Customer Reviews

The Darker Side

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Someone has taken it upon themselves to deal out justice. A woman is murdered and the killer leaves behind a clue. It has to do with penitence and the victim paying for her sins. What sins could a nice, quiet woman who had no enemies be keeping? That's what Smokey Barrett had her team are in charge of finding out. It seems this psychopathic killer actually wants Smoky to find him. He will do anything to get her attention, no matter how many people he has to kill. Smoky is ready to follow the path the killer has laid out for her and her team. Can Smoky deliver the final blow to this psychopath or will this killer make Smoky confess her sins before she meets her maker?

The more I get to know Smoky Barrett; the more I just fall in love with her determination to a job well done. I pity anyone who crosses Smoky's bad side as she will make you wish you were dead. Smokey has matched wits with some of the sickest, ruthless psychopaths around. I have to say that The Darker Side is a long awaited release for me. Ever since I first discovered Mr. McFadyen a couple of years ago and read his first book Shadow Man, I was hooked! Mr. McFadyen makes you say "He can't do that, can he." The next thing you know he does and your left wondering what else will this author come up with next? I will tell you Mr. McFadyen will rip your heart out and leaves you breathless for more. You can bet whenever I see a Cody McFadyen book I will be buying it. Kudos to you Mr. McFadyen.

Cody McFayden has created an amazingly complex character, Smoky Barrett.
She is an FBI agent who has gone through hell and back - a serial killer traps her and her family in her home, tortures her husband, kills him, then goes after her daughter - Smoky has been tortured herself - her face looks like a roadmap - when she gets a weapon and tried to kill the madman, he moves her daughter in the line of fire and the child is killed.
Smoky fights her demons and can get in the minds of killers, because she has been up close and personal with them. Her co-workers are an amazing group of people with passion and grit who help Smoky get as many of the bad guys off the street as possible.
In The Darker Side, Smoky is called to Washington DC from Califoria - a prominent person has requested her specifically - her 'daughter' has been murdered in an airplane - turns out her child is a transexual and she asks Smoky to help her find the killer - turns out this killer is sicker than many she has encountered.
McFayden uses the Internet in this outing - a YouTube type site where the killer posts the murders and all the world is his audience -
The book again shows us the amazing range of McFayden's writing - the darkness against the light. An amazing group of good guys who themselves are shades of light and dark.
If you haven't read this series, start from book one - Shadow Man - this is a great series and I look forward to the next book of this amazing series.

With just his third book, The Darker Side proves that Cody McFadyen is right at the top of the list of today's best thriller writers. Once again, McFadyen delivers a big-time plot -- involving a religious psychopath on a perverse crusade of murder -- that is filled with suspense, characters that are extremely believable and descriptive passages that "come alive" on the page. The Darker Side will make you want to turn the pages as fast as you can to find out what happens next. His books aren't just good, they are memorable. Do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of The Darker Side. With that said, I felt The Darker Side was not quite as good as McFadyen's first two books in the series -- Shadow Man and The Face Of Death, which are "must reads." The basic, yet minor, difference is that while The Darker Side often had me gasping, Shadow Man and The Face Of Death were so intensely thrilling that from beginning to end I was holding the book in one hand and biting my nails on the other hand. Enjoy!

Cody McFadyen has been a favorite writer of mine since the second Smoky Barrett book. To be honest, I liked the second book better than this one, and I have not yet read the first one, but intend to.

One of the things I like about the Smoky books is the tone and point of view of the stories. We get to read things from behind the eyes of a tough but still feminine female FBI agent, who has seen and personally experienced horrific things in her life but who still manages to keep a grasp on sanity and find love in her heart for animals, a child and a boyfriend. The fact a man is writing her actually works, because it gives her that slight masculine edge she needs in the male-dominated criminal justice world, and yet, McFadyen definitely keeps her all woman too.

I like the peripheral characters as well, her classy best friend, the crazy ex-CIA agent (supposedly), the gay computer geek with super intelligence (Loved the twist on his sexuality-it was good to finally see something human and real about him!), the tough black bull of a man who is all cop... I could go on, but the cast of characters is well done, and I love or love to hate them all for various reasons.

In this story, there is more religious symbolism than in the past stories, given the lead villain (or villains in this case), calls himself The Preacher. In the end, we learn he's not working alone, and that he has his own demons he doesn't even realize.

The inner turmoil that Smoky goes through dealing with her own religious upbringing, Catholicism, and her belief in God feels real to me. Especially in light of the horrific things that have happened to her--losing both her husband and her daughter in tortuous ways and feeling responsible for their deaths--it make sense that Smoky would be questioning the existence of God, the humanity of God, and her own faith now versus all she had been taught as a child. I like the interplay between The Preachers words and how they punch at Smoky in a very personal way, but she manages to mostly keep that to herself while still working through it. I love the minister she sees at the small church. I get the impression she'll be talking to him in the future -- he handled things exactly the way with Smoky that I would hope ministers deal with those in crises of the faith.

BUT that all said, this is not a religious book. Far from it, in fact. It's light horror, full suspense, and written well. If you haven't read the first two novel in the Smoky series of books, I highly recommend you do. However, while reading the first books in the series before reading this one will give you greater insight and understanding into Smoky and the other characters and their motivations and pasts, McFadyen does a superb job of making sure the reader understands their actions even if they haven't read the previous books and he does so without being repetitious to those who have read them. That takes a skillful writer when writing a series like this.

