Wow! This was quite a ride. I enjoyed every page! This ranks right up there with some of the best mysteries I’ve read...and I read a lot of mysteries. This is a completely new to me author, and a new to me hero/anti-hero. I loved Martin from the beginning, unlike Detective Sandra Whittal. I thought Martin is one of those unsung hero types that does a great service. Detective Whittal just thinks he’s a monster.

You see, Martin is very wealthy after selling his tech company, and he has an agenda. He has many reasons for searching for the bodies of serial killers, not just the one mentioned in the blurb. He’s pretty obsessive about it...and secretive. Maybe a little creepy. And still, I liked him.

Speaking of creepy, I thought Sandra Whittal’s obsession with finding Martin was much more disturbing. I wanted to tell her to leave Martin the hell alone, Lady, he’s getting himself in enough trouble without you dogging his every step! That darn serial killer that discovered what Martin was doing? Oh. M. Gee! He’s very, very bad. And he has a terrible history.

Is Martin a hero or a monster? You’ll have to decide for yourself. I’m sure that all mystery lovers will enjoy this book as much as I did. Grab a copy and...

Enjoy!

2shay

ARC provided by Atria Books and NetGalley for an honest and voluntary review.

Two words:

Messed. Up.

But in a good way.

This was one of the more bizarre stories I have read. It was like a story you would see on Investigation Discovery, feeling like a dark, inconceivable, fictitious version of 48 hours or Dateline.

Martin Reese has a hobby. Rather, an obsession. He studies serial killers, searches for their victims' dead bodies, and digs them up. Seeing his work as a public service, he then calls the police and reports the missing girls as found, all while remaining anonymous. But little does Martin know somebody is on to his secret, somebody who would kill to stop him.

Nathan Ripley did such a great job developing this story from the beginning. I was along for the ride through and through. With layers upon layers, my interest was piqued and attention held for all 368 pages. Each of the many characters that were introduced along the way had a distinct purpose, and added depth to the novel. And, all of the loose ends were tied up thoughtfully and purposefully at the conclusion of the story.

I also found myself feeling empathetic toward Martin, despite some of the more sinister actions he takes throughout the novel. I felt conflicted, struggling between my moral compass and the feeling of wanting to relate to the protagonist regardless of his poor choices. It was an interesting situation that the reader was put in by Nathan Ripley.

Overall, would highly recommend this book to anybody who is looking to get a little scared in the dark.

-This book was gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Nathan Ripley, and Atria Books for the opportunity to review.-

Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley is an exciting thriller. I found the twists and turns to be unpredictable. Overall it was a well written, enticing book and I would recommend it to friends or fans of thrillers.

The premise for this novel is hard to resist: Martin, a man who hunts not serial killers, but the bodies they have left behind. Martin is at once sympathetic and frightening. Though he acknowledges the dark impulses that led him to his pastime, he is also a devoted husband and father who clearly thinks of his shady activities as a form of public service.

I really couldn't see how this was going to play out as I was reading, and it kept my interest all the way through. There are some odd hiccups in the prose - like the detectives, Sandra Whittal and Chris Gabriel, getting reintroduced with their full names with every encounter up until Chapter 17 (!!) - but the underlying plot is compelling enough to make up for it.

I found the premise of the book interesting. An person searching for the victims of long dead serial killers. Anonymously giving the location of his finds to the police for the families to finally have closure of losing their loved ones. But there is someone out there that isn’t happy about these long dead victims being found. With one cop suspicious of this so called Good Samaritan and a serial killer zeroing in on Martin Reese, he needs to race to protect his family or lose everything.

The book was fast paced and a quick book to read. There was some suspense and it kept you wondering how he was going to get out of this mess. But I found that the more I read, the less I liked the protagonist. He is rich and plays the stay-at-home dad to his daughter after retiring and selling his tech company. But he was the stereo typical rich guy that gets whatever he wants and is way smarter than everyone else. Everything seems to go his way. Even when it isn’t it somehow works out in his favor. He is arrogant and it made him not very likable.

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

I loved this book’s synopsis and had such high hopes for loving these characters!

Martin sold his tech company and retired early. He’s wealthy and his wife, Ellen, is a loan officer turned shopkeeper. Their teenage daughter, Kylie, is a high school student with a love for swimming. Ellen’s sister, Tinsley, has been missing for twenty years and Martin has been spending all of his free time searching for her remains. Along the way, he uncovers the bodies of other murdered women and anonymously reports the findings to the police. Ellen doesn’t have any clue about how Martin spends his “camping” time, but his daughter soon finds out some interesting details when he becomes sloppy.

At first it seems as though Martin’s secretive search for his sister-in-law is a genuine one. He cares deeply for his wife but her sister’s disappearance/assumed murder is a very touchy subject. It’s also one that keeps bouncing to the forefront of their family life because their daughter wants to be more independent and Ellen is increasingly paranoid that some terrible misfortune will befall her. But does Martin have another motive for finding these buried women? What’s his true agenda?

Issues?
This story was very underwhelming for the first half and the pace was frustratingly slow.

Martin visited these burial sites regularly, dug up human remains in various stages of decay and returned home sometimes a smelly mess, and his wife NEVER suspected something was a bit odd?

Okay, so he mostly showered and cleaned up at hotels, but he did this solo “camping” activity for many years and if camping were a sport, then Martin was an Olympian! He lied to his daughter and wife about his whereabouts all the time and he still managed (somehow) to be a bore! His inner monologue for the majority of this book was dull, despite the nature of his exracurricular activities. Other issues? The two detectives assigned to investigate the finder of these uncovered bodies were one dimensional. Detective Chris Gabrielle felt inferior to his partner, Sandra Whittal, and she was about as likable as a migraine. Their dialogue together was only slightly interesting at the very end. Biggest issue?

Favorite lines spoken by Kylie?
“You smell like unwashed old man, Dad.”

▣ The author’s writing style was okay, but the pulse of this book was at flatline status for almost the entire story! There were occasional blips of life and some clever bits, yes. But these characters really skipped from gray to ultra high definition after the sixty-two percent mark. The last twenty-four percent of this book? That’s when Martin really came to life! That’s when he possessed some personality! Finally!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book.
I thought it was a well written and original thriller.
It was the author’s 1st book so I am interested in seeing what he writes next.

Read all my reviews at: https://brainfartsandbooks.wordpress.com

This book started out so interesting with it’s secretive characters and their pasts. After reading the description, I decided that even though the story seemed really dark, I wanted to know what happens to the main character Martin Reese. A guy who uses clues to solve cold cases? The police should be hiring him. The only thing, is that Martin has his own agenda and quickly becomes a victim on the run hiding from both a killer and from the police. I liked the book until I realized it really didn’t have a good ending. The whole time I was waiting for one thing to happen, and while I’ll spare you the spoiler, it seemed like his main objective was never met. So what was the purpose of the whole story? A guy who gets into a big mess who then tries to get out of the big mess without dying. A solid story that had a quick fizzle at the end.

Thank you to Netgalley, Nathan Ripley and Atria Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a very slow read. The storyline did not provide for me very much suspense or mystery. The one thing I did like about the book was the ending.

Why would dedicated family man Martin Reese be so obsessed with murder that he would spend his days picking apart crime files? And his nights "camping" so that he could find the remains of women killed years ago? He believes that he is helping the victims families. Doing something that the police could not.....bringing their girls home for closure. He also taunts the police for not doing the same thing in voice distorting messages and specific instructions on where to find the remains. He treats each burial site with dignity and respect, but takes photographs to keep in a digital 'scrapbook'. One of the women he hopes to find.....Tinsley Schultz, who just happens to be his wife Ellen's sister. The police call him The Finder. 
Detective Sandra Whittal is not impressed. In fact, she's pretty certain that whoever is doing this was a part of the acts from the beginning. So when Reese's daughter, Kylie, is kidnapped, Whittal's not entirely sure that Reese didn't have something to do with it himself. But the real killer's accomplice, the Ragman, has a bone to pick with Reese for destroying all of the careful work done decades before.

After reading the synopsis for Find You in the Dark being described as having similarities to Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley I knew I had to read this book right away. I mean, the main character "he 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, taunting the police for their failure to do their job" it can not get better than that! It was such a different sort of plot line! One I enjoyed very, very much. It was well written and I liked the reasoning and line of thought on the main character had for the victims' families. I liked the different perspective rather than the same old detective, PI, or investigative journalist perspective.
I highly recommend Find You in the Dark to those who are looking for something different from their regular same-old-same-old run of the mill mystery thrillers!

I received a free e-copy of Find you In The Dark by Nathan Ripley from NetGalley for my honest review. This book is Nathan Ripley‘s debut thriller.

This book is about a wealthy retired man, Martin, who has a family of his own. He is bored and is obsessed with serial killers. He secretly researches and digs up missing victims of serial killers. He feels like he is doing people a favor by helping solve mysteries secretly and doing thing that the police don't do.

Martin's most recent dig is the body of Tinsley, who is his wife's sister who has been missing for 20 years. When he arrives at the burial site to dig up his victim, he discovers something extra that sets him in a tailspin of events. Now he is on someone's radar and he is being chased by someone who isn't happy that Martin is digging up his work.

Mystery, suspense, serial killers and crooked cops. Need I say more . . . .

Find Your in the Dark is a bit hard to swallow at times, especially as the majority of the violence in the book is directed towards women. While the story is incredibly captivating, I found the change of narrators frustrating. I understand the desire to tell the story from different perspectives, but more often than not the switch from first person to third person made me want to throw the book.

FIND YOU IN THE DARK is Nathan Ripley’s debut novel, although it feels like a book written by a far more prolific author.

The family dynamic between Martin, Ellen and Kylie was probably my favorite part of the book. The character interactions were terrific, as was their development. I grew to care for all of these people.

The detective, Sandra, was especially well written. It’s always nice to find a strong female character in a novel written by a male writer. Many female detectives are poorly conceived and lack depth when created by men, but Sandra was an interesting, take-no-shit, capable detective. Her partner Chris balanced her perfectly, but didn’t steal the show, which can often happen in thrillers with female leads.

I appreciate that the Ragman was just as flawed as the rest of the characters in the book. He made mistakes, and that made him feel all the more real.

What makes this book stand out in a congested genre is the heart and humanity Ripley brings to the table. This isn’t DIE HARD or TAKEN. This is a human tale of family and loss and the mentally unstable. Come for the cool premise and stay for the engaging characters.

One of the best thrillers I've read in years. Highly recommended.

This is a solid addition to the crowded thriller genre that will appeal to fans of Jeff Lindsay and Graeme Cameron. It has a unique hook and great dialogue.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Martin Reese digs up the bodies of serial killer victims, hoping to provide closure for their parents. However, a serial killer out there does not like that, and goes on the hunt for Martin. There is also a cop who is very interested in why a man would dig up these bodies. This book was very different from anything I've read before, but I just couldn't bring myself to like Martin Reese. He just seemed too 'odd to me. Some elements of the book also just didn't add up to me, but I'll blame that on this being an unofficial ARC with some editing yet to be done. I do think this book would make an excellent movie, however.

Nothing particularly bad about this. Writing is fine, but it's just not grabbing me. I know this is a thriller that will suit others a lot more than me.

Martin Reese spends his spare time searching for missing woman's bodies. So far he has found some bodies and reported them to the police anonymously but some police aren't too happy about it. With the help of a crooked cop, Martin has no problem coming up with the files he needs to track the women down but now someone has taken a interest in what he's been doing and they aren't happy. Thus begins a game of cat and mouse.
The main character of this story is too obsessive and creepy. I had a hard time with him being that obsessive, he couldn't even spare his wife a few minutes to listen to her while he planned his next move. The only time he was likeable was when he talked to his daughter. I was stuck between wanting him to get caught and rooting for him.

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to preview Find you In the Dark by Nathan Ripley. I read this book since I really liked Carolyn Kepne's books about a serial killer who takes you into his mind. Well this one will defintely not disappoint.
Martin Reese has a hobby - he researches serial killer's and their burial sites. Martin has been doing this for over 20 years. Some might say he is an obsessed crazy man following famous serial killers, but Martin is looking for the site of his dead sister in law who was killed by an executed serial killer. Martin is a family man; he has a wife an daughter. When he goes on "digs" no one knows and when he finds a body, he calls the cops anonoumously - taunting them that he has done their job.
But someone is following Martin and he doesn't know until his last dig - he finds three bodies, but one is a fresh kill. And that someone watching may just be the serial killer companion and he is taunting Martin now. What does he want - but Martin will soon find out when he comes face to face with true evil - and he must face what's inside of him - is it evil as well?
This is really a good novel - fast paced, great characters, and stunning ending. RECOMMEND!!!

I'm a bit on the fence with this one. The story itself was really a very good one - a man who digs up the victims of serial killers - come on, how good does that sound?! But something about the writing just didn't pull me into the story and wondered if I would finish. I found the main detective character entirely too crass. I get that she was supposed to be bristly and independent but I thought the author took her to an unpleasant mean/rude, bitchy place. I also had some trouble with the transitions from the current action of the story into the memories of the characters. I guess my problem was that I missed them and ended up confused. But again, let me emphasize the originality of the story and the twists in the path. They were phenomenally original and really got me thinking about how well we know people and what monsters really lay within