TW: Child abuse, stalker, obsession, murder

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley, R. J Jacobs and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC copy I received.

Jacobs breaks your heart again and again. 12-year-old Jessie Duval had the year of her nightmares as her foster parents locked her in a cupboard with her only solace being Shelly James CD and a Discman. She becomes obsessed with Shelly and Owen James and follows them throughout the country on their tour. Jessie forms a deleterious attachment to the pair and their family, resulting in a restraining order against Jessie.

Somewhere in the Dark begins with Duval in therapy, with Mrs Parson’s talking through her progress. Everything sounds too good to be true. Her stable life, job and her own home. It implies she has hit the jackpot.

Her cooking gig leads her to come across the James’ again, defying her restraining order. When Shelly’s body turns up later that evening, all heads turn to Jessie.

She knows she didn’t do it, but the police know her chequered past and are sure she is the culprit.

R. J Jacobs is a psychologist and author, which reflects on Jessie’s personality. She is a detailed and complex person who suffers from PTSD. You can’t help but grow attached to Jessie because of her difficult circumstances, The author touches upon her PTSD with sensitivity and knowledge.

Duval’s relationship with Mrs Parsons and Shelly James’ ex-employee Detective Marion were wholesome and grounding. Whilst most characters saw the unpleasant side of her, she had several supports that were always rooting for her and trying to help her. Her psychological difficulties meant she pushed her support network away, but towards the end, she lets people in such as Detective Marion and Malik.

Skimming over her year in captivity was not enough, I craved more. A common theme in other reviews I have read of ‘Somewhere in the dark’.

Though it wasn’t action-packed, I found myself unable to tear myself away from this publication. The ending may not surprise readers, but it doesn’t lessen the impact of this harrowing read. I loved the premise of this novel and will read another R. J Jacobs novel, that hopefully has more analysis of psychology and his own experiences. Overall, a great read.

I will be doing a feature of Somewhere in the dark on my blog and instagram @snipnstuff when it's closer to the publishing date.

Twenty year old Jessie is trying to move on with her life as a caterer after spending a year in prison for stalking her favorite country singers Owen and Shelly James. It is their music which helped her get through a terrible childhood experience where her foster parents kept her locked up in a closet for over a year. As she gets older, they become an obsession and she becomes a "groupie". It is at the final concert of their tour for the year that things go horribly wrong and she hurts a few people.
The reader gets the impression she is not a bad person and she did not mean for it to happen. In fact, I felt sorry for her. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and very protective of herself for a good reason.
She avoids the James' at a party she is catering and is invited to serve at their house by their manager. It is here that Shelly gets murdered and of course, Jessie is the obvious suspect since she was invited to serve food, so now she's in the fight of her life to prove her innocence. She makes a couple of surprising allies along the way.
I really liked her counselor Ms. Parsons, who was her biggest cheerleader and never really doubted her innocence. I am also a big fan of both thriller/suspense and the Nashville country music scene, so I thoroughly enjoyed a combination of the two. I have also enjoyed my share of country music concerts and I could feel the otherwise carefree atmosphere on those pages, and I was reminded of fun times with my friends in the summertime. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read another good book!

I have to mention that this book started off quite slowly but then it got really, really good. Jessie Duval had a tough childhood. She cycled through a number of foster homes and at one stage spent 12 months and 9 days locked in a cupboard, her only company a country music CD by country legends Shelley and Owen James. It is therefore unsurprising that she became a little obsessed with the couple. She followed their most recent tour and a misunderstanding lead to her spending a year in prison. Now, out on parole with mandated therapy thrown in and a restraining order against her being anywhere near the couple, 19 year old Jessie is getting her life back on track. She has a place of her own, her own car and a job she loves doing food prep for a catering company. This suits her as she is not good with people and has plenty of anxieties.

However, a chance intersection of circumstances finds her serving drinks at a party being hosted by the James’s. A party Shelley is never present at because she is dead. And Jessie, because her history, rockets to suspect number one. It was impossible not to like Jessie. She was awkward and shy yet determined to sort out her life. The other characters were not fleshed out as well, just enough for their parts in the book.. But Jessie carried this story. Her pain yet subtle strength were inspiring to read about. It’s just a pity it took so long to get to the meat of the story. Thanks to Netgalley, Crooked Lane Books and R.J. Jacobs for providing this copy for me to review.

