Jennifer Hillier does it again! She is so good at writing smart mysteries and psychological thrillers that you can't put down. Paris finds herself covered in blood next to her older (and very wealthy) husband and naturally, it doesn't look good. Paris is trying to prove she didn't kill her husband, while trying to protect the secrets of her past.

I was so invested in Paris's story and whether she ACTUALLY killed her husband when the narrative switches to that of Drew Malcolm. Drew is a journalist doing a podcast on the release of the Ice Queen from prison (she was convicted of a murder similar to that of Paris's husband) and he is trying to figure out what happened to his best friend Joey, who died years ago in a fire. So what do these people have to do with Paris and the current mystery? That's the million-dollar question.

I will say that switching from one storyline to another so drastically and at such a pivotal moment was a bit frustrating, but then I became engrossed with the story of the Ice Queen and her daughter, Joey.

It took a while for the stories to connect and I will say the twists at the end all shoot at the reader at a rapid pace. But man, it was an incredible ride. Loved this one!

Thank you SMP and Netgalley for the gifted copies.

Wow, another twisty read from Jennifer Hillier. It's a bit of a slow burn, but takes twists and turns just when you think you've got it all figured out. This book is well written, and well plotted. It sucked me in from the very beginning and I stayed up way too late finishing it because I couldn't put it down!

There were parts I had figured out, but it was written well enough and there were enough other twists that I didn't mind at all. The description of how the family treated Paris/Joey after Ruby got arrested was heartbreaking, yet so real. I also liked how there were two storylines (the Joey/Ruby/Charles one, and the Paris/dead husband/Elsie/Zoe one) yet they were both connected and Drew was involved throughout.

I can't wait to see what this author writes next - she's an auto buy for me, 100%!

I’ve said this before, I know, but every new Jennifer Hillier @jenniferhillierbooks novel is my current favorite, and Things We Do in the Dark continues the steak.

In the dark, monsters are real. In the dark, it never happened. In the dark, she could be anyone.

This is my favorite kind of thriller. There’s just the right amount of characters so that you can listen to it on audio (which by the way is fantastic) and be able to easily follow along, and the plot is perfect paced to make it oh so bingeable. Also, if you’re not rooting for Paris from the very first page, send me a DM, because you need to explain yourself.

Thanks to my partners at @minotaur_books for my glow-in-the-dark copy (which charged up perfectly on the beach) and to @macmillan.audio for my audio copy.

Link to 7/19/2022 post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgMuO5Frf_Q/

This took me longer than usual to finish, a week, but only because life got in the way, and I resented having to put it down when I did. So I read late at night and sacrificed a few hours sleep but it was worth it,. Let me forewarn potential readers that some scenes will be disturbing.

This multi-layered psychological novel intrigued me from the get go. Well crafted and well spaced between past scenes and present, without being hard to follow. It told the story of Paris Peralta, who in the opening scenes is lying on the floor covered in blood while her famous older husband bled out in the bathtub. She of course is the prime suspect, as she has the murder weapon in her hand when she regains consciousness.

She had another life before she was “Paris” a very hard and disturbing life from her early years on, that she had managed to put behind her. Now she’s afraid the notoriety will disclose it. This could be very dangerous for her.

I won’t disclose more, but this ticked all the boxes for me. If you like a good mystery/drama/ with complex characters and unpredictable scenarios, look no further. I heartily recommend it and her “Little Secrets” of a few years back. Hillier is fast becoming a favorite author for me.

#ThingsWeDointheDark #JenniferHillier #NetGalley #StMartinsPress
Thank you for providing me a pre-release e-Arc for my honest review. Release date today: July 19, 2022.

This isn't a light read regarding the topic (TW: Sexual Assault), but I'm still considering it a beach read for myself. I very much enjoyed reading it, but there was nothing that happened that really shocked me.
The twists were predictable from the start, and the ending fell a little flat. With that being said this book still provided entertainment during my commuting hours, so for me it was a win.

