Wanna read a sick and twisted book about a sort-of psychopath? Nathan Ripley’s (not his real name; it’s a pseudonym for Journey Prize-winning author Naban Ruthnum) Find You in the Dark might be just the ticket. Combining a serial killer drama with a police procedural, the book is about a guy named Martin Reese who has the fun hobby of finding dead bodies from serial killer victims that the cops haven’t located. Nice, huh? While he’s also a loving, doting family man, he’s married to the sister of a woman who went missing 20 years ago and was the victim of a killer. Great, eh? Naturally, a female police detective has started zeroing in on Reese, but complications abound because someone else is pretty pissed off at Reese’s undercover work — a more recently killed body turns up among dead ones in a location Reese believes is the resting place (note that I didn’t say final) that his wife’s sister is in.

So how does Reese find these victims? He’s latched onto a corrupt police officer who sends him information on police records for a slight fee. And that’s where the book really goes off into incredulous territory. While it is plausible that there might be a crooked cop out there willing to sell certain information, I doubt that any cop in his or her right mind would continue to do so after finding out, as this cop does, what the information is being used for — simply for fear of losing his main source of income or worse. This is especially true because Reese taunts the police by leaving computerized voice messages chiding them for not following through on these cold cases.

So you really have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit through this twisted and turny book, that’s probably best described as pulp fiction — since it’s written in a really gritty style. While most of the violence takes place off the printed page, Ripley (or Ruthnum) spares no graphic detail on the state of the corpses that Reese finds. That means that this is a gross out of a book, one that can be hard to read at times for the stomach churning details and the fact that the main protagonist is basically one sick little puppy.

In fact, though, most of the characters in this book are of the “unlikable” sort. Even the policewoman working the case has a bit of a mean, sadomasochistic edge to her. Since the novel is told from rapidly shifting viewpoints from chapter to chapter, it’s hard to really root for any of these characters. I wonder if the book might have been better told from the policewoman’s point of view. At the very least, there would be a moral centre to this novel. Still, I did enjoy Find You in the Dark in a very perverse sort of way. This is a book about keeping secrets — Reese hasn’t told anyone else of his penchant for hunting dead bodies, and there’s an all-too-obvious hint of an affair between Reese’s wife and one of his former co-workers. On that level, Find You in the Dark is about the personal skeletons hiding in everyone’s closet.

Just don’t make the mistake of calling this literary fiction. Even though Ruthnum has won a prestigious Canadian literary award, this is the sort of thing they make television serials out of. It turns out that the television rights have been picked up for this work, so you can probably expect to hear more about it when it comes out. I’m not sure how long of a TV series this would make, since the book closes with a note of some finality. However, if the producers can find ways of milking the storyline beyond a season, assuming this gets enough viewers (fans of Dexter and Criminal Minds, probably) for them to do so, there might be more here than meets the eye.

As noted earlier, though, the book does stretch the boundaries of credibility. While I know there were a couple of high-profile serial killers working the Pacific Northwest (the book is set in Seattle and environs), Find You in the Dark makes it sound like the area is crawling with perhaps a good dozen or so of the perps, which seems ludicrous. But, to make the story work, Reese needs to exhume a lot of bodies close to his home in order to not raise too much in the way of suspicions from his wife and teenaged daughter. Maybe the book might have worked better if he was a bit of a lone wolf, but then we wouldn’t see much of a human side to him — which this book wants us to see. To that end, the author wants to make the book perhaps a tad hair above the obvious pulpy concoction this really is. (Still, it makes you kind of wonder why he bothered with a pen name, when the information on who he really is is readily available.)

Overall, Find You in the Dark is a fun, yet disturbing, work. It really works its best when it dabbles in the police procedural side of things, as the main detectives working the case make their deductions and come closer and closer to solving the crime, albeit with plausible false leads. Otherwise, it’s kind of wickedly gross and evokes our sympathies for a character who may be one step away from actually making a kill of his own. In fact, Reese is so thorough about not leaving a trace at his crime scenes that one wonders if it wouldn’t have been easier for him to choose his own victim to kill. It’s stuff to ponder about a book that really goes over-the-top at times, loading up things that just don’t seem all that plausible in reality. I guess this is what some people read fiction for. If you like crime drama, you’re probably going to go ga-ga over Find You in the Dark as it lets you live a secret double life of one drawn into the motivations of serial killers. If you find it stomach churning, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I don't really know what I was expecting going into this book, but what I got was so different from what I thought was going to happen.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an eARC of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

This book follows Martin Reese, an early retired tech family man. He'll do anything for his wife and daughter. He spends his free time buying old cold cases and anonymously finding the bodies of women who have been taken, murdered and buried by local serial killers. It's about justice, justice for the families and justice for the women. But as Martin begins the search for his wife's sister, who is presumed dead after disappearing 20 years earlier, his hobby turns into an obsession. The police discover a recent runaway in one of Martin's digs and soon they begin to focus on uncovering this modern day superhero.

