This is the first book I’ve read by Jennifer Hillier, so I didn’t know what to expect as far as writing style and etc. In my opinion, the book moved a little slow, which is why I gave it 4 stars. But the story itself was great! I was in suspense for most of the book and I loved that it was dark!

I really enjoyed the narrator, Carla Vega, and plan on reading more books that she narrates!

I am also looking forward to reading more of Jennifer’s books!

I’ve been seeing a lot of mixed reviews for this one and was reluctant to read it, but I’m glad I did. The author kept me interested through the entire book. I was really glad that the author gave all of the trigger warnings at the beginning and I knew what I was in for. Josie had a hard life and I was happy to see her persevere. This book was not was what I was expecting from the title.

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

Paris is arrested after she is found in the bathroom with a razor and her celebrity husband is found dead in the bathtub. She does not remember what happened and the bathroom is covered in blood.

She is immediately vilified as she was so much younger than her wealthy husband, but she truly loved her husband.

Paris has a sorted past which comes back to haunt her. She is getting blackmailed and does not want her secret out. She has created a whole new life for herself. What is she hiding? Did she killer her husband? Was it suicide? Get ready to read in one sitting as this book keeps your attention the entire time. #bookofthemonth, #thingwedointhedark, #jenniferhillier, #minotaurbooks, #stamperlady50, #bookreview, #bookstagram, #booksconnectus

I really enjoyed the audio version of this book. It sucked me in right from the very start and kept me hanging on the whole way through. Note this is a very dark book, with just about every trigger warning you could think of. I also wouldn’t stay it’s super “thriller”, and reads more like contemporary fiction. However I still found it to be a really good read. It will keep you wondering what is going on the whole time.

Paris Peralta is found in her husband, famous actor/comedian Jimmy Peralta, covered in blood, holding his straight razor, and Jimmy is dead in the bathtub. She's soon arrested for his murder.
The arrest murders her, but she's more concerned about the publicity. She's afraid someone will recognize her and the world she has worked 20+ years to build will come tumbling down around her.

Twenty-five years ago, Ruby Reyes, AKA The Ice Queen, was convicted of murdering her married lover in Canada. Ruby does know who who Paris really is. Ruby is being released from prison and, unless Paris pays up, Ruby is going to tell the world!

There's a dual storyline. We go back in time to learn the real story of Ruby Reyes, her daughter, Joey, and what went down all those years ago. And present day, we see Paris deal with the murder charges, try to prove her innocence, and work to keep her secret from coming out. It was easy to follow and you will be caught up in it all as you figure out how the two timelines intersect! The layers of the storyline were peeled backing giving you bits of the storyline along the way and this made me want to just keep plowing through the book because I just HAD to know what happened - both past and present!

Hillier hits on some touchy topics including abuse (trigger warning! there is both domestic and sexual abuse), murder, mother/child relationships, the meaning of friendship, just to name a few.

Paris wasn't always the most likeable character. But she was well done and I still found myself rooting for her!

I found myself so invested in this book. It was very twisty and full of surprises. It defintely had dark moments. I figured out a few things along the way, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable for me!

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an advance audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

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 narrated exceptionally well by Carla Vega, has a couple of nice twists, and even though I guessed them, it didn’t take anything away from the rest of the story!

This novel caught my attention right away. While the themes were very dark, I did not find this thriller to be very suspenseful at all. This could have been a contemporary novel with dark themes and I would have believed it. I was curious about what lead the protagonist to present day and was most interested in the dual timeline that helped to fill in those gaps. Would recommend for folks who are interested in a murder story without the spookiness.

Heed the content warnings. Heavy topics: sexual assault, child abuse, suicide.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5* stars

Paris Peralta’s husband, famous comedian Jimmy Peralta, is found dead in his bathroom, and Paris is the main suspect. Arrested for his murder, Paris tries to keep her past hidden as she attempts to make sense of how her husband died. Did he commit suicide or did somebody murder him?

I am quickly becoming a fan of listening to thrillers on audio. If the narrator is good, I can fly through these books in a few days. Carla Vega was a GREAT narrator, making this book so enjoyable that I didn’t want to stop listening. Jennifer Hillier wrote a psychological thriller that flowed so nicely, that you almost forgot about the complexity of it all. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to give anything away, but the story goes back and forth between the POV’s of Paris, Joey (what a sad, heartbreaking story), and true crime podcaster Drew.

This isn’t your typical thriller where you’re on the edge of your seat in suspense, scared to turn the page, but it does throw some twists into the mix, many of which I didn’t see coming, and it’s just so well written that you won’t want to put it down. I highly recommend adding this to your TBR.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you @Macmillan.audio and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Told in two timelines and two locations, Things We Do In The Dark follows Paris Peralta after she is found holding a razor over her husbands blood soaked body.

I loved the Toronto setting of the past timeline in this book. Books with places I know pull me right in and this one was no exception.

