Customer Reviews

A Whisper in the Dark

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3 star:		(4)
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John Merrick was a career cop, a good cop until one fateful night when he accidentally killed a fellow officer. The horror of that mistake overwhelmed him and he turned in his badge, left Chicago for his hometown of New Orleans and turned to a bottle for solace to help him forget the horrifying images of a fellow cop dying in his arms.

Julia Wainwright had long ago gotten over her schoolgirl crush for John Merrick. She had since become a very private and independent woman, an antiquarian bookseller by day and secret author by night. Lately she had become the target of threatening letters that led her to believe someone knew of her alter ego. As a favor to her father, John had been talked into looking into the matter to discover Julia's stalker. John's intention had been to offer a quick security check then turn the whole business over to someone else -anyone else but him. Though when he discovered Julia `all grown up' with gypsy blue eyes and a body fashioned for sin, turning the case over to someone else would no longer be an option.

*** The suspense of this well-written story was top-notch filled with an intriguing plot, plenty of vividly described action scenes that kept you turning the pages. The character definition was superior as well, so much so that this reader had no trouble becoming invested in the outcome of the mystery. However, with this said, I will also state that John Merrick was a not hero that I would have envisioned as a leading man and not one I could ever fall in love with. No matter the trauma, witnessing a man's journey to the bottom of a bottle is not romantic especially when it is so vividly portrayed. Obviously this is a catch 22 situation for an author when they can make the reader visualize the downside of a character's personality. Consequently, I didn't get a feel so much for romance between the two protagonists as a heavy dose of sensual lust. On the plus side, the stalker was drawn as a certifiably crazed madman and the author created situations that delivered edge of the seat imagery that are not for the faint of heart. Bottom line is you will be emotionally involved in this excellent thriller that should keep fans of Castillo coming back for more.


Marilyn Rondeau, RIO - Reviewers International Organization

Linda Castillo has become one of my very favorite authors in recent years. While I did enjoy Whisper in the Dark, I didn't love it. It didn't seem up to par with previous books.

John Merrick is tortured ex-Detective. After shooting a DEA agent in a drug bust gone bad, he turns to the bottle. It seems that gin is the only thing that helps him dull the memory of having a man die in his arms. When an old friend calls in a favor, John heads home to New Orleans.

Julia Wainwright's pride and joy is her antique bookshop. When she starts receiving strange notes which refer to a book she wrote under a pseudonym, she realizes that she has a crazy stalker on her hands. When her father brings in John Merrick, Julia doesn't have much hope that John can do much to help her.

I did enjoy this book. Even though John is a good guy deep down, he did not seem like hero material. He is drunk almost every night, walks out on Julia several times, and she still falls in love with him? Even though Julia knew him from her childhood, she was only a child. So if she's falling in love based off her memories of him, that's just ewwww.

I had high expectations going in, which is why I was dissapointed. You may not be, so I urge you to try it.

Julia Wainwright is an antique book dealer as well as published writer. She is also a victim of a stalker who is getting bolder with the types of letters he is leaving behind. The last in a series has been hand delivered. So when she sees John Merrick on her doorstep as a favor to her father she is torn. Years ago she had a crush on this handsome man. He has returned home after an officer involved shooting takes the life of a DEA agent. John has given up his badge and a lot of other things. But perhaps the danger chasing Julia is going to be enough to snap him out of his downwardly spiraling life. Can he be the hero she needs?

Ms. Castillo has penned an edge of your seat romantic suspense with plenty of action accompanied by well developed characters. Still the one thing that kept this from being a story I could totally loose myself in was the more than realistic portrayal of John's downward spiral into a bottle. Although she was fair with her descriptions it made it difficult to see him in the role of "hero." Almost too graphic for a read you want to loose yourself in. Despite this one element of the story I found this to be vividly descriptive story as far as location and tension regarding our elusive stalker. This is the first time I've been able to read Ms. Castillo and it won't be my last. For CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Julia Wainwright has been living a secret life. The preacher's daughter/bookseller is also an author of romantica, hiding this fact from the world, especially her father, under a pen name. However, it appears someone knows her secret and is making her life a living terror as a result. Frightening notes and incidents prompt her father to hire ex-cop John Merrick to protect his daughter. John lost his career when he accidentally killed an undercover agent, not realizing he was one of the good guys. Since then, he has been drinking too much and is terrified of guns. Yet, his instincts are still good, and he does appear to be the best man for the job, and for Julia, as her books come to life between them. John made a mistake once that cost a life, will he make one again? Is he too damaged for Julia to risk her life and heart?

**** Edgy suspense and romance make the pages of this book fly. There is no way to guess the surprise ending. John is an interesting hero, a damaged soul, far from the romantic hero perfection that is standard. His grittiness hides gold. This is a winner. ****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore for Huntress Reviews.

Career cop John Merrick has never forgiven himself for accidentally killing an undercover cop during a drug bust. He resigns from the Chicago PD and returns to his New Orleans roots, where he drowns himself in a bottle. Julia Wainwright is a writer and antique bookseller who has a stalker. Worried for her safety, her father calls on John to provide protection and hopefully stop her stalker. Julia doesn't take the threats seriously until they start to become disturbing. Afraid to reveal that she writes erotica under a pseudonym, which could harm the reputation of her father (he heads a religious foundation), it's obvious her stalker knows more about her than she'd like and she turns to John for protection and solace.

Castillo's story had all the makings for a sexy romantic thriller. Unfortunately, it is flat, and the characters one-dimensional. When it ended, it was pretty anti-climatic. I really didn't see the attraction between the two, and didn't get the sense that they would have a happily ever after.

