Wow! What did I just read?
Ex journalist- Heather returns to her family home after her estranged mothers suicide. This was out of character for her mother so it leaves Heather with a lot questions.
She finds letters in the attic from a serial killer. On top of that women are being murdered again.
Heather of course is drawn to the investigation and visits the killer in prison.

I finished this in one sitting it was so good. Very unsettling and intriguing. There was tension on every page and I slept with the lights on after reading.

Anyone who enjoys dark thrillers should read this one!
Thanks to the publisher Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy.

I really loved this book!
I enjoyed Heather's character.
To me this was a quick intense book.
At first it was a little slow but quickly picked up.

Thanks NetGalley Publisher and author for this copy.

Wow. This book really surpassed my expectations. I hadn’t heard of the author before and as her previous work is fantasy-based I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was SO good!

Heather returns to her childhood home following her mum’s inexplicable suicide, and discovers a bizarre connection between her mother and a serial killer who’s been in prison for decades. Her quest to discover the reason for the link naturally leads to... well, a dark and secret place!

The storyline had me gripped from the outset and I loved the author’s writing style. The subject matter was grim, but unlike another reviewer I didn’t find the depictions gratuitous or overly graphic.

The characterisation was brilliant - I loved how our view of Colleen changes towards the end of the book; after seeing her as a rather cold and distant character, when we realise the terrible choice she faced we view her in a completely different way. I also liked that Heather wasn’t depicted as one-dimensional; she had her own demons and flaws, but ultimately I empathised with her and felt she was a genuinely plausible and relatable character.

Michael Reeve too was brilliantly portrayed - clearly disturbed and responsible for despicable acts, but I even summoned some empathy for him and found the last chapter quite moving. Had he been given a different start in life who knows how he would have turned out? Unexpected I actually felt some compassion for him - his life seemed so hopeless.

The author didn’t shy away from the reality of Reeve’s crimes and there were no inconceivable plot twists - the sad, dark reality was as anticipated and Reeve is presented as a complex character who we never really fully understand.

The plot moved at a good pace and although I foresaw some of the twists/reveals, the major twist involving Colleen came as a complete surprise. I was sad to finish it knowing this is the author’s first and only thriller so far - hopefully there will be more to come, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another.

My thanks to netgalley, the publisher and Jen Williams for the ARC.

This book was so good. It's actually one of those books that I won't forget for a while after reading it, and that means something.
I loved the setting, the atmosphere, the characters. Heather was a great protagonist, and I loved all the scenes in her mother's old house, how she got more and more paranoid, the little notes being left to her. It all built up an atmosphere that was creepy and unsettling, and it matched the tone of the story.
The scenes between Michael and Heather were my favorite, they were so well-written and I grew to really enjoy Michael as a character. The split between past and present is not always something I enjoy, but I liked it a lot here and it made a lot of sense. I liked the concept of the commune a lot and it was fascinating to see Michael grow into the person he later was.
The pacing of the book was really great, I couldn't put it down once I had started and I was not disappointed with the ending. I did think it was a little predictable, I knew who would be involved almost right away and it should have been obvious to Heather, too. I also thought the romantic subplot wasn't needed and could have been left out.
Overall this was a great book, and I would definitely check out more books from this author in the future.

Firstly a big thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the galley proof of this book.

What’s is all about ?
A convicted Serial Killer. A series of Copy Cat Killings! The police struggling to catch this killer! While unbeknownst to a young women, her life is going to be intimately woven into this macabre world.
This is a story of a suicide, and an estranged daughter trying to make sense of why her mother took her own life. As ‘Heather’ works through the circumstances of her mothers death, she discovers a disturbing truth! Her mother has had frequent and close contact with one of the most notorious serial killers in the prison system. This discovery starts off a sequence of events and leads Heather to question her own relationship with her mother, and motivates her to interview the Serial Killer ‘ Michael Reaves’.

