A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams was a dark and creepy gothic thriller. Heather has come home because her mom committed suicide. She was an only child and is responsible for taking care of her mothers’s affairs. Heather’s dad died many years ago and it caused a rift in their relationship. She really hasn’t spoken much to her mother since then. While cleaning up her mother’s house she finds a stack of letters, letters written to her mother from a man. It turns out that man is a serial killer known as the Red Wolf. Heather contacts the police and turns the letters over. The police are very interested in these letters. The Red Wolf, Michael Reave, is in prison. The detectives ask Heather to go speak to him to see if he will give her any details of his former crimes, especially since it seems he had such a close bond with her mother. Also, more women are turning up murdered the same way the Red Wolf killed his victims. Are they connected? What did her mom have to do with a serial killer? How did they even know each other? Heather will have to dig deep into her mother’s past to figure out what is going on. In the meantime Heather is in danger and doesn’t even know it. I very much enjoyed this book. The chapters alternate between Heather’s point of view in the present and Michael’s point of view in the past. There are some fairytale and Gothic elements in the story that I really enjoyed. The way Michael’s past was revealed slowly added to the suspense of the story. The ending was shocking and the last several chapters had such a scary and disturbing feeling I could not read them fast enough. I will definitely read more books by this author. I highly recommend this book especially if you like dark and disturbing tales. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Creepy, haunting, gripping!! A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams is a great thriller with many twists along the way. It captured me from page one where Heather returns home after her mother’s death by suicide. She soon learns her mother had many buried secrets of which the biggest her regular communication with a convicted serial killer, Michael Reace. Heather starts on a journey she never anticipated taking and will never forget. Highly recommend for readers who enjoy thrillers!

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

I didn’t enjoy this one. Not sure if it was the slow delivery or it was because I didn’t think that the characters were interesting enough. I think that you will enjoy this if you don't mind getting head first into the action, setting, characters, and multiple perspectives. For me, this was just a bit much. With so much stress going on in my life and the world, I just don't have time to read a book that makes me more confused and doesn't interest me.

In my opinion, something was lacking with the premise.

Although I enjoyed this one and read rather quickly, my thoughts are conflicted...

Excellent concept and creepy storyline, conversations with killer were well written, very Silence of the lambs vibes during those moments! Fairytale and lore references added an eerie edge!!

I did feel that there was a lot going on making it somewhat difficult to keep track of everything. Pace towards the end seemed rushed and jam packed with twists ending in « wait what ? » moments that I wish had had more depth to them.

Overall an enjoyable fast paced thriller!

An excellent addition to the crowded thriller genre. A recommended purchase for collections where similar titles are popular.

Creepy vibes? ✓
Mysterious? ✓
Haunting? ✓
Suspenseful? ✓
Page-turning? ✓

I'm always leery when I pick up thrillers or horror books from new authors or new-to-me authors. Sometimes they turn out to be gems. Sometimes they turn out to be duds. This one is definitely a gem I was glad I took a chance on.

This book is equally parts creepy, suspenseful, dark, haunting, and mysterious. I had no clue what was coming next. I was turning pages with trepidation on what would come next.

I was left feeling a sense of dread and unease in many parts of this book. If you know me, that's not easy for a book to do. I will admit, there were some scenes that were a little off. I felt like the author was trying to force certain things with the main character. However, these instances were so little, they didn't totally distract from the rest of the book.

Overall, this book was a winner for me. I can see where some might not like it. It's different from the "norm" and sometimes people just aren't into change or different. And that's okay. If you're looking for a book with a haunting vibe to read in the fall, this is going to be one to add to your list.

🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams

🌼🌼🌼/5

TW// death, suicide, animal death, stalking

Heather Evan’s is heartbroken and confused about her mother’s sudden suicide. When she returns to her childhood hone she finds a stack of letters from the serial killer Michael Reave hidden away. Reave has been in prison for 20 years after being convicted of gruesome, ritualistic murders of several women. He has always maintained that he was innocent and has always been ignored, until a copy cat murderer is on the loose.

Heather works with the police to try and find out what Reave knows about her mother’s past and also his connection to these new murders. Through this journey Heather uncovers horrifying truths all connecting back to one historical commune.

I was so hooked and there were some very creepy bits created by talented writing! Throughout the book the atmosphere is palpable and it was difficult to put down. What I did struggle with was how much was being covered all in one go and it did feel it was a lot to follow. I feel this was especially apparent with the ending as it was very confusing and unfortunately I had my suspicions about what the ending would be. I feel as soon as you guess the ending to a thriller it looses its edge but that’s just me!

All in all I did enjoy this book (for me a 3 star is still a book I would recommend!).

I was kindly provided with an eARC from Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly was not expecting to like this book. It started off a little slowly and it took some time to realize exactly what was going on. Heather is trying to sort out the details of her late mother's life and her tragic suicide when she discovers that her mom had a relationship with a notorious serial killer.