This was an enjoyable book with a good plot and was well written. There were enough twists and turns to keep me engaged. It was fast paced and I kept turning the pages. I couldn’t help but root for Jessie.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Jessie Duval has had a historic childhood. Listening to Shelley and Owen James CD is the only thing that kept her grounded. Once she was old enough o be on her own, she followed their tour from city to city until the last night, when everything went wrong. Charged with stalking and a restraining in ordered, one year later she has everything back on track. Until Shelley is murdered and the police think she is the killer. Set in Nashville, Shelley and Owen James are country music royalty. Jessie has been obsessed with them, wishing and believing they were her family.. This was a fast paced read. A good mystery of who killed Shelley, and Jessie trying to prove it. Because of her upbringing, Jessie has difficulties with words, difficulties connecting emotionally with people, trust issues and doesn't like to be touched. She is also naïve and gullible, which made me feel bad for her. I really enjoyed Jessie's "closet story and found I wanted to read more about it. This is a solid story that I would recommend if your looking for a good mystery. This is due to be released on August 11th, 2020.
Thank you R.J. Jacobs, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Drama Thriller to pull your heart-strings

"I lived without language, without touch, without time"

A wholesome and original story, with beats of suspense and mystery. Good for a quick and easy read.

While I did enjoy throughout, I found myself losing interest a few times because it lacked a cohesive theme and build of suspense, and had too many filler mundane situations/conversation. The story could have been a lot shorter, with parts feeling over-explained, predictable or simply unrealistic. I gather this was a psychological profiling for a character just trying to get her life together for us to empathise with, but for most of the journey, she felt almost like a background character, with characters around her taking charge of the spotlight. Despite this, major character motives needed more fleshing out, and it overall felt a bit busy. Also, characters felt too giving, casually and easily pushing the plot along for Jessie.

I think my gripe is that it's a complicating meshing of drama and thriller. I think it would be a challenge to write, so I think the author did well. And while the story did come full circle, it was odd how the sad story of Jessie teetered into a strange celebrity love triangle drama, and this unfortunately took some of that edge and cohesion away. So I think the story would have benefited from a bit of depth and focus.

What I loved the most: Jessie's experience of the world in her head and around her. These were moments I savoured the most and wanted more of. The most engrossing section was the closet.. and her consequent adaption to life without certain sensory stimulation. It shows a horrid trauma and a resiliency, and also an interesting part of neuro-plasticity, whereby the brain reshapes its allocation to other body functions to compensate. I felt I could really connect with Jessie's struggles, and relate to her experience of aloneness and secrecy and being the quiet and unobtrusive observer through life.

How I would improve the story:
The first few pages should have hooked me in with something suspenseful and unique, perhaps a snippet of the dark closet. There were moments which were questionable/unrealistic and I feel could have used more research into legal/forensic procedures (eg. Ms. Carr's intrustion/ casual police check/ agreeing to attend party despite clear breach of law/ murder weapon fingerprints??? Why weren't fingerprints mentioned once??). Also, given the multitude of characters buzzing about, I think this story could have really excelled if it was told in multiple POVs to get into the heads of these characters, as well as keep the suspense alive.


Thank you to NetGalley, R.J. Jacobs and Crooked Lane Books for this Advanced Reader's Copy for an honest review!

The book is due to release August 11th, 2020.

Somewhere in the Dark by R. J Jacobs.
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Thanks @netgalley @rjjacobs75 and @crookedlanebooks for my arc. Publication date 11th August
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I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this book as its a first from this author for me. This is an incredible book. Beautifully set in Nashville Tennesee, the story follows Jessie and her journey to reinvent her life following a harrowing child hood. Jessie is a sweet, interesting character bearing a huge amounts of scars, I was rooting for her the whole way. As a reader I could tell the author has a sound knowledge of psychology and mental heath while creating Jessie's character. And like all my favourite books this story is a little creepy with a little bit of stalking and obsession thrown in. I highly recommend this book for fans of dark psychological thrillers.

