I guess I must be too old for this type of book. I just couldn't relate to the character, he seemed kind of famine to me. I was expecting a fast moving, lots of action, kind of story, but only got moaning and whining from the characters. This book may go a long way with the younger crowd, but since I'm 70 years old, I'd rather read a good Dean Koontz book, than this.

Content Rating: 18+
Genre: Horror, Fiction, Mystery
Published: April 11th, 2020 by Moonlight

The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake is a book that I was very excited to read; unfortunately, it was a difficult read for me. This book was initially written in French and was translated into English; I am not sure if there was something lost in the translation because this book was all over the place. I love the mystery, thriller, and horror genres, but this book fell short trying to be all three of these genres all at the same time.

Agent Elliott Cooper is sent to the small town of St. Marys to investigate the disappearance of five children. What he finds is something he never expected. Agent Cooper unwittingly becomes entangled with what he discovers. There is a dark ancient evil lurking in the woods of St. Marys biding their time, building strength. That is all I can say about the story without revealing spoilers.

I liked the way this book started with the premise of being an FBI procedural thriller. However, it quickly morphed into a supernatural horror thriller. Maybe the problem for me as I wasn’t expecting this book to go in the direction it took. Be that as it may, there were other things, I had problems with this book. The main thing being the dialog, it felt stiff, forced, and unrealistic. There was an element of romance thrown into the story, and I don’t think that it added anything. If anything, I felt that it distracted from the story. The romantic scenes fell flat and were uninspiring. Did the author throw this bit of romance to appeal to female readers? Not sure, but it sure felt like it.

Character development was lacking, especially from the main female character. Lauren Chambers, the main female character, annoyed me to the point of distraction. Lauren and Elliott met and had a “kind of relationship” when she was a recruit, and he was training her. That’s when I started to dislike Elliott, and I never fully liked or had any respect for Lauren.

As I got more into this book, I found myself skimming whole pages, the plot inched along at a snail’s pace, far too detailed, and Mr. Clearlake’s over descriptiveness of almost everything was exhausting to read. The very beginning of this book was good. Still, as I read more, it slowly drifted into being unrealistic and unbelievable and contradicted itself many times, trying to be too many things. Unfortunately, this book was not for me, and if I am honest, I am not sure I would read another book by this author.

** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley and Moonlight publishing. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **

I had a tough time with this one. I found myself unable to concentrate, putting it down and returning. The manner in which it was written, was distracting and hard to follow, at least for me. I had high hopes as it felt like this would be akin to say X-files or more horror toned. But it just didn’t work for me. I did try, and gave it may best.

I found this book really hard to follow and to understand. I kept having to reread parts to make sure I was understanding what was happening. Really interesting thriller/mystery topic though.

Nothing is as it seems in The Essence of Darkness by Frech writer Tom Clearlake.

That not only goes for the story but for the mish-mash of genres the novel falls within. FBI Special Agent Elliot Cooper ends up in a small town to investigate the disappearances of five children. The police procedural within the pages is nonexistent. It lacks believability on that end, which would have rooted the novel firmly in reality.

Tracking the children deep into the woods, Cooper uncovers an ancient hidden evil. The Essence of Darkness rapidly descends into a horror, mystery, supernatural thriller. Hints of religious orders and secret organizations further pepper the pages, taking this novel from the norm and catapulting it well outside the lines.

A few hours of research would have been a tremendous benefit. Planting Elliot Cooper in the firm grip of the real world procedurals of the FBI would have helped Clearlake succeed in delivering on the chills and frights. For readers who often read Police Procedural Thrillers, The Essence of Darkness will be a disappointment.

This book marks the author's first foray into translations for other languages. Perhaps one of the reasons why The Essence of Darkness struggles is due to the language barrier. The rendering from the native tongue to foreign ones can be delicate. Nuiances can be lost, and where this most prominently shows in the characters.

Clearlake delivers a gripping subject and offers plenty of horror.

Not every story is for every reader. This one was definitely not for me. Maybe something was lost in the translation from French to English. I ended up DNF’n this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy for my honest review.

There are so many things going on in this book that it just ruins it. I'm not sure if it's a translation problem or if the author just threw everything he ever wanted to write about into one book but unfortunately it just doesn't work.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. It had a bit of everything. From horror to romance. It was edge of your seat and gripping. A very good book from a new to me author. I look forward to reading more from him.

The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake started off with a story good enough to keep me reading. Then, bam! It became a great story, FBI heros, romance, kidnapping, and so…in a normal world….... Then, I had to re-read a few pages, while I slapped my hand on my forhead. It took a leap, no, a DIVE!! into crazy. And then, a few pages later, it grabbed hold of me and took me on a very exciting ride... One that I couldn't put down! I believe that this is a translation of a French book...I didn't realize that until the end...so, I'm pretty sure that nothing was lost in translation.