Heather hoping to find some answers why her mother took her own life; and the Police motivated by this reveal, use Heather to find a way into the mind of this monster.
Things don’t go as they expect…

What’s good about it ?
If you like Thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you guessing, teasing you with a slow reveal of the full story. This book is for you!
So much was good about this book, the pace of the story, the rich characters and the distrubing unravelling of this morbid tale, page by page! I loved the narrative between Heather and Michael, Its well written , keeping the reader right on the edge! I also liked the style of switching back to the time ‘before’ , and back to the modern day – it really worked for me.
Its a tremendous read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done Jen Williams!

What’s not so good about it ?
The only thing that I would say about this book is, why this title? ‘A Dark and Secret Place’ does not do the story justice.

This was a HORRIFYINGLY APPEALING BOOK. It had all the elements of a good EDGE OF THE SEAT, DARK AND TWiSTED TALE. It drew me in right from the get go.
It talks about SERIAL KILLERS,
BRITISH DARK FOLKLORE,
URBAN LEGENDS,
FRIENDSHIP TILL DEATH DO US APART,
COMPLEX HUMAN EMOTIONS and how one can never really know someone entirely. I love dogs but now get a slightly unnerving feeling about them, they might not be a normal, squishy furry ball of love but a BARGHEST (phantom dog).
Heather , an estranged daughter of thirty something is forced to get into the ugly details of her mother's checkered past after her mother, Colleen Evans commits suicide. Heather discovers letters exchanged between her mother and a formidable serial killer , with the moniker RED WOLF famous for grisly and spine chilling murders of young women. Heather loses her mind with this disturbing discovery and plans to face the music by meeting the convicted serial killer.

This book was DISCONCERTING , CRAZY, EERIE but OH SO LOVELY!

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Publications for giving me the opportunity to read this DARK book, it will always hold a DARK AND SECRET PLACE IN MY HEAD.

This book has the creepy factor.. was a good solid read. Was the first for me from this Author and will be keeping my eye for more.

Thanks the the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

This was dark and atmospheric and a great read for October. However, while the premise was interesting and drew me in, it felt like it slowed down for a good portion of the middle but the last quarter or so flew by really quickly.

This was somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars for me.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams is about a woman (Heather Evans) who discovers her late mother, whom committed suicide, had been secretly corresponding with a serial killer (Michael Reave AKA The "Red Wolf") for decades and has remained steadfast on his innocence throughout those decades. This book was a piece of storytelling worth reading, the tension ramped up with every chapter. I stayed up late to finish as I was so on edge! Not as cookie cutter as the summary makes it out to be more of a dark thriller that really will keep you guessing, loses it a little towards the end. A big Thank You!!!!, to Netgalley and the publisher for my early access of A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams and Crooked Lane Books. All opinions in this review are my own honest opinion. If you do not agree, it's ok! :) I would recommend this book to anyone that likes mystery and thrillers.

A Dark and Secret Place is a tightly written, unsettling psychological thriller from author Jen Williams. Thanks to #NetGalley and #CrookedLaneBooks for providing me with the ARC in return for a fair review.

Ex-journalist Heather has reluctantly returned to her family home to tie up her mother's affairs after her estranged mother died by suicide. This out of character action has left Heather off balance and questioning whether she even knew her mother. This feeling only deepens when Heather finds bundles of letters stashed in the attic. Letters from a notorious serial killer, Michael Reeve - The Red Wolf. What's more, women are being murdered again, in the same way Reeve killed his victims years before.

Heather finds herself drawn to the fringes of the investigation, and volunteers to visit Reeve in prison.
All the while remnants from the past keep haunting Heather and she starts to feel a malign presence dogging her every step.

This was an excellent piece of storytelling, the tension ramped up with every chapter. I stayed up late to finish as I was so on edge!

