In The Darkest Corner is a layered suspense novel that will scare you to death. What's so frightening about Darkest Corner is that it can and does happen to people every day. Who wouldn't be attractive to a drop-dead gorgeous man who's absolutely obsessed with you? Who isn't looking for the perfect mate, who cares where you are all the time? Who cares what you wear to the point of distraction? Who makes all your friends green with envy?
And what happens when that obsession turns frightening instead of flattering? Haynes has written an amazing debut novel that will keep her readers up far into the night as they try not to see similar behavior to Lee Brightman in their own mates. A character worthy of the plucky heroine, Cathy Bailey, Lee is the perfect date when she first meets him. Physically perfect right down to his clear blue eyes and golden blonde hair, Lee makes Cathy the envy of all of her friends. The relationship starts out perfect. Lee is the kind of man Cathy's been looking for all her life, until little things start to happen. Maybe the sex was a little rough one time, or maybe Lee is a little tiring about the red silk dress he's first seen Cathy in, insisting she wear it would be inappropriate to do so.
With the line between falling in love and obsession so thin, Cathy doubts herself when she starts to think that Lee might not be so perfect after all. When she tries to tell her friends, they brush her off, doubtless because they wish they had a man was perfect of their own.
While there are many books that follow the same sort of plotting, what sets Darkest Corner apart is Cathy's Obsessive Compulsion Disorder(OCD). Funny when you think about it, she comes down with a disorder that causes her to check the locks on her house to the point of ruining her life, when it's Lee's obsessive behavior that causes the disorder in the first place. Maybe OCD should be labeled Obsessive Compulsive Behavior Caused By Some Jerk With Serious Mental Issues, but that might be too many initials. Getting rid of the idea that someone a person just comes down with crazy coping mechanisms.
OCD is mapped out carefully in Darkest Corner, and shows how it can be overcome, something that sets this book above the usual run-of-the-mill girl being stalked by crazy boyfriend. Also, the time line goes back and forth between before Cathy's near murder by Lee, and her coping with her OCD afterwards. Great plot device.
I really liked this book because unlike other books where a woman is abused and then rescued, Darkest Corner shows the heroine going into the deepest corners of her own shadow side and finding the strength to make it back out to the light. How Cathy was chosen by Lee probably because her parents were dead, leaving her with only her girlfriends for backup, and that didn't turn out well.
Great book to have on a plane, or to give to the girlfriends knowing how much it will spook them. And who doesn't like to be the first to discover a new author?
