DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND by Lisa Unger
Publisher: Crown
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Pages: 368
SUMMARY: The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Lies and Fragilereturns to The Hollows, delivering a thriller that explores matters of faith, memory, and sacrifice.
After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He’s in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.
Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.
Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce. Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away—a predilection that might lead her to dark places.
Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences. The result is Lisa Unger’s most compelling fiction to date.
REVIEW: In her latest novel, bestselling author Lisa Unger returns to The Hollows, the fictional setting of her previous novel Fragile and brings back some of the same characters. You don’t have to have read Fragile in order to fully enjoy Darkness, My Old Friend. I have not read Fragile and yet was completely consumed by Darkness. I loved it so much that I have now moved Fragile up on my to-be-read list! Each character is trying to conquer their own personal demons or “darkness.” Library Journal gave Darkness, My Old Friend a starred review and called it “one of Unger’s best thrillers yet.” I have read other reviews online that suggest reading Fragile first, as it makes the journey back to The Hollows and with some of the same characters, a more entertaining read.
Retired cop, Jones Cooper and his wife, Maggie, are trying to figure out their next step in life. Willow Graves is a moody teenager who is saddened and depressed by her parents divorce and her move from New York City to The Hollows. Paula Carr, a woman who is treated badly by her husband is facing the decision to stay or go. Eloise, the town psychic is trying to decide whether it is time for her to stop helping others and focus on herself. And finally, Michael Holt, who wants to understand what happened to his mother. Did she leave him and his sister or did something evil happen? The interaction between these characters is where the story takes off and the mystery truly begins. Each character is facing their own personal demons and their stories are fascinating for the reader to explore. I went into Darkness expecting a mystery but what I got was so much more. There was strong character development, intriguing plot turns, fascinating story lines and authentic characters. The Hollows itself becomes an intriguing character, a mysterious umbrella that all of the characters huddle
Sally Kim (pictured) has been named editorial director at Touchstone, a Simon & Schuster imprint. She will report to vice president and publisher Stacy Creamer.
Here’s more from the press release: “In the course of her career Sally has specialized in quality fiction with commercial appeal, which fits perfectly with our Touchstone mission. Her authors have included Lisa Unger, Gillian Flynn, Allison Winn Scotch, Justin Evans, Phillip Margolin, Cecelia Ahern, and Kate White.”
Kim’s previously served as executive editor at HarperCollins. Kim’s publishing career has included jobs at Random House, Macmillan, and the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
We are adding a new category to our blog posts…drum roll please…
FRIDAY’S FOCUS!
Every Friday we will give you a brief rundown of the books we received over the course of the week. We will “focus” on the books that are jumping into our To Be Read pile. So without further ado…
Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows’s insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case—and also dangerous.
Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.
“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”
As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret—one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricate yet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, How well do I know the people I love? and How far would I go to protect them?
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Pages: 336
He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For nearly a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were Hollywood royalty, and their fiery romance—often called “the marriage of the century”—was the most notorious, publicized, and celebrated love affair of its day.
For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of this larger-than-life couple, showing how their romance and two marriages commanded the attention of the world. Also for the first time, in exclusive access given to the authors, Elizabeth Taylor herself gives never-revealed details and firsthand accounts of her life…
I loved Fragile, so I can’t wait to read this one. You need to go back and read Fragile now.