I found the character of Heather very believable, with her complicated feelings towards her dead mother. Family relationships are rarely simple, and the unresolved conflict felt genuine. Heather makes some dubious choices, but I felt they were entirely in keeping with the character. Her interest in Reeve as well as her revulsion towards him felt understandable - her previous work as a reporter makes it understandable that she would find him and his stories intriguing.

I thought I had figured out all of the twists, but I had not! I've given this book 5 stars, it will be published in the UK under the title #DogRoseDirt I hope Jen Williams writes more in this genre.

#ADarkAndSecretPlace #DogRoseDirt

A Dark and Secret Place is a psychological thriller that had me near terrified to read this late at night. The story itself is very interesting and had me intrigued the whole way through. I will say there were some parts I did find uncomfortable and some instances I was confused as to what some of the plotlines had to do with the story in general, but I think the author was able to tie up the loose ends near the end of the novel. Overall, this book was really intriguing and it was a good spooky read.

Heather returns to her late mother's house after learning that her mother has committed suided. In hopes to figure out as to why her mother killed herself, Heather finds letters between her mother and the notorious Red Wolf killer, who has been behind bars for the majority of Heather’s life. As she learns more about her mother's past and has the opportunity to meet with Michael Reeve, the famous Red Wolf Killer, tensions rise as a copycat killer emerges from the shadows. Heather must do everything she can to figure out why her mother was associating with Michael and if she can stop the copycat killer, even if it means returning to the place where it all started.

I want to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an ARC of this book. Publication Date : June 8th, 2021

This was a great thriller - and a scarier one than I've read in a long time. I had ideas about some of the twists but they still caught me by surprise. This is a really intricate story and I liked the bits of fantasy that played into it. I'm not a big fantasy fan, so this was the perfect balance. All of the puzzle pieces came together really well in the end but I was definitely left wanting to keep reading! :)

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Heather returns home after her mother's suicide. When going through her mothers things, she finds disturbing letters from a serial killer that is in jail. This book was very chilling.

It was a disturbing and creepy story for me. I found myself checking my window and door whether it is locked or not while reading this book. The story told in two different time-frames and I found it quite exciting and mysterious. I tried to think of the connection between not only Heather's mother and Michael Reave, the serial killer that had been locked up, but also between Heather and the new killer. She was in real danger and I keep thinking who’s the actual killer.

Overall, this book is a decent read and I quite liked it. Only I think it was a slow pace and dragging at some points.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.7/5

I was very eager to read this book because of the title and the description. However, after beginning to read it, I was immediately lost. The book was confusing to me in terms of who the little boy at the beginning was at first and how he and the main character, Heather, were related.
Also, if you like grotesque descriptions, this book is for you. If not, this is not a book for you to read.

I enjoyed this book. It was definitely creepy and full of suspense! I liked the author’s writing style. The only thing that bothered me was the main character wasn’t very likable. I get why there needed to be an incident or two but one was a little too extreme for me. Overall though, it was a great book!

What a great story....I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but the ending was worth the wait. A bit scary at times, I was nervous about under my bed after reading a bit. Won’t give any spoilers, but I really enjoyed this mystery!

I have so many conflicting emotions about this book and I am flattering between a 3-3.5 stars for this one. I guess I will need to go into some detail to explain my thoughts on this one.

What did I like?
- Okay so the premise INSTANTLY gripped me. I enjoy reading anything from the perspective of a serial killer or where a serial killer has a close interest in one person for whatever reason. This book did not fail to bring the mystery there and I enjoyed this aspect a lot.
- I think Heather was an alright character. She didn't have much substance to her but I didn't not like her. I was more interested in her mother and Michael and I think the book might have worked better if we got some of the perspectives from her mother because those two short little snippets we got from Colleen's point of view were AMAZING.
- I thought the concept of the commune was interesting but I felt very confused a lot of the time regarding Michael's role and how he easily entered and left. I also didn't understand the reason behind what he was doing. I felt like the stories and his mind didn't work right together.

