A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Martin Reese digs up murder victims from cold case files he buys from the police. He calls in his findings anonymously to the police but Detective Sandra Whittal is suspicious of her caller and his motives. As she moves in on discovering who her 'Finder' is, Martin is being hunted by someone who is not happy with his discoveries. With his family's safety on the line, Martin must go even deeper into the dark realm of murder.

Hailed as a cross between Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, I thought this book was going to be a mesmerizing study in character development. Well...some comparisons just shouldn't be made. I got completely lost in the story, and I don't mean that in a good way, I literally mean that I couldn't flesh out the actual story from the messy plot. I really had to push myself to finish and this was because I didn't connect with the characters—they weren't believable. Nathan Ripley's Martin Reese lacks the depth and likability factor of Dexter Morgan, or the creepy brilliance of Highsmith's Tom Ripley.

This book is a great twist on a thriller. Instead of following the life of a serial killer, it follows the life of a man who digs up the victims of serial killers. He then tells the police where to find them, but this eventually leads him into trouble. This unique plot made the story unpredictable.

There were multiple narratives in the story. One was from Martin’s perspective, where he talked about finding the bodies. There was another narrative that followed the detectives who were investigating the man who dug up the graves as well as the original murders. And another narrative was about the man who pulled the strings behind the killers.

The pacing of this book was great. There were major plot points that happened in each chapter that made me want to keep reading. It was hard to put this book down.

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

Dark, menacing, and gritty!

Find You In The Dark is an engrossing, creepy thriller that delves into the sadistic and disturbing thoughts, motivations, and actions of serial killers and immerses you in all the manipulation, violence, murder, depravity, and pure evil they're capable of.

The prose is chilling and tight. The characterization is well done with a whole slew of characters that are flawed, vulnerable, and persistent. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives, is an exceptionally suspenseful, twisty, violent, tension-filled thrill ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the very first page.

Overall, Find You In The Dark is a fast-paced, unique, ominous tale that reminds you that if you continually dance with the devil eventually you might get burned.

Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley (aka Journey Prize winner, Naben Ruthnum) has been described as a tale for fans of the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay and on that front it does not disappoint. This novel follows Martin Reese, who has found a more constructive way to channel his more destructive tendencies by doing what the police can’t seem to do – find the hidden bodies of past serial killers. Martin combs through police files, and interviews with the murderers, in order to narrow down the final resting place of bones long forgotten. Martin runs into trouble, however, when the bones turn out to be not as forgotten as he believed and he makes a very serious enemy who does not take kindly to having all of his trophies removed and returned to their loved ones.

Present in this story is that dichotomy of how to feel about the choices that Martin makes. He may be doing the right thing the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, but it is also a much more constructive use of his … skills … than the path he was on as a young man. He also tends to do some wrong things for the right reasons, out of love for his wife and daughter. It leaves you both rooting for him and feeling a little bad about what that means about your overall morality.

Overall, Find You in the Dark was a lot of fun to read, and if you enjoy rooting for morally ambiguous characters, I highly recommend giving Martin Reese some consideration.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of the book. Helping bring closure to families by finding victims, finding what the police couldn’t.

But I couldn’t get into it. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t feeling it at the time, or if it just wasn’t what I expected. I will probably try and read it again later.

But at this time, I couldn’t finish the book. It didn’t hold my attention. So I will hold off on an actual star rating for now.

Excellent book! My first reading using netgalley. This book took me down a long dark hallway and every so often a door would open and you would eat pieces to the puzzle. I love reading books like this. I wish the author gave context to whose chapter it was, I felt a little in the dark until a name was mentioned. Other than that...excellent.

Martin is wealthy, retired, and a doting father. He also has an obsession for digging up bodies, murdered by serial killers, that haven't yet been found by the police. But one serial killer isn't pleased that Martin is uncovering all their work, putting Martin and his family's life in danger. Will Martin be satisfied with just digging up dead bodies, or will he want to take his obsession one step further?

