Customer Reviews

A Darker Place

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Not only has Laurie R. King created two amazing original series, the Kate Martinelli and Mary Russell books, but she has written this riveting book as well. She is a master at creating suspense, not in a cheesy John Grisham way, but deliberately leaving you hanging at the end of the chapter so you can't wait to turn the page and find out what happens. This book has a lot of interesting psychological discussions of people involved in cults and shows the mentality of the leaders, and the followers. I think King is a very fair and balanced leader and doesn't make the mistake some writers would make with this subject by showing all cult leaders as amoral, or all cults as harmful. The book keeps you hanging until the ending, which is concise bordering on abrupt. I could see how some people were dissapointed with the ending because it was so curt, but in a way, that's more interesting than books with a long drawn out conclusion and typical "happy ending." King leaves it ambiguous and more up to the reader's imagination (or maybe open to a sequel, I'm not sure). Once again, Laurie R. King shines in the world of shallow popular fiction, outstanding among her peers.

Laurie King has been one of my favorites, both for her tortured policewoman and of course for Mary Russell. Such chutzpah - to give Holmes a wife at his age! But the stories have a wonderful plot and sinister rise with anticipation. Thus, I started this book with grave (get it?) anticipation. The characterizations and character development is incredibly excellent. Ana is wonderfully drawn and executed and very believeable as is her FBI contact. The children, too. I kept wondering if I had missed a book of LKing's. Had she written one with these characters before? And it is not yet published? The flashbacks were too substantial and yet too wispy. If there was no previous book there needed more explanation. The plot was very suspenseful and I quivered with anticipation. I read very slowly as the evil got worse and worse. I did not understand why they had to go to England, I guess it is as good as Montana, but I think people are less likely to be left alone in cults there. I have reread the ending 4 times and still don't understand it. It just sort of fell apart. I need an epilogue, not just a pulse at the end. Something between Ana and Jason or the FBI man something. I will read it again, but will write my own ending.

This book was a bit disappointing. After all, Laurie King's Mary Russell series is a humdinger. Those are real page-turners. This one was not. OK, OK, there were places where the pages couldn't turn fast enough, but really very few. The main character was very well drawn, but it kind of slumped into the realm of romance novel, which it really needn't have done. I suppose it's my own fault for having read so much about cults -- this one just didn't have the ring of truth. And it didn't seem scary enough for all the concern. The ending seemed implausible. Ah, well, it won't keep me from reading the others in my Laurie King library. But try it out for yourself: This one came highly recommended, so obviously somebody out there loved it.

.

I have read every book by this author and enjoyed them all, with a particular affinity for the Mary Russell series. This book insulted me. There were 100 pages or more of setting up the characters, mostly unnecessary. We knew as little about character motivation by the time the book really started in chapter 8 as we did on page 1. I think the author had worked so hard thinking it all up, she couldn't bear to tighten up the story by dropping enough of the blather to help us love her characters.

I dislike books that try to impress with wordiness--did Anne really "fossick" through papers on page 53 and does anyone even know what that means or care? I love intelligent mysteries, but the mystery was sacrificed in this one for too much intellect.

I hung on for dear life, hoping for good things to come, and the book did get better, keeping me turning pages instead of tossing it away. Then came that terrible ending. What happened to Stephen, why was it necessary to have separate locations for this cult that seemed so unconnected, was greed the motivation or the desire for transcendence, if the latter, to what were they transcending? Why include references to coming events and then never speak of them again? And what happened at the end? It just ended with no satisfying conclusion. After all those unnecessary words at the beginning, surely the author could have spared a few for the ending.

Anne was a great character in a very bad story. I was so disappointed, I am writing my first ever review to rid myself of the lingering bad aftertaste.