I think my biggest issue with this book was the last 20-30%. I felt like we got a lot of info-dumping in terms of the "twists" and I felt like the book was suddenly spurred to life really quickly when it had been quite slow-moving beforehand. I didn't like the ending first of all and I thought it was kind of predictable and considering the direction of the story, I wasn't expecting how it ended. I wanted more.

Overall, this book was a decent read and is a good book for this time of year. It had some eerie elements and the mystery side was interesting.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This book was unsettling from the outset, so I knew it was going to be good. We are introduced to our main character, Heather, in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide, and this sets us on a harrowing and brilliant path of self discovery. Everything that Heather knew about her mother seems suddenly uncertain, and I struggled to put this book down at night, because each chapter left me hungry for more. The chemistry between Heather and DI Parker was fantastic, and I found myself really rooting for them as they fought to solve the mystery of Micheal Reave and Fiddler’s Mill.

A DARK and SECRET PLACE
BY JEN WILLIAMS

This thriller called "A Dark and Secret Place," written by Jen Williams was both creepy and chilling starting on the very first page. This was a certainly scary novel that I was reading at night which undoubtedly beginning at the middle of the night lent to a more atmospheric dark reading experience. I should know better than to read a thriller about serial killers by now but when I read the Net Galley synopsis it sounded less dark. This turned out to make me very uncomfortable which for most thriller lovers might crave this desire to be frightened. Also it features how talented the author is at creating a narrative that is dark and has the affect to frighten the reader by penning extremely frightening character's and plotting that are equally riveting. Don't get me wrong I love a scary thriller that deeply unsettles me every now and then. I have three favorites that I can think of off the top of my mind that were deliciously enjoyed by the plot and a certain character's actions. This one was highly graphic and the imagery was gratuitously vivid and thriller fans who don't mind this facet will love this.

Heather returns to her mother's home to arrange her late mother's belongings and she discovers a box of letter's from a notorious serial killer who is incarcerated and is shocked to discover that her mother corresponded with Michael Reaves. Her mother has also left behind a cryptic suicide note apologizing to a mystery person besides Heather. Heather was a journalist and wonders who else the note was meant for as her father is dead and Heather is an only child. This mystery person mentioned sets in motion Heather to investigate just what exactly was her mother alluding to by some other things included in the letter that Heather feels compelled to look into. She sends copies of the letters to Detective Inspector Parker whom they both conclude that Heather can go visit serial killer Michael Reaves in prison since there has been a copycat of killing and the same ritualistic posing of these dead women mirror Reaves's posing of his victims in a gruesome fashion that is similar.

This multilayered thriller is also written with the device of going back and forth in time to when Michael was a young boy after murdering his mother he is living with an unknown older man that helped hide Michael's mother's body. She seemed to be abusive and cruel and this isn't spoiler territory because it happens in the beginning of the novel. Michael has always maintained his innocence although with alternating chapter's there are glimpses of him as a child exhibiting behavior that is a precursor to traits that exhibit pathology that is common knowledge of signs that children who act this way is a red flag that predicts murderous tendencies in adults.

Is Heather safe or is she the unwitting target of becoming a victim? Why does she feel like she is being watched? It is it her over active imagination or is she being stalked? This is a well written thriller that will keep your attention and you will not want to stop reading this addictive story once you begin it. At least for me that was my experience because right from the first page this book grabs you and has you on the edge of your seat unable to put this captivating story down. The characterization and plot are masterfully woven together to make a richly pulse pounding suspense that shows that this author is at the top of her game. I highly recommend reading this if you are a fan of thrillers and don't mind graphic violence. This is not for the feint at heart. Be sure that you lock all of your doors and windows and double check them just to be sure.

Publication Date: June 8, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Jen Williams and Crooked Lane Books Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#ADarkandSecretPlace #JenWilliams #CrookedLaneBooksPublishing #NetGalley