So, there is a lot going on in this book! The pacing of the book did seem a little bit on the slower side of things, but it didn't bother me too much because there was so much happening and so much to digest, any faster pace would have wrecked havoc on the storyline. I think I've kind of just become accustomed to not really knowing the characters in these sort of thrillers, mainly because so much of the focus is on plot and not character development, but I think that Ripley did a great job differentiating the characters and really describing them well.

While I will say I'm still not 100% sure why Martin does what he does, I can, I don't want to say understand, but understand, why he does them. The only thrill for him is the discovery - solving the puzzle - and justice. Things were a bit obsessive from pretty early on, but you can look past them because he is doing good. Even in the end, people realize that.

This wasn't your typical psychological thriller, either. It was slow burning in the best way and less about mind games. It was the perfect blend of a crime thriller with the detective POVs, having Martin 'in charge' of investigations left less room for stuffy, political police drama that often runs rampant in crime thrillers.

In the end, I feel like most things were wrapped up nicely and like reality (hang on here, I might get a bit philosophical and cynical) the book shows that there are varying degrees of badness in people - and sometimes we have to let some of that badness out to become goodness. I don't know if that makes any sense but what I am trying to say is that things aren't black and white, not all good people are good all the time and not all bad people are bad all the time. There are moments of weakness, of stress, of life, that blur this line.

This book was very unique, in terms of others I have read. I'm not super familiar with Dexter, so I can't say how accurate that comparison is but I've certainly never read anything quite like this before.

All that being said, I just felt like there was something missing. I can't quite put my finger on it, and the fact that I read this book in a matter of hours shows you that I still really enjoyed it, but there is just something that could have pushed it over the top.

Overall, a unique and interesting story!

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Martin Reese digs up murder victims from cold case files he buys from the police. He calls in his findings anonymously to the police but Detective Sandra Whittal is suspicious of her caller and his motives. As she moves in on discovering who her 'Finder' is, Martin is being hunted by someone who is not happy with his discoveries. With his family's safety on the line, Martin must go even deeper into the dark realm of murder.

Hailed as a cross between Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, I thought this book was going to be a mesmerizing study in character development. Well...some comparisons just shouldn't be made. I got completely lost in the story, and I don't mean that in a good way, I literally mean that I couldn't flesh out the actual story from the messy plot. I really had to push myself to finish and this was because I didn't connect with the characters—they weren't believable. Nathan Ripley's Martin Reese lacks the depth and likability factor of Dexter Morgan, or the creepy brilliance of Highsmith's Tom Ripley.

Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley follows a retired tech millionaire with a disturbing (yet productive?) hobby: anonymously digging up the remains of murder victims that have long gone uncovered by police. The idea here is that Martin is a good-guy deviant (think Dexter), but then something happens that could implicate him in a contemporary murder spree. This book didn’t really do much for me, but I appreciated its intricate plotting. It wasn’t so much creepy and atmospheric (my expectation) as it was twisty and suspenseful, although I think there is a likely a larger market for the latter.

This book is a great twist on a thriller. Instead of following the life of a serial killer, it follows the life of a man who digs up the victims of serial killers. He then tells the police where to find them, but this eventually leads him into trouble. This unique plot made the story unpredictable.

There were multiple narratives in the story. One was from Martin’s perspective, where he talked about finding the bodies. There was another narrative that followed the detectives who were investigating the man who dug up the graves as well as the original murders. And another narrative was about the man who pulled the strings behind the killers.

The pacing of this book was great. There were major plot points that happened in each chapter that made me want to keep reading. It was hard to put this book down.

I really enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for a unique thriller, this is the one for you.

Dark, menacing, and gritty!

Find You In The Dark is an engrossing, creepy thriller that delves into the sadistic and disturbing thoughts, motivations, and actions of serial killers and immerses you in all the manipulation, violence, murder, depravity, and pure evil they're capable of.