After a terrible (I mean like People Magazine reporting on it terrible) childhood, things are finally starting to look up for Jessie Duval. She's got a small apartment, a car of her own, a job she really likes. Her therapist has told her parole officer that she's not a threat to anyone and that she's been following her court mandated therapy. (Jessie spent her childhood in foster care and once spent an entire year in a closet with only a discman with only a Shelley James CD for company.)
Then, all of it is ruined when one of the waitresses at her catering company quits and she has to fill in at a celebrity party. At the party, Jessie encounters Shelley James and her husband Owen. Jessie isn't supposed to be anywhere near Shelley or Owen after a stalking incident. Jessie keeps her head down and does her job and tries to avoid them.
Later, after another party, Shelley is found dead. Jessie isn't supposed to be anywhere near her, and she was seen that night at the party. She quickly becomes a suspect in the murder, and only one person believes that she didn't.
This is not my first book by author R.J. Jacobs. Jacobs is a psychologist, so he really understands and explains Jessie's PTSD well, along with her slight disabilities due to her horrifying childhood. He also used his background as a psychologist in the other book and it made it interesting as well. (I did prefer this one to the other one though.)
Somewhere in the dark is a great summer thriller despite Jessie's dark past. There was one thing that bothered me slightly. I find it hard to believe that after what happened to her that the only problems she would have were her "obsession" with Shelley and her social development being a little slow.
Recently, I've read a lot of books with terrible main characters. (There's not a lot of redeeming qualities in Lester Ballard.) But I couldn't help but like Jessie from page one. My heart broke for her inability to connect with people, even the ones that tried to make that connection with her. I really liked the side characters and how most of them never treated Jessie different and were calm and helpful about her anxieties.
In all, I'd give Somewhere in the Dark 4/5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my review.

Jessie has been a victim and her mental health suffers. She struggles, she struggles with her thoughts, her poverty, and the outside world. Though Jessie has had her issues, she is a beautifully written character. Never have I wanted to give a character a hug than with this girl.

The premise is one I haven’t come across before. I appreciated the writing and the depth of the characters. I will definitely buy this for my library and appreciate the advanced copy, so I could preview. This review is an honest, unbiased review.

Do the mistakes of the past mark us as guilty for life?
After a childhood marred by neglect, Jessie Duval's finally got it together. With an apartment in Nashville and a job with a catering company, she's thriving.
But all that changes when Jessie works an event where celebrities will be in attendance—including the one person from her past she must avoid at all costs: singer Shelly James. Jessie doesn't hate Shelly. Quite the opposite. One summer, she followed Shelly's tour everywhere. Only, Shelly wasn't flattered; she was terrified by Jessie's devotion—especially after Jessie was arrested. But after a year of therapy, Jessie understands what happened. She's not the same person anymore.
Jessie keeps her head down, but when Shelly is found dead, Jessie's troubled past comes tumbling out and she quickly becomes a suspect in the high-profile murder. As the police close in on her, ignoring other credible leads, Jessie realizes Shelly's murder will be pinned on her—the perfect scapegoat—unless she finds the real killer. And no one knows Shelly's life and inner circle better than her. But she will have to go deeper into the dark—if ever she wants to find her way out.

WOW WOW WOW. This book was so crazy! I think that by 75% I figured out who it was and what was going on but it was still really good to finish the book to end the entire story. There should be basically every trigger warning for this book but it was still incredible!

Jessie is not an unreliable narrator - she is actually quite aware of her blindspots, but everyone else thinks she’s unbalanced. She was, but she’s getting better. She had a horrible childhood (being locked in a closet for a year horrible) and her only lifeline was a music CD. She then became obsessed with the country power couple who sang those songs, and began following them around. This didn’t end well. When Shelly, the country superstar, is found murdered, Jessie becomes suspect numero uno. Since the novel is told from her POV, you see a side of her that other characters don’t. She is beyond strange, but also very aware of how other people perceive her. She’s given up trying to fit in. When everything goes sideways, she makes debatable decisions but, somehow, I thought that she was pretty smart about it all. The plot is tight and all the clues are there for Jessie, even if she doesn’t always see them. An attentive reader will probably figure out whodunit before it’s revealed, but I was so invested in Jessie that all I wanted was for her to figure out what had happened before she went to jail for a very, very long time. The final part was so suspenseful that I read this novel in a day.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Crooked Lane Books!

