Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins

 This novel is well named. It is, indeed, a deliciously dark story with twists and turns around every  corner.

Piper Holden and Julianne Hillier have been best friends since childhood. One morning Julianne calls at Piper’s house to go on their usual run but Piper is not there and, in fact, the entire Holden family, Piper, her husband and two children, has disappeared. This is where the mystery begins as the story unravels over different time periods, all in relation to the day the Holdens disappeared: the day before, the day after, the week before and so on.

There is a sub-plot involving a detective, Saul Anguish, who while harbouring strange and mysterious secrets of his own, is brilliant at looking past the obvious and coming up with his own theories. He is intrigued by the beautiful Blue, a forensic linguist, who comes up with some brilliant conclusions of her own.

Secrets and lies abound and make this an entertaining read for lovers of good mystery/crime fiction. There are lots of characters and lots of new avenues opening up but the story never becomes confusing or hard to follow and will keep readers interested until the final page. I would love to see a follow-on series about Saul and Blue, if that should ever eventuate.  Their part in this story tips it over into a 5 star rating!

Published by Macmillan