The prose is chilling and tight. The characterization is well done with a whole slew of characters that are flawed, vulnerable, and persistent. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives, is an exceptionally suspenseful, twisty, violent, tension-filled thrill ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the very first page.

Overall, Find You In The Dark is a fast-paced, unique, ominous tale that reminds you that if you continually dance with the devil eventually you might get burned.

Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley (aka Journey Prize winner, Naben Ruthnum) has been described as a tale for fans of the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay and on that front it does not disappoint. This novel follows Martin Reese, who has found a more constructive way to channel his more destructive tendencies by doing what the police can’t seem to do – find the hidden bodies of past serial killers. Martin combs through police files, and interviews with the murderers, in order to narrow down the final resting place of bones long forgotten. Martin runs into trouble, however, when the bones turn out to be not as forgotten as he believed and he makes a very serious enemy who does not take kindly to having all of his trophies removed and returned to their loved ones.

Present in this story is that dichotomy of how to feel about the choices that Martin makes. He may be doing the right thing the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, but it is also a much more constructive use of his … skills … than the path he was on as a young man. He also tends to do some wrong things for the right reasons, out of love for his wife and daughter. It leaves you both rooting for him and feeling a little bad about what that means about your overall morality.

Overall, Find You in the Dark was a lot of fun to read, and if you enjoy rooting for morally ambiguous characters, I highly recommend giving Martin Reese some consideration.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of the book. Helping bring closure to families by finding victims, finding what the police couldn’t.

But I couldn’t get into it. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t feeling it at the time, or if it just wasn’t what I expected. I will probably try and read it again later.

But at this time, I couldn’t finish the book. It didn’t hold my attention. So I will hold off on an actual star rating for now.

Excellent book! My first reading using netgalley. This book took me down a long dark hallway and every so often a door would open and you would eat pieces to the puzzle. I love reading books like this. I wish the author gave context to whose chapter it was, I felt a little in the dark until a name was mentioned. Other than that...excellent.

Martin is wealthy, retired, and a doting father. He also has an obsession for digging up bodies, murdered by serial killers, that haven't yet been found by the police. But one serial killer isn't pleased that Martin is uncovering all their work, putting Martin and his family's life in danger. Will Martin be satisfied with just digging up dead bodies, or will he want to take his obsession one step further?

I was definitely pulled in by the idea that this was a perfect book for Dexter fans. It took a me a little while to get into the story, the writing style and the main character's voice took a little to get used to but once I did I found myself really getting lost in this story and connecting to all the characters in the second half of the book. Martin's character was so intriguing - thought the author did a fantastic job showing the fatherly side capable of love, but at the same time showing the clinical, methodical side of his obsession. The suspense was well plotted and well paced. I think overall this was a really good book but it missed some of that "I can't put this book down" to take it to the next level.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a novel that had so much potential, but ended up trying to do too many things at once. I appreciated the different chapters with different perspectives, but it was done randomly and wasn't very clear. I felt as though the overall plot was a bit scattered, and there were no smooth transitions between anything.

Martin Reese, wealthy retired tech man, has a stange hooby. He researches and then digs up the lost bodies from convicted serial killers. All goes well until his activities bring him to the attention of a killer. Then no-one is safe. Not him, not his family.
An interesting mystery with the mix of serial killers. An enjoyable read.

This was an interesting read. I was hooked and wanted to find out where the characters were going to end up. I liked how strong the women characters were (the wife, the detective, the daughter).

Review Interesting story. It had some interesting twists on a murder mystery. There were a few spots where it could have progressed faster, or had a bit more excitement, but overall a good book. I live close to Toronto so I like to read books from local authors when I get the opportunity to support them.

DNF at 40%
I received an ARC from Netgalley so a warm thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Nathan Ripley. This was one of those books that I thought I would love but didn't work for me. I'm sure there's a fantastic story in there somewhere but I wasn't able to find it. I just could not get in to the story and although I made it almost half way, I really had to push myself to get to that point.

The book is advertised as a mix between Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I see where they were going with this comparison but the plot had a hard time keeping up. I was a Dexter fan but found this story to lack the qualities that made Dexter such a success. Most importantly, the characters were not very well developed.. As a result, I never connected with any of them so it was challenging to care what happened. This seemed to have an impact on my ability to engage with the story. It felt one dimensional and lacked any tension, build up or surprise elements. I was bored...