📚 Book Review 📚⁣⁣⠀
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Somewhere In The Dark ⁣⁣⠀
R.J. Jacobs ⁣⁣⠀
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Somewhere in the Dark is a fast pace thriller that is hard to put down. It has a great plot and even better characters. It’s an easy read to get lost in. You can not help but to be emotionally invested in this book! ⁣⁣⠀
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Jessie is the victim of a child abuse that has left her traumatized and severely undeveloped. She has made some mistakes that has cost her jail time. Out on parole she is working to get her life back on track. Jessie is doing great until her past collides with her once again turning her life upside down. ⁣⁣⠀
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Jessie must decide who to trust, and follow the clues to figure out who is framing her, before she ends up back in jail. ⁣⁣⠀
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I felt for Jessie through the whole book. I was rooting for her to clear herself and be able to finally move on with her life. ⁣⁣⠀
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If your looking for a good “who done it” thrilling mystery this is the one for you! ⁣⁣⠀
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Another great read by Jacobs! A slow burn with a jaw dropping twist you won’t see coming! This was a quick and engaging read with a fresh take on the stalker premise. I loved it!

Oooh this is an EXCELLENT summer thriller!

Jessie has been through a lot - locked in a dark room for a year, she doesn't live her life the way others do. The one constant in her life has been the music of Owen and Shelly James and somehow that constant leads to a slight obsessed that gets Jessie into some trouble.

But through it all Jessie seems to get her life back on track, and things are going great until she runs into the couple at a party she's helping to cater. The next thing she knows, Jessie's very organized life has been turned upside down, and when Shelly is found murdered Jessie finds that she's the number one suspect.

I felt for Jessie SO MUCH. I can't imagine having gone through what she has, and then having to deal with the fact that she's different from all the "normal" people in the world. Getting to be inside her head really helped to open me up to what dealing with a mental illness and trauma can be like. Although many could say that Jessie is a criminal unfortunately Jessie is just misunderstood and this leads to her becoming entangled in Shelly's murder.

I raced through this book and it was just so intensely good. Definitely a great read for staying up late into the night.

Love, love, loved this book! Jacobs richly layered, flawed characters draw you into the story. Fast paced and well written, this is my first book by RJ Jacobs, but it will not be my last!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: August 11, 2020
Jessie Duvall had a troubling childhood, and the music of Owen and Shelly James kept her from sliding into complete despair. After following them on tour for nearly a year, Jessie is arrested for stalking and is warned against going anywhere near the James family. Now, Jessie is slowly starting her life over, living in Nashville and working as a caterer’s assistant. When she is asked to work at a party hosted by another famous musician couple, and the James’ family show up as guests, Jessie does her best to keep her head down and get the job done. That same night, however, Shelly is found dead and all eyes turn to Jessie as the suspect. Now Jessie must try and prove her innocence and escape the mistakes of her past.
“Somewhere in the Dark” by author and psychologist R.J Jacobs is a haunting tale of a mistreated youth who is trying to recover from the mistakes of her past. Jessie is naïve but harmless, an instantly likable character who you cannot help but root for. As various characters attempt to manipulate her and throw blame, it is always Jessie that the reader feels the most empathy for.
“Somewhere in the Dark” had a little bit “Nashville” and a little bit “Country Strong” mixed into the plot, with a drug-addicted country singer who is trying to be kept in line by her superstar husband and lecherous producer. As a huge country music fan, I had a special connection to Jessie as she used country music to overcome her most trying times.
The story started strong and the twists and turns throughout were not entirely predictable. I was impressed at the ending, as I anticipated a pat predictability and instead got quite a delightful conclusion that I could not see coming. Jacobs uses his psychological background and knowledge to portray Jessie’s challenges as honest and realistic, which just serves to enhance the entertainment factor of this novel.
Jacobs has one other novel, “And Then You Were Gone”, which, after how much I enjoyed this novel, I will definitely be checking out.