I was definitely pulled in by the idea that this was a perfect book for Dexter fans. It took a me a little while to get into the story, the writing style and the main character's voice took a little to get used to but once I did I found myself really getting lost in this story and connecting to all the characters in the second half of the book. Martin's character was so intriguing - thought the author did a fantastic job showing the fatherly side capable of love, but at the same time showing the clinical, methodical side of his obsession. The suspense was well plotted and well paced. I think overall this was a really good book but it missed some of that "I can't put this book down" to take it to the next level.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a novel that had so much potential, but ended up trying to do too many things at once. I appreciated the different chapters with different perspectives, but it was done randomly and wasn't very clear. I felt as though the overall plot was a bit scattered, and there were no smooth transitions between anything.

Martin Reese, wealthy retired tech man, has a stange hooby. He researches and then digs up the lost bodies from convicted serial killers. All goes well until his activities bring him to the attention of a killer. Then no-one is safe. Not him, not his family.
An interesting mystery with the mix of serial killers. An enjoyable read.

This was an interesting read. I was hooked and wanted to find out where the characters were going to end up. I liked how strong the women characters were (the wife, the detective, the daughter).

Review Interesting story. It had some interesting twists on a murder mystery. There were a few spots where it could have progressed faster, or had a bit more excitement, but overall a good book. I live close to Toronto so I like to read books from local authors when I get the opportunity to support them.

DNF at 40%
I received an ARC from Netgalley so a warm thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Nathan Ripley. This was one of those books that I thought I would love but didn't work for me. I'm sure there's a fantastic story in there somewhere but I wasn't able to find it. I just could not get in to the story and although I made it almost half way, I really had to push myself to get to that point.

The book is advertised as a mix between Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I see where they were going with this comparison but the plot had a hard time keeping up. I was a Dexter fan but found this story to lack the qualities that made Dexter such a success. Most importantly, the characters were not very well developed.. As a result, I never connected with any of them so it was challenging to care what happened. This seemed to have an impact on my ability to engage with the story. It felt one dimensional and lacked any tension, build up or surprise elements. I was bored...

I can't comment on the latter half of the book and if it gets better towards the end.....but if a story can't keep me invested within the first half, I have my doubts. There seem to be a number of higher reviews for this one so it could just be that this book and I were not meant to be.

Martin Reese is a bit of a reverse Jack the Ripper: rather than killing women and taunting the police about their failure to catch him, he uses police files on serial killers to track down their victims' missing bodies, then taunts police about their failure to find the victims themselves. Detective Sandra Whittal isn't amused, but more importantly, she worries about how such an obsession may eventually escalate. For Martin, part of it is personal: his wife's sister went missing and presumed killed when they were younger, and even though the killer was caught and executed, his wife has never quite gotten over the experience. Yet another part of it is just creepy as hell. For example, we learn that Martin actually met his wife in the first place because he'd tracked her down after having his interest piqued by her sister's case. And later on, a serial killer recognizes the darkness in Martin and tags him as a potential protege. 

Find You in the Dark is being billed as similar to Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, and certainly, Martin Reese's obsession with missing serial killer victims is twisted enough to put him in league with these two fictional killers. But the story itself didn't quite live up to the promise of its concept. It's a solid enough thriller, and its twists and turns were surprising enough, but it was very much touch and go in terms of holding my interest, and to be honest, I'm not sure why. Part of it may be that Martin lacks the sheer charisma that make Dexter and Tom Ripley so compelling as anti-heroes. He also lacks the depth of menace that makes Hannibal Lecter such a compelling villain. 

Another part of it is that the story itself felt unsure of where exactly Martin lay in the divide between hero and villain, and that this uncertainty never felt particularly gripping. Martin had a bit of a hero complex, wanting to ferret out bad guys' victims, and he had a bit of a creepy side with his obsessive fascination with the bodies in the first place, but by the end of the book, the overall impression of him was that of a protective father, and his concern for his daughter's safety overtook pretty much both sides of his personality. While his need to protect his daughter was understandable, the result was that Martin as a villain lacked teeth, and after a point, his creepy hobby felt more pathetic than truly menacing.

There were some strong parts, and I liked the police procedural aspects with Detective Whittal, but overall, it was a pretty uneven read and ultimately not very memorable.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Scary thriller, ohmygoodness can't-put-down book. OK, don't pick up this book if you want to get to bed early. I read parts of this book while sitting on an exercise bike and ended up pedaling really fast! It's that good that you will screw up your face in alarm, guaranteed. "Real" frightening people who are pushed to all kinds of limits in the "untruth" category.