I can't comment on the latter half of the book and if it gets better towards the end.....but if a story can't keep me invested within the first half, I have my doubts. There seem to be a number of higher reviews for this one so it could just be that this book and I were not meant to be.

Martin Reese is a bit of a reverse Jack the Ripper: rather than killing women and taunting the police about their failure to catch him, he uses police files on serial killers to track down their victims' missing bodies, then taunts police about their failure to find the victims themselves. Detective Sandra Whittal isn't amused, but more importantly, she worries about how such an obsession may eventually escalate. For Martin, part of it is personal: his wife's sister went missing and presumed killed when they were younger, and even though the killer was caught and executed, his wife has never quite gotten over the experience. Yet another part of it is just creepy as hell. For example, we learn that Martin actually met his wife in the first place because he'd tracked her down after having his interest piqued by her sister's case. And later on, a serial killer recognizes the darkness in Martin and tags him as a potential protege. 

Find You in the Dark is being billed as similar to Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, and certainly, Martin Reese's obsession with missing serial killer victims is twisted enough to put him in league with these two fictional killers. But the story itself didn't quite live up to the promise of its concept. It's a solid enough thriller, and its twists and turns were surprising enough, but it was very much touch and go in terms of holding my interest, and to be honest, I'm not sure why. Part of it may be that Martin lacks the sheer charisma that make Dexter and Tom Ripley so compelling as anti-heroes. He also lacks the depth of menace that makes Hannibal Lecter such a compelling villain. 

Another part of it is that the story itself felt unsure of where exactly Martin lay in the divide between hero and villain, and that this uncertainty never felt particularly gripping. Martin had a bit of a hero complex, wanting to ferret out bad guys' victims, and he had a bit of a creepy side with his obsessive fascination with the bodies in the first place, but by the end of the book, the overall impression of him was that of a protective father, and his concern for his daughter's safety overtook pretty much both sides of his personality. While his need to protect his daughter was understandable, the result was that Martin as a villain lacked teeth, and after a point, his creepy hobby felt more pathetic than truly menacing.

There were some strong parts, and I liked the police procedural aspects with Detective Whittal, but overall, it was a pretty uneven read and ultimately not very memorable.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Scary thriller, ohmygoodness can't-put-down book. OK, don't pick up this book if you want to get to bed early. I read parts of this book while sitting on an exercise bike and ended up pedaling really fast! It's that good that you will screw up your face in alarm, guaranteed. "Real" frightening people who are pushed to all kinds of limits in the "untruth" category.

This was a fabulous suspense/mystery. I loved how creepy the MC was and his weird hobby. And I really questioned if he'd get out of this situation. I'm not even sure if he really has gotten out of it. Can he legitimately step back? Is the obsession over?

I constantly wondered about the motivations of all the characters. Compulsive writing, a fast moving plot and a crazy story. This is the kind of book you might want to read in one sitting.

Wow! If this is Nathan Ripley's first novel, I can't wait to read his fifth ... or his 25th.
I'm not usually a big fan of thrillers, but when Netgalley offered this one, I thought I'd give it a try, and I'm so glad I did. Find You in the Dark is a real page-turner; one of those books you won't want put down although when you finally do, you'll probably want to check under your bed and leave the night light on. Though far from the bloodiest, Frank Connell has to be one of the most twisted and terrifying villains I've ever read.
The fact is, nearly everybody in this story is broken in some way and to some degree. Martin Reese who works so hard to turn his obsession into a noble pastime, Ellen, left fragile after the disappearance of her older sister, Detective Whittal, cocky, confident and every bit as good at putting the pieces together as Reese is, Keith Waring and Gary Leung, both under-achieving opportunists, looking for the big payoff. Even the characters of Jason Shurn and Carl Hillstrom are very much in evidence, in spite of being long dead. What is so interesting about them isn't their brokenness, it's that subjected to Ripley's careful, storytellers touch, they seem so ordinary. He easily convinces us that they could be the next door neighbour, the guy at the next desk at work, the prickly but dedicated police officer you met last week.
Together, they make up a story that is anything but ordinary; the story of a man whose obsession puts everything he values in jeopardy and leads him to do things he never even dreamed of.
Find You in the Dark is brilliantly dark story that bodes only the best for the future of this new author.

This book has been compared a lot to Dexter, and I can understand why. It was an entertaining read, and I found the multiple narrative voices to be an effective way to tell the story. The characters were well-developed and the ending was satisfying.