- Paperback
- Publisher: Minotaur Books; Ppk edition (30 May 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 031234533X
- ISBN-13: 978-0312345334
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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11 reviews
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Moody, passionate and haunted
5 Jun 2006
Format:Hardcover
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 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!
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Worth the Wait
10 Jun 2006
Format:Hardcover
I read Judson's previous books (The Bone Orchard and The Poisoned Rose) and enjoyed them both. When I heard he had a new book coming out after a few years, I was psyched and got it the first day it came out. It was worth the wait.
THE DARKEST PLACE was haunting, dark, filled with real characters who had experienced loss and dealt with it in vastly different ways. There's deep characterization in this novel and that's risky sometimes because there's a fine line between a literary mystery and a bore. But Judson keeps the pace up so well and dangles just enough information to the reader that makes the book impossible to put down once you're a couple chapters into it. The characters aren't all clearly cut good guys and bad guys, just like in real life and you find yourself rooting for them, wanting them to succeed and turn their lives around. There's even a shoutout to fans of his previous two books, if you're paying attention enough to one particular character, and I loved that. It was like being given a glimpse of an old friend I haven't heard from in a while.
I'd recommend this book to fans of thrillers, mysteries, and literary novels. Can't wait for Judson's next one.
THE DARKEST PLACE was haunting, dark, filled with real characters who had experienced loss and dealt with it in vastly different ways. There's deep characterization in this novel and that's risky sometimes because there's a fine line between a literary mystery and a bore. But Judson keeps the pace up so well and dangles just enough information to the reader that makes the book impossible to put down once you're a couple chapters into it. The characters aren't all clearly cut good guys and bad guys, just like in real life and you find yourself rooting for them, wanting them to succeed and turn their lives around. There's even a shoutout to fans of his previous two books, if you're paying attention enough to one particular character, and I loved that. It was like being given a glimpse of an old friend I haven't heard from in a while.
I'd recommend this book to fans of thrillers, mysteries, and literary novels. Can't wait for Judson's next one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Where Angels Fear to Tread
20 Sep 2006
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
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