What an incredible, twisty roller coaster ride this book is. Just as the mystery begins to unravel, Hiller hits you with another surprise. Now I want to go read everything by this author.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

• dark psychological thriller
• twisted characters
• smartly written

Well, I've read my first Hillier! This one starts with a bang and hooked me right away. I enjoyed how it was broken into parts and the way it all came together in the end. I didn't find the reveal all that shocking but it was definitely satisfying.

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley, @minotaur_books and @stmartinspress for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

Another wonderfully twisty turny well thought out thriller!! This time the well known older man younger wife trope is used to set a lot of people on the wrong path when a famous comedian is found dead in his own tub. But, the wife has a much darker past than the normal trophy wife and being accused of his murder seems to be the least of her problems. While some of the twists were easily guessed, I don't think they were intended to be big surprises. In that way, the writing was incredibly well done and the story engaging. By taking away their zing, the overall story felt that much heavier and complex than something going for easy shocks. This resulted in a quality page turning read for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.

Things We Do In The Dark by Jennifer Hillier is an intriguing novel filled with excellent writing and characters. It is engaging and tough to put down. Right from the onset the reader is taken on a memorable journey with clues purposefully left along the way to remind us that things and people aren't always what they seem.

I received a digital advance copy of Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier via NetGalley. Things We Do in the Dark was released July 19, 2022.

Things We Do in the Dark begins with a murder. Paris is found covered in blood, holding a straight razor, standing next to the bathtub holding the dead body of her celebrity husband. The attention of the arrest is worse than the accusation of murder, as it draws the public eye to Paris. Someone out there knows who she is, and what she did in the past. Paris is forced to fight for her legal freedom, and freedom from a past that doesn’t want to let her get away.

In addition to Paris, we see the story through the point of view of Drew. Drew is a former investigative journalist who now supports himself with his true-crime podcast. He is drawn into the story of Ruby Reyes, (the Ice Queen), a woman convicted of a grisly murder twenty-five years ago who is now being released on parole. As Drew begins to dig into her story (which is connected to his own past), he finds himself entangled with Paris’ story in the present day.

Hillier has crafted a solid thriller/mystery in this novel. While I did figure out some of the twists and shifts before they were revealed, the story was still satisfying in its complexity. Characters figured things out in the moments it made sense for them to, with none of the moments of me as a reader wondering how they could miss the obvious. Each of the characters has substantial baggage from their past that they are forced to carry through this story with them. In some spots, the baggage felt a bit expected, but in other cases the past was layered in a way that made the characters real people.

Overall, Things We Do in the Dark was a solid story that was more of a mystery than a thriller for me. While I had questions throughout, the bulk of the true danger of this story was buried in the past, with ripples pushing forward into the current story.

So much fluff. I feel like the author just kept diving deeper and deeper in Joey/Paris’ life to try and throw you off. It didn’t work… it just aggravated me. I loved learning more about Joey but at 50% I just wanted to get on with it.

Thanks to netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

A go to author for me and a solid new book! The twists were subtle but still packed a punch. I would read any of her books. The story had a slow build and kept me at the top of the roller coaster waiting for the fall. Great summer read.

As the story opens, we meet Paris Peralta. She’s in her bathroom, covered in blood, and not remembering how she ended up there. Paris soon becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her celebrity husband, Jimmy Peralta. Is she a murderer or has the past that she desperately tried to out run caught up with her?

☁️Thoughts:
This was one of my most anticipated books of the summer and I really wished I loved it as so many do! It was definitely more of a slow burn mystery than a thriller and I thought the story was thoughtful and beautifully written while tackling tough topics of domestic abuse. I really enjoyed the first part of the story where we met the players and started to understood the motives of who could’ve killed Jimmy.

We then start flashing back to Paris’s early years, this is where I started losing interest - too much backstory and not enough present day. The ending also wrapped up a little too quickly and easily and left me wanting more.

While this is my first Hillier book it definitely won’t be my last as I would like to dive into her backlist!

