I did not like this book very much. The plot was iffy at best and the main character was extremely unlikable.... not for me at all.

Nathan Ripley attended the Grimsby Author Series to read from and share insights into this book. This raised the interest level in this title but the writing and storytelling craft that Nathan has makes this a wonderful read. Everyone who is interested in this genre should read this.

Wow! A great murder mystery, detective investigation journey via wonderfully crafted characters. I appreciated being drawn into squad room and felt I was part of the investigative team.

A real page turner, some of the characters are a little stock, maybe, and some of the plots work out very conveniently for the bad guy. It was hard to put down though.

FIND YOU IN THE DARK is the chilly, creepy debut thriller by Nathan Ripley.

Martin Reese has a strange hobby, and one that his family is not aware of: he is obsessed with serial killers. He researches and digs up murder victims. He buys stolen police files on serial killers, and uses them to find and dig up missing bodies. Calls in the results anonymously, to the police. He feels worthy that he can secretly solve mysteries, ones that the police can’t solve.

But Martin keep a scrapbook of his discoveries. Why?

Detective Sandra Whittal is suspicious of the mysterious caller, who she calls the “Finder”. Is he the one leaving the bodies behind?

But then Martin comes across a shocking discovery…and one which shows that someone is not happy with him digging up bodies.

Now, in order to keep his family safe, Martin is on the run from the cops as well as the killer.

This debut novel had an interesting plot, and was an okay read with a creepy dark aspect to it, but I was looking for more WOW in the delivery.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada via NetGalley for my digital copy.

I received this book from Netgalley to review.
Martin Reese is retired and has sold his tech company. Now he has the time to do what he wants. What he wants is to search and find the remains of serial killers. His sister in law was kidnapped and persumed murdered and Martin has been searching for her body. But his family does not know about his secret obsession. One day while while on a find he discovers that there is somebody that knows exactly what he is doing and then Martin's life begins to unravel.

While this has a good plot, the characters are very annoying and not very likeable. Everyone from Martin, his wife, his daughter to the police officer investigating are not very likeable. As a result it was very hard to get through. I just did not care what happened to anyone. Maybe if Martin was a more sympathetic character I would have rated it better.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It did take me a little bit to get into it, because it takes about 100 pages to get to the crooked cop disappearing, though there was a bit more to the story than that. in the beginning, Martin was coy with giving us readers information about what he was doing, even if the synopsis already told us. But once we got to the good stuff, things really got going!

I think that Martin was morally grey. Digging up murder victims does some good, the families get that bit of closure, but he doesn't do it for that. He does it to keep his darker urges in check, feeding them this. So it's not right, but it doesn't harm anyone.

One thing that I really loved, as a Canadian, is when they got directions to one of the serial killer's victim's bodies. But they were in the metric system, not imperial, so course the body wasn't where they were looking. That was a bit of cleverness on Martin's part, figuring that out. Of course, he had gotten a lot of practice in looking for clues from various recordings, and this one plain out gave the directions, which were very precise!

So in the end, I only have 2 questions. Who was the other body in the grave besides it's original inhabitant and the newest one? And where was Tinsley buried? Other then that, I'm satisfied, it ended on a good note!

This book was dark and thrilling and awesome!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t think I’ve read anything like this book before and it had a really neat concept. Martin buys old case files and information from a crooked cop and goes about finding and digging up past murder victims, hence why he is given the name, The Finder. Apparently he chooses the wrong serial killer’s victims to dig up because him and his family are soon targets themselves. It’s a face paced, nitty gritty dark dip into the realm of serial killers and those that track them.
It was definitely a good read and I’d recommend.

This book started off on a good pace then it seemed to have slowed down towards the middle part of the book and it felt like there were parts that weren't needed with some of the secondary characters. The final quarter of the book was very well paced and that part had me hooked the most to continue reading and not want to put the book down. I read the first and final quarter of the book quicker than the middle basically but I would recommend to others looking for a good read.

Find You in the Dark was fast-paced, and gritty, just how I like my thrillers, but this one, while it started out strong, fizzled out for me about halfway through. I felt like it could have probably been a lot shorter. I will still likely read more from this author in the future, it's just this one didn't do it for me.

I really really wanted to love this book, and I had high expectations for it because the premise just sounded so amazing. However, it just didn't work for me.

I think one of my big problems with this book is that it has a very slow pace. It took a long time for the story to get going and even when it did, it wasn't necessarily presented in the most interesting way. I wanted things to be fast-paced to keep in line with the intensity of the premise. But this was definitely a slow burner of a story, and I don't know if it really worked well for this type of novel.

