Customer Reviews

Alone in the Dark

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Ellery O'Brien learns that she has a twin sister in a dying confession from who she thought was her biological father. Determined to find her long-lost twin, Ellery heads to the town she was born, Agarita Springs, Texas. What she finds is more and less than she is ready to find.

Unknowingly, Ellery rents the very house that her twin sister, Susan, died in. When she finds out that Susan was murdered, all of Ellery's investigative reporter instincts are aroused. Determined to find out who murdered Susan, Ellery turns to Clint Littleton. Clint's brother, Clay, was married to Susan and died in an accident several years before Susan was killed.

While the premise and plot are very good, the book is poorly written. The characters are lukewarm, at best. The relationship that develops between Ellery and Clint seems like an afterthought of the author. Ellery is portrayed as a tough-as-nails investigative reporter turned news anchor, yet she makes the dumbest decisions in regard to her own safety. She is convinced that the killer won't run her out of her house, even though he gets in several times, once even standing over her while she sleeps. Though Clint at firsts insists on either staying with her or Ellery staying at his ranch, he easily backs down and respects her wishes. The progression of the book after Ellery finds out Susan was murdered is so unbelievable, it borders on ridiculous.

I have just finished reading the book in question. I found the writer was a little slow in the telling of the story. I have to agree some what with the first review. There were a lot of details that were mentioned and then never repeated. But, I found the book to be very interesting and I have to say I really did enjoy reading it.

I thought the story was interesting but I agree with the other reviewers that there were either errors or loose ends. The example where she was supposed to call her cousin but did not and I could not find any explanation as to why the killer was blackmailing the crochety aunt. It didn't make sense. Why Ellery's dog was mentioned and then dropped is beyond me, as well as the neighbor and her dog. There were some unnecessary secondary characters and I think the the relationship with Ellery and Clint could have been expounded on more. The character development needed some work and Ellery could be a bit irritating with her hard headedness and snappish way with Clint. IMO, better editing could have made this an excellent suspense novel.

Definetly not one of the authors best works. This story had so many plot holes that I gave up half way through. Check out her earlier titles from the late 90's.

The story started out okay, a bit few too many people surrounding this poor woman, Ellery, were dead, but hey, a story is a story right?

Somewhere about the middle, the book fell apart so badly I thought I was in an alternate universe. I was also really ticked off, because I was home sick and could not go out and get another book, and it was the only one I had to read. It went from bad to worse.

As the other reviewer said, Ellery made the stupidest choices for her safety of any heroine I have ever read about in any book. The choices she made could not even be explained away later in the plot. So over and over again, despite the fact that her sister was killed in that home, and in spite of the fact that someone was entering the home repeatedly, even at one point standing over her bed and laying out her clothes for the next day, this moronic missy stubbornly insists on staying in the house. What could be behind this decision? What was she going to do if and when the killer came for her, as he said he was going to do? She was offered a gun, made a big deal that she could shoot it, then turned it down. There was no plan, just a weird insistence that she must stay in this house.

She also had this continuing dream where each time she had it, the killers face was unveiled bit by bit, yet that concept was apparently forgotten and never developed either.

The thing that bothered me the most was the Labrador Retriever, Bertha. Ellery is being stalked, so she puts the dog outside all night? From what I garnered from the book, the property wasn't fenced in. The dog never barked, not at anything? I have had labs, so have most of my friends, and they are excellent watchdogs...for the alerting part, that is. They do BARK! There is a part where the intruder is in the house, she wonders why the dog hasn't barked, wonders if it is ok, and it IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN UNTIL THE NEXT DAY WHEN SHE ASKS CLINT TO TAKE IT TO HER RANCH! Ridiculous! A real dog owner would be frantic to see if her dog was ok. Later, when she attends a funeral on that ranch, she doesn't seek out her dog.

Also, on the day she first made love to Clint, she was supposed to get together with her cousin Lucy. She was supposed to call on the way back to the ranch, that never happened, nor was addressed again either.

When her relative was killed, she never calls her so-called boyfriend to tell him. Still, she stays in the house.

Not brought forward either, was the fact that this woman had a supposedly important job, with huge ratings, ratings that only she could bring in, as established by an interaction with her co-host at the beginning of the book, the topic never to be revisited again.

Other characters were never developed, other lines were never explored. Ellery is alternately pissed off and weak without any relevant reason for either emotion. The romantic love interest apparently didn't care whether or not she was safe or not, except for in lip service only.

The book is ridiculous...don't waste your money or time.

I read this book 7 months ago and I am still upset with how awful it was. I know this was Elaine Coffman's first foray into suspense, and beleive me when I state it should be her last. This book had me so upset with the main character's stupid choices. I think many of the previous reviews hit the bad points pretty well. The book just made no sense and I don't understand how a publisher could possibly O.K this book. Did they not read the book before releasing it on an unsuspecting public. "Alone in the Dark" is the first book I literally threw across the room because it was so bad. I never, I mean NEVER, want to read a book this stupid again.

Ellery makes one stupid decision after another. It doesn't enhance her "tough as nails" reporter image. It makes her an unbelievable character. No one would stay in the house alone with that kind of threat hanging over her. And what is her reluctance to let Clint stay or to stay with him when she already did the dirty with him???? I hate stories where the heroine always needs to be saved by the hero, but acting tough and being stupid is too boring to read. I'll only finish this book because I have a character defect that forces me to finish every book I start. After reading the other reviews, I'm not hopeful that it will improve. SO DON'T START IT!

This was the first Elaine Coffman book I've read and I'm not sure I'm ever going to pick up another one. Most of the other reviewers have touched upon the issues I was going to point out. The poor development of the characters, extraneous characters, lack of chemistry etc. I picked out the killer almost the minute he was introduced simply because there were no other viable options, not even the one most obvious--after all, what writer would throw a character at us as the murderer and actually have that person end up being a murderer? It also really really bothered me about the dog, Bertha. Ellery obviously from the first few chapters loved the dog, but after moving to Texas seemed to not really care about her. What self respecting dog would let someone come into the house and either not bark or at least get up? And if I was being stalked and harassed I would certainly have the dog sleeping in my room with me! Another thing that bothered me was the lack of explanation for the dreams. Although a psychic connection between the sisters was established, the dreams were never quite explained to my satisfaction. And like another reviewer said, about half way through the book-about where Ellery seems to forget about Bertha (the dog)--the book just falls apart and hardly anything makes any sense. The other thing that made no sense was the end with the romance. Here is Ellery a high powered, high level Washington DC reporter who loves her job and is excellent at it...hooks up with Clint. Whioh was okay. BUT then at the end it appears she throws her career away for love without a second thought--this in turn makes the first few chapters make no sense. Why have them explore Ellery's talent and love for her job and then not show why she would give everything up for love. And why the heck would Clint let her? How selfish is that?
This book left me in the dark!

Not gonna waste my time with this one. Totally unbelievable story about how a woman would stay in a house alone while someone is trying to kill her. Dumb!!