Unfortunately, I guessed a lot of the plots twists and turns along the way, I suspect earlier than I was meant to.

I listened to the audiobook of TWBITD and highly recommend this format for consuming this book. It kept me interested and I listened to is quickly - over two days. It was easy to know when each character was being narrated.

I haven't read any of Hillier's earlier works, and I've seen from some other reviews that this is one falls more into domestic suspense than thriller, and I'm a little disappointed in that. I've heard so many incredible things about her earlier books and was expecting a jaw dropping, heart pounding thriller.

Overall this book was good, but not amazing like I expected it would be. I recently picked up a copy of Hillier's earlier novel, Jar of Hearts, and hopefully it lives up to my jar dropping hopes and dreams.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Jennifer Hillier for an ALC of Things We Do in the Dark in exchange for an honest review! This was my first Hillier novel and it will definitely not be my last. Hillier immediately sucks you into the story with our main character waking up to find her husband murdered. I enjoyed listening to the narrator bring me through the different storylines and how they immersed us into the past and the present. The twist at the end was fantastic and I did not see them coming. This one is out tomorrow (7/19) and deserves to be on your TBR. 4.5 Stars!

I loved this story! And the audio narration was fantastic. It was a bit confusing on audio as it didn't specify (or I may have missed) when it was flashing back. Because a lot of the story was on a different timeline, it took a little while to figure out what was going on. However, I was interested in both timelines and there were lots of twists. Another great story by Hillier!

4.5/5 - Audiobook

Okie, I really enjoyed this book! It wasn't very Thriller-ey, but the Mystery had me piqued! Even though it was a tad predictable, I had so much fun and listened to like 80% of the book in one sitting! I loved following Paris's character, and the cut and go with her characters past, as well as other POV's was so interesting! Definitely something I will recommend!

Brief Plot: After her arrest for the murder of her celebrity husband, Paris Peralta has to fight for her freedom, as well as fight to keep a lot of her past history a secret. Also, she's being extorted from a convicted murdered who claims to know Paris real identity and the crimes of her past she's trying to keep buried.

Thank you NetGalley and McMillian Audio for an eARC Audiobook copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review!

Unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. I was really excited for it because I had seem it on Tik Tok. I believe the author could have taken out a lot of information and still have been successful in writing an interesting story. There was way too much going on and the double/triple storyline was as overwhelming.

A slow-burn mystery that leans heavy on tragedy and trauma and light on thriller, Things We Do in the Dark is a solid novel that excels through its strong, complex BIPOC characters but doesn't quite deliver on suspense or twists.

Paris Peralta is the young Filipina wife of a famous actor/comedian who is found dead in his bathtub - the book opens with Paris being dragged out of her house in handcuffs, arrested for her husband's murder. A very similar crime occurred 20 years earlier in Toronto, with a Filipina woman arrested and convicted of murdering a rich white businessman she was having an affair with. A Black journalist with an uber-successful true crime podcast begins re-reporting on the Toronto case and opens up many rabbit holes in that investigation, possibly even leading him to Paris Peralta.

Although this was marketed as a thriller and certainly has some mystery elements to it, the "twists" were highly predictable, and the ending still left a few open questions in my mind. This edges into what I would consider "disturbing fiction" due to the traumatic events that one of the main characters endures as a young child at the hands of her mother's boyfriends. Her mother is a despicable character who abuses her daughter physically and psychologically - and that's not even including the abuse her daughter experiences from her aunt, uncle, and grandmother. Although the descriptions of the abuse are not overly graphic, the intensity and frequency of the events almost feels gratuitous - and it is certainly difficult to read. As a reader, you just end up feeling horribly sorry and sad for this girl and what she had to deal with, plus her strength for eventually overcoming it all.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC via Netgalley.

I had gotten this as a book of the month pick but I just couldn't get into it. Thanks to the arc from Macmillan audio and Netgalley I was able to listen to this one instead. I don't know if I would have finished this one, had it not been for the audiobook. The narrator was great and her tone was perfect for the book.

The part I wasn't super crazy about was the story itself. There are three POVs to the story. Paris Peralta who was married to a famous comedian and is now arrested for his murder, since she was found holding the murder weapon. She knows she didn't do it but the unwanted media attention worries her because she has a past she has been running from. Drew is a true-crime podcast host who is now interested in the parole of Ruby Reyes - the Ice Queen, a murderer who was the mother of his friend Joey. And Joey who has had an awful childhood and is a survivor of abuse.

The stories all connect but there is a lot of jumping around. The parts about Joey are heartbreaking and frustrating. Why is every single adult man this child encounters awful?? One of the "twists" was way too visible and it felt like there was no suspense. There was way too much backstory. I know a lot of people have really enjoyed this one so it might be for you, but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you for my Advanced Listening Copy Macmillan Audio!