This was a fabulous suspense/mystery. I loved how creepy the MC was and his weird hobby. And I really questioned if he'd get out of this situation. I'm not even sure if he really has gotten out of it. Can he legitimately step back? Is the obsession over?

I constantly wondered about the motivations of all the characters. Compulsive writing, a fast moving plot and a crazy story. This is the kind of book you might want to read in one sitting.

Wow! If this is Nathan Ripley's first novel, I can't wait to read his fifth ... or his 25th.
I'm not usually a big fan of thrillers, but when Netgalley offered this one, I thought I'd give it a try, and I'm so glad I did. Find You in the Dark is a real page-turner; one of those books you won't want put down although when you finally do, you'll probably want to check under your bed and leave the night light on. Though far from the bloodiest, Frank Connell has to be one of the most twisted and terrifying villains I've ever read.
The fact is, nearly everybody in this story is broken in some way and to some degree. Martin Reese who works so hard to turn his obsession into a noble pastime, Ellen, left fragile after the disappearance of her older sister, Detective Whittal, cocky, confident and every bit as good at putting the pieces together as Reese is, Keith Waring and Gary Leung, both under-achieving opportunists, looking for the big payoff. Even the characters of Jason Shurn and Carl Hillstrom are very much in evidence, in spite of being long dead. What is so interesting about them isn't their brokenness, it's that subjected to Ripley's careful, storytellers touch, they seem so ordinary. He easily convinces us that they could be the next door neighbour, the guy at the next desk at work, the prickly but dedicated police officer you met last week.
Together, they make up a story that is anything but ordinary; the story of a man whose obsession puts everything he values in jeopardy and leads him to do things he never even dreamed of.
Find You in the Dark is brilliantly dark story that bodes only the best for the future of this new author.

This book has been compared a lot to Dexter, and I can understand why. It was an entertaining read, and I found the multiple narrative voices to be an effective way to tell the story. The characters were well-developed and the ending was satisfying.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be a fresh take on the usual serial killer novel. Instead of following the serial killer through their spree we find ourselves meeting Martin Reese. Martin buys police files of serial killers and then makes it his mission to scour through the files looking for clues to help him discover the location of missing victims. On completion of his quest, he leaves a computer generated message for the police with the burial site of the missing victims. Little does he know, that he has caught the interest of someone who would rather the bodies remain undisturbed.
The first half of this book just didn't have the excitement to keep me entirely ensnared in the plot. I found myself easily distracted from the book and putting it down after short forays into Martin's life. It wasn't until the introduction of the man following Martin's exploits that I found myself more intrigued with the storyline and needed to keep reading in anticipation of just where I was being led. The end of the book was satisfying but also has me wondering where Martin's life goes from here. Was his first venture into murder a one time event or will we follow him down a dark rabbit hole of revelation into new deviant actions.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones to get a free preview of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I don't think the publisher is going to like me much. I nearly shelved it (hard to do with an e-book) after 50 pages. The premise and story-line was far too dark, the "protagonist's" grave-digging "hobby" (where he gets in trouble) is about the most bizarre central premise for a thriller that I've ever read (and I have read a lot of that genre) I found the characterization far too simple and every character was relatively unlikable.. I was "cheering" for no one at the end. The author also had tendency to tell the story in circular small glimpses backwards -- I found that also relatively annoying. So overall, this book gets a big failing grade from me.

When I found in the acknowledgement section at the back of the book that TV rights for the story have been sold, I was not surprised. All the while, reading the novel the shadow of a very popular TV series kept popping up, and I couldn't help feeling I was actually watching one and not reading it. Of course there are a few unbelievable instances but the strong points are narrative style and language that were impressive start to finish. But the matter of Tinsley is left unresolved and the ending too a bit disappointing I was waiting for a psychological explanation and redemption for Martin's way of thinking but none came. Almost felt like a cliff hanger to me but definitely an enjoyable thrill ride if you overlook the fact that police in the story go from clueless to guessing everything just like that.