This book was received as an ARC from Crooked Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am a fan of the thrillers from R.J. Jacobs and this one could have not come at a better time . The story of Jessie an obsessive fan of Shelley James a singer who was recently murdered reminded me so much of the death of Latin singer Selena Quintinilla Perez and how she was shot by the President of her fan club Yolanda Cultivar for the fact she was accused of money laundering. Jessie has already been arrested and forgotten the event with Shelley until she is scheduled to cater an event with celebrities and one of the guests is Shelley James and all the past demons are starting to haunt her and she is the prime suspect of Shelley's murder. Jessie will stop at nothing to uncover the truth and seek the real killer until she is confined for a crime that she did not commit. I could read this book over and over and love it everytime.

We will consider adding this title to our Adult Fiction collection at our library. That is why we gave this book 5 stars.

"Somewhere in the Dark" is an enjoyable read but probably a forgettable one. I was not blown away by the story itself but it was decent enough. The story is well written and I did not find myself getting bored with any one point or another. Overall, a solid three star read.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Now, this is a modern murder mystery done right!

This book went way beyond expectations and while I was reading it just kept unraveling faster and faster! This book brought my Agatha Christie critic side out while I tried to uncover who the killer was. All in all, this was so much fun.

It follows all the rules of a normal murder mystery by setting up the murder, introducing good suspects, developed and interesting "detectives", twists uncovered along the way, and everyone's favorite part, the big reveal. Along with feeling like a murder mystery from the golden age in format and style, this book also excelled at being modern. It didn't feel like it was ever trying too hard and I think the protagonist's twist of being an obsessive fan of the victim really was the cherry on top plot-wise.

If there were any flaws, I would have to say the sections of the book that started to slow were the very beginning and the very end. I can see a couple of people DNFing this one due to a pretty slow start to introduce our protagonist's struggles and make her likable instead of creepy, but it is worth it in the scheme of things. And at the end, I was getting a little anxious to get to the reveal when it almost felt like I was being cheated of the reveal!

This goes up there as one of my recommendations for some new release murder mysteries. Super fun and a very unique mystery hitting shelves soon that you should definitely check out!

I really enjoyed this mystery thriller not as much for the mystery itself, which was still good and interesting, but for the characters. From the beginning I was very invested in the main character, Jessie, and how she navigated life after trauma and responded to the situation she got into. Her therapist and Detective Marion, also, were characters I rooted for. Unlike many mystery thrillers, where there is a black and white difference between the good guys and the bad guys, there were just people, so doing the wrong things, Which made the characters and situations feel more realistic and believable, even when the story took shocking turns. I really didn't want to put this one down.

The identity of the killer was not a shock, as I had figured out that Finch was the culprit when she pretended not to recognize Jessie at the restaurant right after the murder weapon was found in Jessie's car (the author lets the reader assume that it's found in the apartment, but it was clear by the way Jessie focused on it being impossible to be in the apartment that it had to be in the car, in which Jessie had given a ride to Finch, so it was pretty obvious where the story was going). But figuring out the solution fairly early on didn't ruin the fun for me, because I was invested in Jessie as a character and wanted to see how she got through the situation. It was satisfying to see at the end how the events had been a healing process for her.

Just a couple of things that I would have liked to seen tightened up. The way the character could remember words, specifically ones that represent feelings, seemed a little far-fetched to me, especially the way that she could describe those words really well. I looked up the author and see that he is a psychologist that specializes in trauma, so that must be a thing, but if I hadn't done that, I probably would have found it cartoonish. Maybe just a little more explanation from the therapist - even a sentence or two - would have helped make that more believable. Also, this is small and most people wouldn't notice, but at one point Jessie says that her finger is trembling so much that she could barely dial a phone number. But she wouldn't be using her finger to dial; she would be using her thumb. Older people use their fingers to type in numbers, while younger people use their thumbs, having grown up on cell phones. I read that once in a study and have observed people texting and dialing ever since, and it holds up. So Jessie being 19 years old would have definitely used her thumbs.

A few typos were present - mouth instead of month, father instead of farther, a period with a question mark right after it - that I assume will be cleaned up before publishing. Really glad I requested and was granted this advanced read!