Thank you to @netgalley @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for my gifted copy

This is a Psychological Thriller. I found this book to be a wild read, and I really enjoyed seeing this story come together as I read this book. I did guess some of the reveals, but that did not take away from my enjoyment of this book. The characters were slowly developed, and I really enjoyed getting to know these characters. I really loved the ending of this book. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Minotaur Books) or author (Jennifer Hillier) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Jennifer Hillier has been solidified has my favorite thriller author. Each story is packed with twists and turns and this is no exception. I went in expecting one direction that the story was going to go and then it completely went sideways. The book opens up with Paris Peralta standing over her husband's dead body. As we move backwards to see how we got here, the story is dark and twisted. Hillier has the ability to make you empathize with the most unexpected characters. I also love that female characters are all strong, no hold barred kind of people. She deals with the gray aspects of morality in personalities and brings it all together to have you cheering for some sort of resolved ending. And she always delivers on a great ending.

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and I was really hoping for more from it. I absolutely LOVED Jar of Hearts and Little Secrets by this author, so I think I had my hopes too high for this one. I was definitely intrigued by the storyline and it kept me interested the whole time, but the twists weren’t very shocking to me. I kept waiting for a bigger twist to come, but that never happened.

Jennifer Hillier knows how to write a strong thriller though, so I still recommend picking this one up if you liked her other books!

When Paris Peralta arrives home from Toronto in the middle of the night, she didn’t expect to find her much older famous comedian husband dead. Covered in blood and with the murder weapon in her hand, things don’t look good for Paris when the police arrive.

Meanwhile in Toronto, Ruby Reyes, The Ice Queen Murderer is about to be released from prison after serving 25 years of her life sentence.

Drew Malcolm has a popular podcast called Things That Happen In The Dark. When he hears of Ruby’s impending release, he decides to delve into her case for personal reasons. Twenty years ago his best friend, Joey Reyes died in a fire. Being the last to see her alive, he blames himself for her death.

Ruby was not only convicted of murder, but also for the abuse of her daughter, Joey. Now as her release nears, she’s sending letters to Paris Peralta. What could the two possibly have in common? Will Drew find out the answer and will he finally be able to forgive himself after all these years?

This book was gripping from start to finish. Hillier’s character driven story has a couple of nice twists, and even though I guessed them, it didn’t take anything away from the rest of the story!

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

This story was too dark and too dull for me. But also things seemed much too obvious to me, when I don't think they were meant to be so obvious. We have Paris, almost forty, married to a famous comedian, almost thirty years older than Paris. The story begins with Paris standing over her bloody, dead husband, holding his straight edged razor. It certainly looks like she must have murdered him, but did she?

Twenty five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, mother of Joey, was convicted of murdering a wealthy man. That murder was similar to the murder of Paris's husband. Now, Rudy is about to get out of prison, she knows Paris's secrets, and Paris is going to pay her not to tell them. But Paris knows Ruby is a liar and nothing is ever over with Ruby.

There is also Drew, who knew Joey back when she got out of foster care. In the present day, Drew, a journalist, is working on pulling together what he needs for a podcast on Ruby. He knows what a monster Ruby was and he wants to make sure the public knows, even though Ruby is being released from prison.

This story is dark and dirty and it was hard to care about much of it. Bad people doing bad things. A few good people but still, we don't really get to know them. Things happen that I don't think could happen in real life. Things get covered up in ways that I don't think are plausible. The last book I read by this author was a 5 star story for me so I look forward to more from this author, in the future. This one just didn't thrill me at all.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

Jennifer Hillier's new book Things We Do in the Dark has everything a good summer thriller needs...a fast moving plot and murder...maybe two murders.
Paris Peralta is found next to her dead celebrity husband with a bloody razor in her hand. She is immediately arrested for murder. Paris has more to worry about than just a murder charge: she is also running from her past
This was a quick, enjoyable (sometimes predictable) read for me and I was highly entertained.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur Books for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Jennifer Hillier is an autoread author for me, her work is always amazing.

Although I figured out all of the twists I still loved every minute of the book. This story is a lot of back story & memories between the main characters but it definitely helps to build the full story.