I also didn't really like any of the characters and found the style of conversation between different characters to be very stilted and awkward. It really wasn't realistic at all, which is one of my pet peeves. I wish the interactions had been developed better as that really hindered my ability to enjoy reading this book. I also felt that the characters lacked the depth I was looking for. Martin is just very, very dull for the longest time and I found him annoying. I didn't like the two police detectives as they were very cookie-cutter and one-dimensional; I wanted something more unique from them. 

Overall, this novel had an interesting premise but it didn't meet my expectations. I wanted deeper characters and a faster pace, so for these reasons, I'm giving it a 2/5 stars.

This book gets you hooked right from the start. It's a wonderful "who dunnit" with a twist. Rather than look at a series of murders through the eyes of either the detectives or the murderer, we see them through the eyes of someone who finds the bodies. New twists and turns on every page. Loved it!

3.5/5

When I first read the synopsis for this book, it reminded me of Dexter. Maybe not quite the same, because this guy is just digging up bodies instead of burying them. At first that seemed like a unique angle, but I quickly found out that it made the story lesser. Not less interesting, but the pace was slower. The intensity was low.

The intensity was low.

How couldn't it be? The victims were already dead, and the people that killed them were already in jail or dead themselves. Then, suddenly, the intensity picks up. New lives at are stake, complete with real danger.

And, honestly, once the plot picks up, it was great. And while its surprises didn't have me gasping, I didn't see most of them coming. By the end, it was a very fast-paced and satisfying read.

The biggest win, and the biggest miss, for this book is the relationship between characters. The Detective, Sandra Whittal, and her partner have a very complicated and dysfunctional partership/relationship. Our main character, Martin, and the 'someone who isn't happy Maritn is digging up his work' also spend some time together. Both relationships were my favourite aspect of this book, but there was very little of either.

Considering I usually run when the synopsis has the word 'Detective' in it, this premise intrigued me, and I'm glad it did. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and would recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of a crime thriller.

When a crooked cop with a weak tie to Martin vanishes, Whittal begins to zero in on the Finder. Hunted by a real killer and by Whittal, Martin realizes that to escape the killer’s trap, he may have to go deeper into the world of murder than he ever thought.
There were major plot points that happened in each chapter and regulated so well, that it made me want to keep reading. It was hard to put this book down once I started reading.

I really enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for an exceptional thriller, this is the one for you.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher on NetGalley.

Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley is a psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publishers, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Synopsis: 
Martin Reese has a secret that his wife and daughter know nothing about. His wealth has allowed him to retire early, and he spends his spare time on a treasure hunt of sorts. He hunts for the dead bodies of murdered victims. He hopes to find the missing body of his sister-in-law at some point. By purchasing police records from a rather unscrupulous police officer, Martin has been rather successful in his searches. When he finds a body, after many photographs and documenting every nuance for himself, he re-buries it, and leaves a computer-generated message for the police as to the location of said remains. He emphasizes that the police should have been put in a little more effort. To Detective Sandra Whittal, these phone messages have been a taunt that she could do without. She has a good track record, and she is intent on getting this man she calls “The Finder”. Others may think he is doing the families a service by giving them back their loved one to bury, but Sandra wonders if perhaps he may start killing next.

Meanwhile, Reese may have overstepped. He thinks he has discovered the 20-year-old remains of his sister-in-law, but when he opens the grave, he finds the body a current case, and of a current murderer….who is now hunting him. The “Ragman” as he calls himself, is not happy that Reese is finding his kills. This killer has been working with others in the past to create his own little path of destruction, and he needs a new partner. Perhaps Reese could fill that vacancy.

In order for Reese to keep ahead of both the police and the murderer, and to keep his family safe, he may have to up his game.

My Opinions: 
Although the premise of the book is great, I felt it moved a little slowly. As well, I didn’t connect with the main characters. Martin seemed a little wishy-washy, his wife a bit**, and the detective arrogant and unprofessional. I rather liked the daughter and the serial killer. Told from the perspectives of Martin, the Detective, and the Ragman, everything moved smoothly. It is an easy read. It just somehow missed the punch it needed. I kept waiting, and although the ending was fair, overall it just lagged.

This was not a bad for a debut novel!  Again, the actual plot was really good, and it read well, but perhaps this one just wasn’t for me.  Guess they can't all be.

Martin Reese has an unusual hobby. He finds the bodies of murder victims that have not yet been discovered. Using old case files for reference, he looks for seemingly random or unimportant clues that police working on the cases originally missed. He keeps photos of the bodies, along with detailed records of how he uncovered them, stored in his 'scrapbook', an old computer which is hidden away in a locked drawer in his house. Once he uncovers the remains he phones 911 anonymously on disposable cells, leading the police to where they are buried. Unfortunately for him, he has caught the attention of a serial killer who is not entirely happy with Martin's activities and is recently making those feelings known. Also hot on Martin's trail is police detective Sandra Whittal who believes he has escalated from being a 'finder' to a murderer.

