Book Review: Chasing Darkness

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Chasing Darkness     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Danielle Girard
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Serial Killer   Woman Main Character
Onyx, March 2002, $6.99, 368 pp.

She was a homicide detective in the Sheriff's department but she became sick of dealing with death all the time so she transferred over to the State of California of Department of Justice working mainly with abuse victims. At the same time she transferred jobs Sam Chase unexpectedly gained guardianship of her twin eight-year-old nephews. Their parents died in a car crash and their deceased mother (Sam's late sister) did not want her family in Mississippi even getting near them.

Eight years later Sam and her two nephews Derek and Rob are a family. Sam is a success at work and envied by her peers when one of her old cases comes back to haunt her. The mother of a child abuse victim is found murdered and Sam is forced to work with Derek Thomas of the Sheriff's department since the victim looks like she was murdered by a serial killer that Sam once caught. Since the killer is dead, the police are working on the assumption that it's a copycat killer until another homicide is committed and Sam is linked to both deaths.

Danielle Girard is a name to watch because she's rapidly reading the level of a Nancy Taylor Rosenberg or a Sandra Brown. CHASING DARKNESS is a tightly woven thriller that shines a dark light on the evil things done to children and shows how it affects them long after the abuse stops. The strange and off beat romance that develops between Sam and Derek is a realistic necessary subplot to reduce the tension, which becomes unbelievably high voltage at times. This one sitting read entertains as well as educates.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner