I'm not even sure what I just read. The characters were thoroughly unlikable. The story was a bizarre. The whole thing was rather a bit of a mess.

Find You In The Dark by Nathan Ripley is an original thriller that had me turning pages as fast I as I could! Such a great book.

Martin Reese is a husband and father and he has a very strange and morbid hobby...he buys police files and searches for murder victims before digging them up and anonymously calls them in. Detective Sandra Whittle starts to think that Nathan - who she calls "The Finder" might be more involved than just finding the bodies. And now he is being hunted by a killer who is targeting his family.

The story was different and I loved the writing. Highly recommend this book. Thanks to Text Publishing UK and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest views.

I did not finish this book at 40%. I just could not connect to any of the characters. I had high hopes for the storyline but in the end I was apathetic to all and really didn't care what happened.

The main characters needed more development, perhaps more backstory.

Thank you for the opportunity to try this books.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Martin Reese is a husband and father. He has a strange hobby of looking for missing bodies that were murdered or went missing. He has been doing this for many years but finally, he unravels a secret that affects his life and his family's.

The story is very interesting and what made me pick it up was the resemblance to one of my favorite TV shows Dexter. However, I have to say this was very slow for my personal taste in a thriller. I usually like thrillers to be more fast paced and more complex. I feel the characters were not deeply focused on and also some parts of the book took more footage than they should. I have to say the theme of the book is strong, the writing is decent but the execution is not as I was expecting.

Find You in The Dark gets 3.0 stars out of 5.0 stars from me. I received an advanced copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A very dark and disturbing read. A truly gripping read. Although I found the characters to be somewhat unlikable I still enjoyed this book.

I found ‘Find You In The Dark’ a difficult book to get into. The main character, Martin, was very hard to understand, especially his motive for almost anonymously researching to find undiscovered murdered bodies and for actually finding them and then digging them up for the police to find. Definitely creepy!

It was quite a complex story that was probably more complicated than it needed to be - at times confusing.

That being said the last part of the story was very tense and had thrilling edge to it. If these aspects could be applied to the first half I think it would improve the flow of the story - to focus on the main thread without deviating too much.

Thank you to Netgalley and Text Publishing for a ebook copy to read and review.

An interesting debut novel, Find You in the Dark tips the traditional crime novel on its head. The intriguing plot powers the novel, but unfortunately unlikeable characters and some out-of-character dialogue results in an above-average (but not excellent) novel.

Please read my full review here: https://reviewbee.errorfree.me/review/review-find-you-in-the-dark-by-nathan-ripley/

Mitreissend und spannend, ein echter pageturner - man kann nicht aufhören zu lesen. Klarer, frischer Sprachstil und eine tolle Geschichte, machen dieses Buch zu einem wahren highlight.

This was a great read. The characters were likeable, and it was well written. I would recommend this book.

This is a creepy book. I was never quite sure how I should feel while reading it. I was creeped out yet I appreciated the sentiment behind the story, for the most part anyway. This was not a typical thriller to me and I appreciated the originality of it. I found myself reading this way past my bedtime and I can't wait to read more from this author.

A real roller coaster ride of a book. I loved that the story line was out of the box and not your usual mystery novel. A quick, interesting, dark read.

"Find You in the Dark" closes the divide between good and bad morals, as the extracurricular activities of its characters become a knotted ethical ball that’s almost impossible to untangle.

Don’t get me wrong it’s nice for people to have a hobby, it really is. But while most of us would shy away from hunting the cadavers of missing persons for recreation, one man relishes the opportunity with motives that are not entirely without some personal gain from his anonymous public service.

The novelty of this book is it invites you to witness this character’s distasteful pursuits while willing his endeavours to succeed at the same time. Especially when his outings receive unwanted attention from something more inexplicable than the ‘dark side’ he hides from his own family.

Elements of Martin Reese’s story were narrated in the first person. Relaying events in his own voice emphasised the rich tapestry of his nature and lines even he refuses to cross. Everyone has their own moral compass, I suppose!

"Find You in the Dark" possesses an enormous talent for creating vivid imagery while simultaneously increasing the fear factor. It underlines the fact that sometimes people do bad things with good reason, and sometimes there are reasons no one would ever understand.

An addictive and thrilling game of cat-and-mouse with very grave consequences (excuse the pun).

It was the blurb that made me add this one straight to my must-read list. Multiple serial killers? A main character digging up murder victims? A comparison to Dexter? Heck yes! I’ve been looking forward to pick up Find You In The Dark and find out just how twisted this story was going to be… And trust me, I wasn’t disappointed. This isn’t your typical serial killer thriller and the main character Martin Reese definitely isn’t a typical guy. I mean, buying stolen police files to find the bodies of missing serial killer victims, digging them up and bragging in anonymous phone calls to the police about his finds doesn’t actually sound squeaky clean or normal to me. Call it weird, call it disturbing, call it illegal, call it a crime, but there is one thing for sure: you will be absolutely and completely hooked by this this character and his actions. Martin Reese is one hell of personality to build your story around and he definitely has a lot to do with the success of this thriller. The writing supports this crazy and twisted ride and will have you on the edge of your seat while you try to figure out just how far things will go. Out of control, or calculated? Plot and plot twists are well developed and will keep you guessing…. And the graphic scenes will chill many seasoned thriller reader to the bone. This multiple serial killer thriller with a twist definitely isn’t for the weakhearted, but oh so good if you are able to stomach the heavy parts. While not perfect, this was an outstanding debut thriller and I can’t wait to find out what Nathan Ripley will have in store for us in the future!

Multiple twisted serial killers, a main character with a murky past and hobby, the whole digging up bodies angle in general… Oh yes, serial killer fans will have a lot to look forward to in this debut Find You In The Dark. From a well developed plot to interesting characters and a lot of disturbing and twisted facts: you will get a triple dose of suspense and terror with this one! The rather original ‘digging up bodies’ angle added a little something extra to the mix… And while not perfect, it is without doubt one of my favorite thrillers I’ve read so far this year for the original angle alone.

This sounded really interesting to me, but I just couldn't get into it. The story moved slowly, and I found the writing a bit clumsy, especially when another POV was introduced after the 40% mark.

Started out great, could just be me but it seemed to lose its way 2/3 of the way through

Fast-paced, relentless tension-building that accelerates to a fitting and satisfying conclusion. The characters were original and strong.

Martin Reese has a secret that he keeps from his wife and teenage daughter...well, he has many secrets. The biggest one is that for years he has been buying files about serial killers from a policeman and using them to find bodies of the victims. He then takes pictures of the remains, keeps a digital scrapbook, and anonymously calls the police to report the body and taunts them for not doing their job. A sharp, ambitious detective, Sandra Whittal is on his trail. She is determined to find the person behind the calls. She is of the opinion that this person is just as devious as the serial killers who killed the victims. Whittal will not stop until she finds this person. Also, on Martin's trail is the killer of these victims. He is not thrilled that someone is disturbing his burial sites. This book was a very disturbing, but satisfying read. Most of the characters were not likable, but that is ok with me. The first half of the book moves a little slow, but picks up quickly in the last half. I would definitely recommend this book to thriller lovers and look forward to Ripley's next one.

Well I’m glad that’s over. This was a thriller that wasn’t thrilling, with an interesting premise that didn’t live up to it’s promise. Several reviewers have DNFd this midway, and TBH, had it not been an ARC, I would’ve too.

Martin Reese is a 40ish retired tech millionaire, who lives happily with his wife and teenage daughter, except he has a secret. For two decades, he has been hunting the bodies of serial killer victims, unearthing them and tipping the police off anonymously. He’s convinced himself he does it for the sake of the families, rather than his own twisted reasons. Then he digs up a fresh body at one of his sites, and discovers that he has crossed the wrong killer...

This blurb on this said it’s like Dexter, and while I own but have not read those books, I did watch the whole TV series. The enjoyable thing about Dexter was his charm and strict moral code, a serial killer of killers. This was nothing like that. I disliked everything about Martin, his spoiled bitchy wife and daughter, and even the arrogant bitchy detective who is obsessed with catching “The Finder” over rescuing kidnapped girls.

This really dragged for me, until the last 100 or so pages where there was at least some suspense about how it would turn out, but no real twist. The writing was okay, and this could’ve been a good read with a more engaging cast of characters. 2.5 rounded down because reading shouldn’t feel like work.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review: this is the first of the 21 I’ve read so far that I have not liked at all.

Martin is kind of a creep who goes around digging up the victims of serial killers and taunting the police for being unable to find them. His otherwise normal life becomes threatened when someone finds out about his "hobby" and starts playing games with him, starting with hiding another body where Martin expects to find an old victim. Despite Martin being a weirdo, I liked this book for the most part, but there was also an element of being annoyed by the whole scenario and Martin getting into this situation in the first place. I'd give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because it was definitely a unique and clever plot.

This is dark and twisted! I ADORED it! Definitely worth the read. I wanted to know why this dude dug up dead bodies for a hobby