Martin and his wife Ellen appear to have a good marriage with arguments mainly revolving around her overprotectiveness of their daughter, Kylie. Ellen's sister Tinsley went missing twenty years ago and Ellen believes she was murdered. She's worried the same will happen to Kylie, so she sets heavy boundaries and rules for her. Martin looks specifically for female victims of serial killers in an attempt to find Tinsley and put his wife's mind to rest.

The insight into Martin's personality is fascinating. There's a complexity to him as he conceals what he's doing from his wife and daughter to create some sort of balance within his life and family. He believes he is providing a public service for the victims’ loved ones. However, there might be another motivation that drives him other than providing closure and finding Tinsley's remains. Martin also has a history of secret impulses he's trying to suppress, so there could be an even deeper reason why he is digging up bodies.

The dark and rainy streets of Seattle create the perfect backdrop for the narrative. Author Nathan Ripley conveys such a sense of unease, I was frequently looking over my shoulder as I was reading. Find You in the Dark is a disturbingly sinister novel with plenty of suspense, intriguing characters and a story that kept me riveted.

I find it impressive how vile and tormented someone could be, how a sick mind can operate... This book give you an inside view on how a serial killer thinks, and that is something. Ok, I'll say it, it's disgusting. This book was good, but I found it difficult to read.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Find You in the Dark is Nathan Ripley's debut novel - and if you like suspense fiction, its one you're going to want to pick up!

The premise is deliciously dark....... Martin Reese is obsessed with serial killers, specifically with the victims not found. He's been buying up police reports for many years and has managed to locate (and dig up) the bodies they couldn't find. But, he's doing all of it anonymously and taunts the cops with a tip off of each new body located. Oh, and he takes only photos as souvenirs. Uh huh. He's been branded as The Finder by the cops. And it's all going along as it has for many years until.....you got it - a serial killer figures out who Martin is and what he's doing - and......

I know, I couldn't wait to start reading either! Martin knew something would happen eventually with his 'hobby', but "I didn't know yet that I'd made deeper mistakes I wouldn't ever be able to put all the way right." Martin didn't engage me as a person, rather I found myself observing him, somewhat dispassionately.

Now, someone else is after The Finder as well. Detective Sandra Whittal. I loved this description of her...."She was thirty-two and lacked the penis that functioned as a skeleton key to acceptance, but she had the competence and could properly talk shit, which went a long way." Whittal is clever, dogged and determined. This is the character I really liked.

Find You in the Dark is a delicious cat and mouse game. It is a plot driven novel, with numerous twists and turns and some great foreshadowing. Now, yes there are some moments in the plot that I thought were a bit of a stretch, but I quickly let them go and kept turning page after page. For this reader, Find You in the Dark was definitely an entertaining read. I look forward to Ripley's next book.

Wanna read a sick and twisted book about a sort-of psychopath? Nathan Ripley’s (not his real name; it’s a pseudonym for Journey Prize-winning author Naban Ruthnum) Find You in the Dark might be just the ticket. Combining a serial killer drama with a police procedural, the book is about a guy named Martin Reese who has the fun hobby of finding dead bodies from serial killer victims that the cops haven’t located. Nice, huh? While he’s also a loving, doting family man, he’s married to the sister of a woman who went missing 20 years ago and was the victim of a killer. Great, eh? Naturally, a female police detective has started zeroing in on Reese, but complications abound because someone else is pretty pissed off at Reese’s undercover work — a more recently killed body turns up among dead ones in a location Reese believes is the resting place (note that I didn’t say final) that his wife’s sister is in.

So how does Reese find these victims? He’s latched onto a corrupt police officer who sends him information on police records for a slight fee. And that’s where the book really goes off into incredulous territory. While it is plausible that there might be a crooked cop out there willing to sell certain information, I doubt that any cop in his or her right mind would continue to do so after finding out, as this cop does, what the information is being used for — simply for fear of losing his main source of income or worse. This is especially true because Reese taunts the police by leaving computerized voice messages chiding them for not following through on these cold cases.

So you really have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit through this twisted and turny book, that’s probably best described as pulp fiction — since it’s written in a really gritty style. While most of the violence takes place off the printed page, Ripley (or Ruthnum) spares no graphic detail on the state of the corpses that Reese finds. That means that this is a gross out of a book, one that can be hard to read at times for the stomach churning details and the fact that the main protagonist is basically one sick little puppy.

