Book Review: The Darkest Night

Reviewed By: Gina Metz - RAM

The Darkest Night     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jodie Larsen
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Kaycee Miller # 2
Hawk Publishing; 2003; 238pp

People are disappearing, parking their cars at National Parks then apparently walking away from them to commit suicide by exposure and starvation. Each is found with a copy of a new best seller based on this theme. The FBI and Search and Rescue K-9 teams are brought in to try to find the victims and determine whether they are actual suicides or something more sinister.

The main characters are Max Masterson the human half of one K-9 team and his girlfriend, Kaycee Miller, a psychologist who specializes in hand writing analysis. Along with Cal, the helicopter owner who is very involved in the searches and flies the K-9 teams to the next search site, Joan and Randy who are two other K-9 teams and also all good friends.

The FBI are having trouble determining if these are suicides or murders since there are no apparent struggles at the last place the victim was seen, the victims cars are driven to the National Park that they disappear in and a copy of the book on suicide by nature is found in each of the victims car or possessions. Kaycee gets involved by asking to review hand writing samples of the victims over a period of time so that she may try to determine if she can tell if they were suicidal by their last writing samples available.

This was a quick enjoyable read. The book was a real page turner with many twists and turns. The attempted rescues were vividly described to where you felt like you were on the scene and waiting for the outcome. I also thought she did a very good job with the characters. She made them people you felt like you knew all in a very small book.

I would highly recommend this book as a good, quick page turner and will be looking for At First Sight, the first Kaycee Miller book and hope to see others in the future.

Gina Metz - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Gina Metz - RAM