Darkness in Him: A Novel [Hardcover]

Andrew Lyons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2003

Jake Conason is the Golden Boy of Jefferson University in St. Louis. His future is big and promising--top grades, a gorgeous girlfriend, membership in the most popular fraternity on campus, and he's headed toward law school. But when one night's drunken indiscretion with a woman he barely knows leads to murder, Jake discovers just what he's capable of to cover up his past and insure his own future success. A chilling, addictive first thriller, already optioned for the movies, that delves deep into the heart of an anti-hero and discovers the Darkness in Him.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nothing is as important to Jake Conason as getting into an Ivy League law school--not his fraternity brothers, his girlfriend, his honor, or his ethics. That makes it particularly hard for the reader to care whether Jake gets away with murder--not just once, or even twice. This inauspicious debut takes the word antihero at face value--there's nothing heroic about this golden boy gone bad, even though Lyons labors mightily to show us more than the murderous side of his character. While written competently enough, this first novel doesn't do justice to its author's narrative skills--the plotting and suspense are minimal, and the denouement less than satisfying, since we want to see Jake get his comeuppance and he never really does. --Jane Adams

From Library Journal

First novelist Lyons takes us into the mind of Jake Conason, son of a famous Texas lawyer and a St. Louis University senior aiming for Harvard Law School. Jake is respected and admired by all-but he's also a diabolical trickster. Believing that reputation is everything, he discovers that there are no limits to what he will do to protect his image and further his ambition. If one just focuses on one's purpose, he realizes, it is surprisingly easy to destroy someone, and this thought leads to blackmail, murder, and the framing of innocent acquaintances. Like the characters in Scott Smith's A Simple Plan, Jake makes the unimaginable mundane. He ruminates on love and sin and then acts, deliberately and completely selfishly, to remove all obstacles, including his fianc e. In the end, however, he confronts a trickster who is his equal in manipulation. Lyons, who went to school in St. Louis and now works in the L.A. TV industry, presents a psychologically chilling picture of a contemporary Raskolnikov. Recommended for public and academic fiction collections.
Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (January 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312301464
• ISBN-13: 978-0312301460
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,642,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darkness? More like psychosis., July 14, 2003

By 

Glenn (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darkness in Him: A Novel (Hardcover)

Mr. Lyons stopped me from doing anything else for a full day. I couldn't put this book down. I had to find out what was going to happen next.
The book revolves around a college senior who is willing to do whatever it takes to make his dreams a reality. The way things unfold and the way Jake feels about those events is what makes this book tick for me. You can actually follow Jakes line of thinking and in a sick and twisted way sympathize with him.
I enjoyed the book and I'm impressed with the author.
Be warned though if you're the least bit squeamish you may not want to pick up this book. The first death in the story is very brutal.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Talent In Him!, March 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Darkness in Him: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is this writer's first novel & I will be anxiously awaiting & anticipating more to come! For a debut work, I found it to be exceptional. The psychological suspense & intrigue is top-notch, the dialogue is taut & surprises are around every corner. I read it in record time, feeling drawn back to it with every spare minute I could devote. Andrew Lyons is a talent & should have a very bright future ahead of him as a writer in this genre if he continues in the tradition of "Darkness In Him!"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Virtually impossible to put down, March 2, 2004

By 

Larry Gandle (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Darkness in Him: A Novel (Hardcover)

Everything is going right in Jake Conason's life. He is a college student at Washington University in St. Louis. He has a beautiful girlfriend who he is very serious about and plans to marry. He is a popular member of a fraternity yet manages to take school serious, has excellent grades and is an excellent prospect for one of the top law schools in the country. Everything is going right until one fateful night when he commits an indiscretion then a horrific crime. To keep his future prospects intact, Jake must do all he can to cover it up-- even if it takes murder.
Cornell Woolrich wannabe, Andrew Lyons has managed to hit a home run his first time at bat. The plight of antihero Jake Conason is so compelling that the book is virtually impossible to put down. The well paced and clever plot lacks originality but makes up for it in pure fun. This is the type of suspenseful thriller that few debut novelists attempt to write. So many of these first time authors write amateur detective stories that they are difficult to distinguish from each other and most are quite forgettable. Perhaps this type of suspense tale is very difficult to construct. However, the ending lacked originality and any semblence of realism. This marred an otherwise excellent debut effort.