When I noticed that Laurie King had a new book out, I bought it without even checking to see if it was a Kate Martinelli or Mary Russell story. Both of those heroines are so satisfying that it really didn't matter which it concerned. Imagine my delight to meet a new friend-Anne Waverly. I hope that this is the first of many in a long line of Waverly books. King is an adept writer who can take you through the back streets of London with Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, modern day police matters with Kate Martinelli and her crippled, female lover, or - now - penetrate religious cults with Anne Waverly. Far from being a stuffy theologian, Anne is all too vulnerable to the task at hand. Male readers, don't be afraid to try this, or any of King's books. This is not a "chick" writer. I've read some of her other works to my husband, and he is as spell bound as I am. "A Darker Place" had me up until 2:00am several nights until I finished the last page.

I've enjoyed all of Ms King's previous works and A Darker Place looked to be another 5 star treat until the last chapter. The book ends as if the writer just got tired of writing. There are enough loose ends to weave a carpet. I understand that a sequel is in the works. This book absolutely requires it. My recomendation: wait for the sequel and read them as a two book set.

I have enjoyed Laurie King's Kate Martinelli books and look forward to the next one. I had high hopes for "A Darker Place," but in the end I found it to be simply a slog. It's erudite and smart, as I expect from King, but I found the characters unsympathetic and poorly developed, the plot plodding--until the abrupt denouement, which left me wondering what just happened--and the writing competent but overloaded with not-especially-telling detail. Once the story moved to England--complete with glosses of that quaint English language--I got to feeling that the book was simply an excuse for a write-off on travel...but of course, King gets that with her Mary Russell books. And that left me wondering just what the object of the exercise really was.

Having read all of Laurie King's other books, I continue to appreciate the way she weaves details and character development into her stories. Buuuut...she does have a bit of a tendency to overly describe physical settings, while leaving some important details too sketchy. In this book, her complicated feelings about Glen and her guilt and present life were well-examined, but, for example, I waited for even an inkling as to why she and her husband and daughter had ever been in a cult in the first place. We're not given enough information to begin to understand Joseph. And the story line with Steven in Arizona was a red herring. Was he supposed to be a good guy? All that time spent in that commune, come to naught. And I guess I just didn't "get" the whole alchemy thing --metaphor or the physical process. Was Steven supposed to believe it? Joseph? Or was it just a ruse? Unlike many of the other reviewers, I didn't come away with a feeling of insight to cults at all. We don't come to *really* know anyone in either place other than the leaders (sort of) and Jason/Dulcie, who are not even there by choice.

And then the ending....excuse me, but...huh?

The reason I even give this 3 stars is because Laurie King's sheer effort is very apparent here. I think she had some wonderful story ideas, all of which were lovingly and deeply researched and thought out (par for the course for her), but when brought together just didn't quite _fit_ each other. Like a quilt of gorgeous patches that gape at the seams.

But all said, I sure hope she writes a sequel and resolves the fates of Anne and the children. I did love those characters.

This review is based on the 10 tape unabridged audio book.

Fans of the The Beekeeper's Apprentice will be in for a shock in reading this book. Kate Martinelli fan shouldn't be quite so surprised for the concept of cults has been featured in the Martinelli series. For this is not a murder mystery, who-dun-it, in any kind of a conventional form. The story is of the pre-emptive investigation of a cult. There is a suspense component --what in the heck is going on here. Still, the meat of the book focuses on the transformation of Ann Waverley/Anna Wakefield under the heat of undercover investigation.

The writing is, at times, brilliant and at other times, too wordy and redundant. The overall tone is dull and bleak. The ending left me breathing a sigh of relief (that it was over) on one hand and also really wondering what happened to the characters.

Psychologically interesting protagonist, a brilliant woman searching for redemption, her colleague, a FBI agent with moral dilemas. What more could you want.

I loved that the locations changed, I liked the cult aspects, even if there was a occasional cliche.

Not as rich in breath and depth as the Mary Russell novels, but the modern theme more than makes up for it for me. I like that the heroine has to deal with morality as it exists today, and make decisions about sexuality and integrity in the real world.