As an accomplished journalist, eventually, Heather puts the pieces together and discovers that her mother was hiding secrets that she never could've guessed. It ends with a twist I wasn't expecting and overall it's a pretty good book!

As a lover of thrillers and true crime, A Dark and Secret Place was a perfect read for me. While this not true crime, Jen Williams does such a successful job of building a new reality that it felt like it.

I read it in just a few days which is unusual for me as it's an easy read with a quick pace, it draws the reader in with so many unanswered questions and a building tension as our protagonist attempts to unravel the mystery of her mother's past.

It contains some very unique twists that I haven't encountered in others in the genre, which has many a good trope, but I really enjoyed this unusual story.

This book really spoke to me, as a fan of true crime and true-crime podcasts. Heather Evans hasn’t been home in a long time. She finally returns after her mother takes her own life and Heather has to pick up the pieces and figure out what happened. Here’s where the true-crime red meat comes in—Heather discovers a trove of carefully preserved letters from infamous serial killer Michael “The Red Wolf” Reave. I was sucked in at this point—it’s every true-crime fan’s dream, to uncover new evidence in crime, especially hidden letters!

Even though the Red Wolf has been in maximum-security prison for more than twenty years, convicted of a series of brutal and ritualistic murders of women, he has always said that he was innocent. And it seems that her mother had some insight into the mind of the Red Wolf and into these murders. Heather has to find out what her mother knew, and what the Red Wolf knew, as another young woman is found murdered, in the same way that the Red Wolf killed.

This was dark, twisted and ultimately compelling take on a tried-and-true narrative—the prodigal child returning to uncover long-buried secrets, the help and insight of a possibly innocent incarcerated killer into a new crime, a romantic interest. I enjoyed this and it reminded me of books by Tana French and Kathleen Barber, even Thomas Harris’s Silence of the Lambs. Very dark, and TW for graphic descriptions of mutilated bodies.

Overall I found the premise of this book to be really intriguing, but something about the execution did not draw me in. it took me a while to even get invested in the main character and by then, it started to switch viewpoints. I think this would have done better if it had focused on one POV with interjections of another POV, but it felt overly distracting. However, I like the gory scenes with the Michael - he is atavistically animal and I like that juxtaposition with him being a naive and lost child. Overall, perhaps I would recommend to friends who love thrillers and would like a fresh premise.

DNF, y'all, so let's not count this one as my official first book of the year! The setup is interesting, but the story plods along (especially in the middle) and then the ending is just like HEREYOUGOALLATONCEOKAYSORTITOUTYOURSELF!!! I don't know - I just didn't love it, but I wanted to, because I love a good dark premise.

Perfect title for this book. This is a dark read for those that like intense and terrifying. This is a psychological suspense that takes you on a ride of unforgettable thrills, into the past of a deceased mother, her daughter Heather, makes discoveries that sends her into dangers she is not ready to face. Great read!

Wow! What a riveting read! A Dark and Secret Place grabbed me by the throat and held onto me until the very end. I did not see that ending coming - what a complete shock! Skilled writing and character building made this an A+ novel.

Following her estranged mother's suicide, Heather Evans return to her childhood home to prepare for the funeral and see to her mother's affairs. Hidden away in the attic, she finds letters written to her mother from an imprisoned serial killer, Michael Reave, but the letters predate his incarceration, indicating that Heather's mother knew Michael long before he went to jail; before Heather was born in fact. Heather sets out on a quest to learn more about her mother and understand if this connection to Reave has anything to do with her suicide or the fact that a copycat killer is on the loose. The premise is promising, and while I did like the book, I found several plot elements to be unrealistic and I did not particularly like Heather or understand her actions, which are the main reasons for my middling rating. There are several plot twists; some were easy to predict but one big one definitely took me by surprise.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review. I chose this as my final book for 2020. I wanted some dark and mysterious that I could get through fairly quickly. This book did not disappoint. It kept my attention and I could barely put it down. Plenty of twists and turns along the way too.

It’s been a long time since I devoured a book so quickly! I couldn’t put this down! I won’t recap the story since it’s been done to death by now.

This author knows how to tell a story and create a set of characters. I was always on the edge of my seat reading this. It was creepy. The use of nature as elements of evil really worked for me.

There were several twists and most of them I did not see coming (which is always fun). This went off the rails at the end but I dug every second of it!! I will definitely check out the next by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Crooked Lane Books for a copy in exchange for a review.

This book was very slow moving and then wrapped up so quickly at the end I had to reread parts to understand what was really happening.
I’ll admit- I was quite disturbed by this one. The whole cult/commune aspect niggled at me the entire time. I usually barrel through a good thriller and I couldn’t read more than 30 min at a time.
Characters were very well thought out, plot drawn out well and setting was very explicit- especially Fiddlers area. Wow.

A creepy, dark suspense novel that has bits of folklore and fairy tales, as well as serious true crime vibes. Beautiful writing and great pacing.