Judson is great at atmosphere, and Eastern Long Island has never been portrayed more creepily.

What I didn't like was the absurd plot, which depends on an extraordinary amount of coincidence. On the one hand there is a criminal mastermind with far too many helpers; on the other hand, there's a good bunch of people whose motivations are just as murky as the killers. I never cared once for Duncan Kane, and on top of everything else Judson really makes women look like monsters. That's his prerogative of course, and it does add to the noir-ish feel of his book, but by the end we all have a different idea of what he imagines the "darkest place" to actually be.

Finally, when the mask is torn off the face of the killer, and the reader can't remember who he is, you're in trouble.

Otherwise a grand read by one of the genre's best technicians.