Smoky Barrett is not your typical FBI agent. Unlike the typical man-hunting heroines in other thrillers of this nature, Smoky is emotionally and physically scarred and was mutilated by knife wounds inflicted by a killer who murdered her husband and daughter. In this third outing (after Shadow Man and The Face of Death, she's called into a case by Rosario Reid, the wife of a potential presidential candidate, after her son is found dead on an airplane -- killed at some point during the flight. The case is complicated because the son was actually a transsexual who called himself Lisa and who was living as a woman. This unusual murder proves to be just the tip of the iceberg with a serial killer who calls himself "the Preacher" admitting to the deaths of many other women. More murders are committed in the name of God and the killer insists that he kills because of the sins of the victim --sins that had been kept secret and never confessed. There is a religious component to the story.

Smoky and her team -- Callie, Alan, and James -- examine all possible leads and sources to track down the killer. The story is part police procedural and part psychological study. I like the interplay between the characters who all seem to have flaws that make them more endearing.

Although you don't have to have read the other two in the series in order to appreciate this book, I find it more satisfying to have seen the changes that the characters have undergone through the novels to this point. Definitely they are more than stereotypes and are not just one dimensional "good guys" hunting down the criminals.

Enjoy this one and be on the lookout for #4 in this great series, Abandoned: A Thriller (Smoky Barrett), due out this October, 2009.

In "The Darker Side", author Cody McFadyen continues developing his signature character Smoky Barrett, a compelling mixture of brains, guts and femininity.

His sidekick characters are a hoot, too!

In this entry, we have Smoky and her team chasing down the clues to who's committing a rash of bi-coastal murders with religious overtones. The psycho committing these crimes goes so far as to use the internet and a YouTube type site to televise his acts, and preach the "philosophy" he uses as the rationalization for them.

I can't say more without revealing the plot, but it's an enjoyable read.

A very solid four stars.

In his third in the series, following The Face of Death and Shadowman, Cody McFadyen has once again given us excellent, solid FBI procedural. With The Darker Side returns Agent Smoky Barrett, a character with her own tragic, horrific past. She and her family, her husband and young daughter, were taken hostage in their home. Barrett was raped and tortured, her husband and child both died. When we first met her in Shadowman, she was recovering from her injuries, her terribly scarred face and body nothing in comparison to the scars she carried within her. She spent her days alone in her house, trying to decide whether to end her life. So she is a police officer that understands the pain of both the victims of crime and their families.

When she and her team of investigators are called by the FBI Director himself to delve into the murder of a beautiful young woman on an airplane flight to Virginia, it seems at first that her fame is the reason they are given the case. The victim is the daughter of a powerful U.S Senator and she has been requested especially, partially because of her previous skill in solving some high profile cases but also because the victim's mother knows that Smoky understands their pain and will stop at nothing to find the killer. And she is right...

What first appears to be one of those 'locked-door' mysteries, a murder on a plane in the air with the possible murderers all lock in, turns out to something else, a very small part of a much more horrible reality. And not everything is as it seems at first. Everyone has their secrets it seems and this book is all about secrets; not just those of the criminals or the victims of the crimes but those that have dedicated their lives to bringing justice to the victims.

I will not lie to you my dear readers. Mr. McFadyen books are not cozy, superficial mysteries. Some may find then rather gory and all three of them present some difficult situations for the reader to consider, a lot of grays rather than black and whites. But I can assure you that you will be rewarded in each of his books with a taut, compelling story, with wonderful, complex characters that each have their own demons to wrestle with.

As I mentioned, this is the third book in the series and while the author gives us a brief synopsis or the relative background of Smoky and the others from the previous books, this is one case where I really think it is best to start with the first. The first book, Shadowman is such a powerful story that you deserve to read the whole thing from the beginning...and start to understand Smoky's own secrets...because it is all about the secrets after all.

Read this book after having read Mr. McFadyen's two prior Smoky Barrett (Smokey Bear-ette ?!! cute) books and, while I think he has great ideas for really scary, horrifying stories, I found myself once again skimming through the pages to get through this one, because I really don't like the way he writes (in my opinion he makes the most horrific scenes tedious and I find his characters primarily very annoying). Was hoping this would have changed but hasn't yet. Don't think I'll try another of his books any time soon.

Smoky Barrett is no stranger to violent crime. She sees it every day in her job as an FBI Special Agent, but she has also experienced it firsthand. Three years ago, her husband and daughter were killed by a serial killer Smoky was chasing. The same man brutalized Smoky, leaving her face horribly disfigured. Her personal tragedies give Smoky a unique insight into both the mind of a killer and the sorrow of a victim.

When the transsexual son of a prominent United States Congressman is killed on a on a passenger plane - in mid-flight - the President himself wants Smoky and her talented investigative team on the case.

The investigation leads them to a twisted and prolific serial killer who calls himself the Preacher. Serial killers are collectors and the Preacher is no exception. However, precisely what he collects sets him apart. The Preacher is collecting the darkest secrets of his victims, forcing them to confess their sins before he murders them. He's also taunting Smoky and her team, telling them that "time is life" and they must catch him before he kills again.

In The Darker Side, Cody McFadyen has created a compelling, gritty crime procedural. I frequently found myself re-reading passages, not to deepen my understanding of the story, but to savor McFadyen's writing style. This is not a bare bones thriller with little prose or character development. The descriptions and characters are rich and well-formed, and the plot never stalls. I was truly sad to finish this book, and I can't wait to see where Mr. McFadyen takes Smoky Barrett next.

McFadyen does it again! He continues to develop his characters with depth and truth and compassion and edges that make me, as a reader and writer, just squirm with joy. Smokey has become my all time favorite fictional character. She has it all and we continue to learn more about her with each new story. Her team was more of a background in this story and while disappointing, it's ok. Hopefully they will be more in the front on the next one (which is waiting for me at home!!)

I usually find stories about Catholicism to miss the mark but the writer captured the essence of faith and loss of faith and the struggle to figure out where you fall without becoming preachy. All the while mixing in a serial killer whose both brilliant and insane.

Once again...well done! A thoroughly enjoyable read.