Things We Do in the Dark is a fast paced page turner that certainly kept my attention.

The story is told from several POVs: Paris Peralta - a much-younger-wife of an aging celebrity comedian, arrested for his murder; Joey - a teenage daughter of a convicted murderer Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, and Drew - Joey's roommate, friend and love interest who is still mourning Joey, some 20 years after her tragic death in a house fire accident. The story jumps from present day back to Joey's life after her mother's conviction, and even further back to her troubled childhood and the events of the night 25 years ago that ultimately resulted in Ruby's arrest. It is clear that Ruby, Paris and Joey are somehow interconnected, but just how exactly is not clear until the very end.

There is some excellent exploration of what a toxic mother/daughter relationship, generational abuse, and trauma can do to a young adult.

Also, I learned A LOT about the inner workings of a strip club (especially in the 90's) 😂 . I don't know if you can learn more without working as an actual stripper 💁 Hillier sure did her research there.

Joey's reaction to abuse, and how she was "disassociating" from the present moment are also masterfully done. There is some excellent insight into what it feels like to be abused/molested as a child. Namely that any type of "putting up a fight" scenario is highly unlikely.

Now to the criticism....First and foremost, I almost wish this was not a thriller, but rather a family saga of sorts. In my opinion the thriller/mystery parts were a bit too predictable. There was not one "twist" that surprised me. Now I do in fact predict whodunnit often, but I definitely make mistakes too 😂 To me, the fact that I was able to guess pretty much everything was a tad dissapointing. 💁

There are also some plot holes and loose ends which I will discuss bellow because I cannot really talk about them without dropping some major spoilers.

This being said I could not stop listening, so in the end the book has accomplished what it set out to accomplish: gripped me until the very end!

The audio is fantastic, and is highly recommended! It is my understanding that the narrator, Carla Vega, is Filipina. Her accent (when reading Ruby's family's parts) really added to the whole experience!

SPOILERS BELLOW, read only if you have already read Things We Do in the Dark!

Here are some things that did not work for me:

1. I find it highly unlikely that Mae would not tell Vinny where the stolen goods were when subjected to the torture desribed in the book. Like why?! I believe she would have spilled out everything before the first cut to her face was made.

2. The whole "Chaz love story" plot line was very unsitifying, unbelievable, and unfinished (?)

3. How did Paris get a Green Card?? Sorry but I really must now...😂💁 For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process...it's NOT THAT SIMPLE!

4. All men in this book except like...three (!) are pedophiles. Now I get it, there are a lot of jerks out there....But common this seems like an exceptionally rotten luck!

5. Are we assuming that Vinny's brother, the mafia boss, will not be able to put 2 and 2 together, and figure out who Drew is with and why, and well....demand back what's "rightfully his"? 😂💁 You don't become a mafia boss by being STUPID 😂 This was such a loose end IMO....

6. Cocaine (and other street drugs) are not that hard to identify. Each batch in fact can be identified (I should know, I watched Breaking Bad!😂) If Blood Brothers lost a brick of cocaine that was cut a certain way (according to Dallas 😂, and then all of a sudden there is a random brick of the exact same cocaine on the market.....well...I am just sayin....Chaz's still alive, and in possession of all of his body parts - that's very unlikely.

These are just a few things, but you get the idea!

Rating: Between 3 and 4 stars

Another amazing read from Jennifer Hillier that I didn’t want to put down! Just like her others that I’ve read, this one was dark and twisty! I absolutely love Hillier’s writing and I highly recommend all of her books. My favorite is still Jar of Hearts but this one was an amazing 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

TW: child abuse, sexual violence, suicide

This book has everything - Murder! Mystery! Romance! Twists and turns!

Jennifer Hillier grabs the readers' attention right away when we learn Paris Peralta has been arrested for her wealthy, older husband's murder. While Paris is worried about being arrested and tried for murder, she has bigger problems now. Her face is in the spotlight, and someone from her past recognizes her.

10/10 would recommend it to all thriller/mystery readers.

I want to give a special shout-out to Carla Vega, the audiobook narrator. I was engaged all the way through the story. She killed (no pun intended) it!

The story begins with Paris Peralta being suspected of killing her older celebrity husband. She's got secrets that must remain hidden lest this not be the only murder she gets charged with!

I very rarely pick up a book without first reading the synopsis, but when it comes to thrillers sometimes I do because I just want to be completely blind as to what may be about to happen. I am glad I went into this one blind. Told through past and present perspectives this one had a lot of layers to unfold and I thought the pacing was really well done. Definitely need to stay focused while listening if audiobooks are your preference. Speaking of audiobooks, Carla Vega did a great job at narrating and I hope to listen to her more in the future.

As with other Jennifer Hillier books I've read this one does have a dark undertone. (TW: child abuse & sexual assault of a minor)

Rating: 4 stars

Special thanks to @netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC and @macmillan.audio for the complimentary ALC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.