Overly wordy yarn about a man who now must save the world from a mystic flesh eating force that is taking over his body. Said man can not form personal relationships but manages to get his occasional bed partner to risk everything to help him rid himself of this evil in the face of a coming apocalypse. Apocalypse begins, chaos ensues and somehow our hero manages to stop it all. In the end he, this man who could not form relationships, returns to find his true love on a farm porch in God knows where and all is right with the world. I may have some details wrong and there’s a lot of action going on, but honestly this book lost me so early on I skipped through 75% of it.

This book was ok. It was difficult for me to get into. It started off slow and never really picked up for me.

This book just didn’t do it for me. The plot was confusing and I couldn’t connect to the characters. The rules of the world required substantial exposition up until 95% of the book. Thank you, to the publisher, for a copy in exchange for my opinion.

This one wasn't for me. I'm not sure if it was translation issues or what, but the story just did not hold my attention.

Nope, I'm sorry, but I just can't finish this book. Were the details and transitions lost in translation? I could not follow the story. It jumped around and there was barely any dialog.

My tipping point in the book was when the blackish cloud rose from the ground to seek out the moist warmth of the priestess, then slipped into her open crotch. I paraphrased this part, but you can get the picture. These are some interesting visualizations. It seemed like the author got lost in the details and forgot to make it into a story.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for my eARC for my honest review!

Sadly I was not able to finish this book. There was no hook to peak peak my interest in the beginning. I could envision the scenes in my head with was a plus for me but for some reason it felt like this book seemed to drag on to me. I appreciated how detailed the author is and how he gave background on the main character to help explain how he came to the position the he is in. I feel like, in the beginning, that there is a little bit of action and then it begins to drag on in that I started to get a bit bored. I wish the action would have taken off by now but it just hasn't. I will still try to pick up where I left off at a later date but it may be a little while before I do.

“Cooper was a seasoned agent, but at that moment, he felt the cold bite of fear. A primal fear. From the depths of his being, his instinct warned him of an unspeakable danger.”

Ohhhh this book had such potential! It started off so good. So disturbing and chilling. But once we actually figured out what was going on, things just went downhill for me. I didn’t like the whole reason behind the missing children. I didn’t like what was happening to Cooper and the events afterwards. Everything sort of stalled after all the revelations. There was a lot of just waiting around and then some pow wow and finito.

And then that ending. What the heck even happened? Who was that at the end?! I felt like there were some parts left unanswered. I’m so disappointed with how this book turned out. It started SO good. Ugh.

Thanks to NetGalley and Moonlight for this digital arc!

First off, i want to thank the publisher and the author, Tom Clearlake and Netgalley for advancing me this opportunity with the digital ARC to review.

As this being a novel that is translated from an originally French publishing, it tends to get lost in translation at times, with that said let me tell you this was definitely what i was expecting, and this is a good thing.

FBI agent Elliott Cooper takes on a case of 5 missing small children, ages 3 to 5 in the small town of St. Mary's in Pennsylvania. What you think is going to start out as a lot of detective and police procedural thrills, takes a slow turn into something almost like an Aphganistan war drama, but hold on; it changes. It took me almost 80 pages to get into the story line and I almost put the book down. What pursues is quite a very different book of demonic possessions, the supernatural, romance and witchcraft!! Yes, stick with it but the gore can get gory which i liked, however if that is not up your alley, you might not like it. I had never heard of this author, and i look forward to reading more from him. Hopefully the next wont be as hard to 'translate to understand it' which is why this does not get a 5 star rating from me.

I found this book to be very suspenseful and the story to be pretty unique. My only issues with it were some characters, including the main male character, that I didn't really find appealing and some inaccuracies on the subject of Wicca. The author could perhaps have done a bit better research in this area. As long as I was able to set aside those things, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others looking for a good supernatural suspense read.

When I read the description of the book I was excited. It sounded like my kind of book. A mystery/thriller with a touch of supernatural. So I was pretty disappointed when at the 16% park, the story pretty much abandoned the mystery aspect and dove heavily into the supernatural horror. Now I love a good horror book, but I was sad that the book didn't deliver on the promise of a mystery.

For me, once Agent Cooper encounters the three witches performing their ritual (at around 16%!) the story became boring for me. I was really enjoying it up til that point. Then, suddenly I lost interest. I tried to keep reading, but after putting the book down for the night, I couldn't get any enthusiasm to pick it up again. So, regrettably, I decided to bail on the book. I just feel like it could have been so much better.

I received a free review copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Let me begin by stating that my review will not be published on Amazon or Goodreads, however, I wanted you - the publisher - to know that I did finish the book and did not find it suitable for the genres into which it was suggested. I read a lot of suspense/thrillers/horror books and have for over four decades. I cut my teeth on Stephen King when he was first beginning to write and I was very young. My point is that I adore horror. This book was not that. It was a mish/mash of gore, someone's bad acid trip and extremely faulty character development. There was far too much Bad vs Good, Evil Witches killing children, Bad women and Good women. For the record, I am a practicing witch. I didn't appreciate my beliefs being portrayed so absurdly. If it were any other belief system being portrayed in this manner, you would be crucified - pun intended. Bottom line, the book is not on par with other Indie books that I have read and is a far cry those that are edited - and this book definitely could use major editing and proofreading.