© Tracy Vest, October 2008

This book has an interesting premise - a woman with a deadly secret, a good guy going swiftly downhill, both thrown together in a deadly situation. So it sounded good, and in the end, the book somewhat lives up to the summary on the back. The book was more average than good. It had potential, but Castillo didn't quite meet it, at least to me.

Julia's secret wasn't anything like I thought it would be. It actually seems kinda lame, but it does work for the book. I was just expecting something more serious. The antagonist and his reasoning were decent enough, but not terribly original. The plot decent...a little graphic and creepy at times. And the romance worked...sorta...I just hated how it was resolved.

Which was my least favorite part of the book. I really, really disliked the ending. Not the plot resolution. That was pretty good. But I hate how Julia and John were dealt with, especially John's situation. John was true-blue tragic hero. Accidentally killing a cop sent him on an alcoholic, suicidal downward spiral. He's barely hanging on to life. All through the story he's suffering, which works for his character...but by the time the end comes around, you've gotten no sense that he's pulling out of it - that he is going to stop drinking, try to get back to work, etc. You still feel like he could put a gun to his head at any moment. And yet, given all that, I was supposed to believe that he and Julia were embarking on a "forever" relationship, that he was in a place for that. I didn't buy it at all. There needed to be some sense that John was on the upswing and there just wasn't. That was my biggest issue with the book. But otherwise, it wasn't too bad.

I usually know that a book by Linda Castillo will leave me feeling that I spent my money well and had a good if not great ride. Unfortunately, this book did not. I really didn't care for the characters and I thought the romance was very luke-warm. The story very unbelievable and the villian most stupid and get real, her father is head of a relegious foundation? (church) Not one of her best.

Julia Wainwright is a bookshop owner who has written an erotic novel. She used a pseudonym, but he obviously knows she wrote the book. Naturally she doesn't want her father or his supporters to know that she is the author of such a book.

John Merrick accidentially shot an undercover cop while on a drug bust. Now he hides in a bottle. Until her father calls in a favor for him to guard his daughter, he knows she is being stalked but not why. Anyway, John will try to protect Julia.

When letters then notes begin to arrive at her shop, Julia is hesitent to ask anyone for help. She doesnt even know if the notes are for real. But when they get threatening she turns to John.

The plot is not new, just the parts played, and I have to say not as well as some other authors.

With an intriguing plot set within the sultry setting of New Orleans, Linda Castillo weaves a story filled with mystery, thrills and chills! John is a perfectly imperfect hero, while Julia also holds interesting complications of her own.


Linda has made her way to my auto-buy list!

Bookstore owner Julia Wainwright has been receiving threatening notes, and knows she can no longer ignore them, but she's hesitant to go to the police because it's become obvious to her that they're related to her secret: the preacher's daughter writes erotic romance.

Her father gets wind of the notes and, concerned that his position is responsible for the threat, asks ex-cop John Merrick to protect her.

John quit the force when, during a drug bust, he shot and killed an undercover DEA officer. Since then, he's been unable to pick up his gun, and has been sliding further and further into the bottle.

John's journey is very well described. His guilt and his attempts to quiet it with alcohol are real, as is his depression. The way his interest in Julia and his concern for her prompts him to begin to crawl out of the hole he's dug for himself, particularly the fact that it's not a simple, straightforward change, is utterly convincing.

I was less happy with Julia. Her fear was real, but... and this is entirely personal preference--not a reflection on the writing... I was irritated by the notion that writing romance was something to be ashamed of, and that irritation made me less sympathetic toward the character.

I was also unhappy with the bad guy. I could believe that someone's wacko enough to want to kill someone for writing sex scenes, but in a romantic suspense book, I want more. In particular, I'd have liked it explained better how he came across the book in the first place. The coincidence was especially hard to swallow--it's not like there are hardly any erotic romances out there.

And a bitty nit: Julia's explanation to John of what "erotic literature" is was insulting to both the character and to the reader. It's not an obscure term.

Despite my complaints, A Whisper in the Dark was a solid romantic suspense read.

In Chicago a ton of Bolivian cocaine just made it to the south side with police detective John Merrick ready to insure the poison went no further. However, when a man points a shot gun at him, John shoots only to learn he killed undercover DEA Agent Franklin Watts. Unable to let go of the guilt, John leaves the force and moves to New Orleans though he is exonerated by Internal Affairs as a misfortunate friendly fire incident.

In New Orleans Julia Wainwright owns and operates the Book Merchant antique bookstore. She recently has received six creepy letters printed on a laser but in olde English that seem threatening to her and her sister Claudia. Julia believes the writer knows her secret that she penned a novel under the pseudonym Elisabeth de Haviland so as not to embarrass her father, religious icon Benjamin. The siblings are scared because they know the creeper is nearby. Claudia informs their father who asks John to keep his daughter safe. He agrees though he wonders how he will perform, but quickly concludes that Julia is hiding a secret from him and that he is falling in love with her.

This exciting romantic suspense is filled with tension as John feels he cannot do the job as he cannot touch a gun since the Watts death, but also believes that his beloved Julia is in danger from a stalker, but not sure why. The culprit seems more of a caricature of a lunatic religious fanatic unable to accept mortal sins for himself and his chosen one. Still the tension he brings with his persecution of Julia make for a fine thriller as John hopes that love enables him to do whatever, even kill, to keep his beloved safe.

Harriet Klausner