In fact, though, most of the characters in this book are of the “unlikable” sort. Even the policewoman working the case has a bit of a mean, sadomasochistic edge to her. Since the novel is told from rapidly shifting viewpoints from chapter to chapter, it’s hard to really root for any of these characters. I wonder if the book might have been better told from the policewoman’s point of view. At the very least, there would be a moral centre to this novel. Still, I did enjoy Find You in the Dark in a very perverse sort of way. This is a book about keeping secrets — Reese hasn’t told anyone else of his penchant for hunting dead bodies, and there’s an all-too-obvious hint of an affair between Reese’s wife and one of his former co-workers. On that level, Find You in the Dark is about the personal skeletons hiding in everyone’s closet.

Just don’t make the mistake of calling this literary fiction. Even though Ruthnum has won a prestigious Canadian literary award, this is the sort of thing they make television serials out of. It turns out that the television rights have been picked up for this work, so you can probably expect to hear more about it when it comes out. I’m not sure how long of a TV series this would make, since the book closes with a note of some finality. However, if the producers can find ways of milking the storyline beyond a season, assuming this gets enough viewers (fans of Dexter and Criminal Minds, probably) for them to do so, there might be more here than meets the eye.

As noted earlier, though, the book does stretch the boundaries of credibility. While I know there were a couple of high-profile serial killers working the Pacific Northwest (the book is set in Seattle and environs), Find You in the Dark makes it sound like the area is crawling with perhaps a good dozen or so of the perps, which seems ludicrous. But, to make the story work, Reese needs to exhume a lot of bodies close to his home in order to not raise too much in the way of suspicions from his wife and teenaged daughter. Maybe the book might have worked better if he was a bit of a lone wolf, but then we wouldn’t see much of a human side to him — which this book wants us to see. To that end, the author wants to make the book perhaps a tad hair above the obvious pulpy concoction this really is. (Still, it makes you kind of wonder why he bothered with a pen name, when the information on who he really is is readily available.)

Overall, Find You in the Dark is a fun, yet disturbing, work. It really works its best when it dabbles in the police procedural side of things, as the main detectives working the case make their deductions and come closer and closer to solving the crime, albeit with plausible false leads. Otherwise, it’s kind of wickedly gross and evokes our sympathies for a character who may be one step away from actually making a kill of his own. In fact, Reese is so thorough about not leaving a trace at his crime scenes that one wonders if it wouldn’t have been easier for him to choose his own victim to kill. It’s stuff to ponder about a book that really goes over-the-top at times, loading up things that just don’t seem all that plausible in reality. I guess this is what some people read fiction for. If you like crime drama, you’re probably going to go ga-ga over Find You in the Dark as it lets you live a secret double life of one drawn into the motivations of serial killers. If you find it stomach churning, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I don't really know what I was expecting going into this book, but what I got was so different from what I thought was going to happen.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an eARC of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

This book follows Martin Reese, an early retired tech family man. He'll do anything for his wife and daughter. He spends his free time buying old cold cases and anonymously finding the bodies of women who have been taken, murdered and buried by local serial killers. It's about justice, justice for the families and justice for the women. But as Martin begins the search for his wife's sister, who is presumed dead after disappearing 20 years earlier, his hobby turns into an obsession. The police discover a recent runaway in one of Martin's digs and soon they begin to focus on uncovering this modern day superhero.

So, there is a lot going on in this book! The pacing of the book did seem a little bit on the slower side of things, but it didn't bother me too much because there was so much happening and so much to digest, any faster pace would have wrecked havoc on the storyline. I think I've kind of just become accustomed to not really knowing the characters in these sort of thrillers, mainly because so much of the focus is on plot and not character development, but I think that Ripley did a great job differentiating the characters and really describing them well.

While I will say I'm still not 100% sure why Martin does what he does, I can, I don't want to say understand, but understand, why he does them. The only thrill for him is the discovery - solving the puzzle - and justice. Things were a bit obsessive from pretty early on, but you can look past them because he is doing good. Even in the end, people realize that.

This wasn't your typical psychological thriller, either. It was slow burning in the best way and less about mind games. It was the perfect blend of a crime thriller with the detective POVs, having Martin 'in charge' of investigations left less room for stuffy, political police drama that often runs rampant in crime thrillers.

In the end, I feel like most things were wrapped up nicely and like reality (hang on here, I might get a bit philosophical and cynical) the book shows that there are varying degrees of badness in people - and sometimes we have to let some of that badness out to become goodness. I don't know if that makes any sense but what I am trying to say is that things aren't black and white, not all good people are good all the time and not all bad people are bad all the time. There are moments of weakness, of stress, of life, that blur this line.

This book was very unique, in terms of others I have read. I'm not super familiar with Dexter, so I can't say how accurate that comparison is but I've certainly never read anything quite like this before.

All that being said, I just felt like there was something missing. I can't quite put my finger on it, and the fact that I read this book in a matter of hours shows you that I still really enjoyed it, but there is just something that could have pushed it over the top.

Overall, a unique and interesting story!