I really enjoyed this thriller! Some parts of it are dark or suspenseful enough to almost become horror as well, and it's truly an addictive read. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is because of the portrayal of journalists in such a negative/unethical light (which I won't go into here because I can't give details without also giving spoilers) - but perhaps journalists are just like that in the UK? Aside from that, I thought the characters were well fleshed-out and developed, the atmosphere and descriptions done fabulously well (I literally caught myself thinking 'hey this new character looks like that person' even though, obviously, I'd never actually visually seen the character), and the plot still gave me a surprise twist even though I figured out everything else.
Will certainly be recommending this book to everyone I come across.

I loved reading A Dark and Secret Place. The writing was excellent. Heather returns to her childhood home after her mother’s suicide looking for answers. When she discovers her mom had a decades-long correspondence with a serial killer, she ends up with even more questions. While I was reading this book, I kept trying to figure out what other book it reminded me of. Not that it was derivative, just that it put me in mind of something else. I finally realized that it didn’t remind me of another book, but of a feeling- the feeling I get when I’m fully engrossed in my favorite thrillers. I have a few bones to pick with the ending and the whodunnit- but the writing more than made up for it. I hope Jen Williams writes more in this genre. Recommended for fans of Rachel Caine and Chelsea Cain.

Yessssss! This is haunted! So bleak, incredibly dark, soul crushingly disturbing story may give you long and endless nightmares!

Ladies and gentlemen, I can honestly announce that I found a great gem to read on Halloween month!

Its genre is more closer to psychological thriller and mystery but there is monstrous serial killer out there to take the women into the woods, carving their hearts theme is closer to give you enough scare and horrifying screams belong to horror movies’ Queen Ms. Curtis!

Poor Heather Evans in her mid thirties returns to her family house, the very same place she has left when she was 16 after losing her father and having disastrously dysfunctional relationship with her mother and she sworn not to return back ever!

But now, her mother took her own life and the she suffers from guilt and grief, organizing her mother’s belongings, trapped in this humongous, eerie, gothic place which gives haunted vibes. She starts finding flower petals and bird feathers scattered around the rooms and shadows at the back garden close to the woods watching her moves and vanishing into thin air as soon as they are noticed by her.

And these ominous things are just the beginning of her haunted visit to her past. She finds her mother’s correspondences with a man, the very same man called Red Wolf who is notorious, vicious serial killer, brutally took lives of innocent women and carved their hearts (as a souvenir: he might have eaten them or buried them, who knows?) And from the writing style she realizes Michael Reave a.k.a Red Wolf might be really close to her mother ( a friend or God forbid her lover maybe!?)

So she decides to share this information with police and pushes her chance to talk with this dangerous man to learn more about her own mother’s secrets. Even though DI Ben Harper had second thoughts about the meetings at the prison, he reluctantly accepts it because a copy cat killer is out there kidnapping women and taking their lives and the newbie monster’s method has quite resemblances with Red Wolf’s technique. Michael Reave hasn’t said a word for years and now he is ready to talk with Heather.

After her first encounter with this dangerous man, Heather quickly realizes she’s slowly dragging to the cliffs and her life is under threat! Because monsters in the wood are now coming for her so she’d better run or face her past and release her inner darkness to fight them back.

Heather was quite lovable badass heroine, reminded me of Walter White’s famous line: so many times you think she is danger but you shouldn’t be worried about her because she is the danger!

One of my darkest, gripping, nightmarish, riveting reading with great references of Red Riding Hood ( sometimes the girl in a red hood can be hunter and poor wolf can be a prey! )

Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions. I truly enjoyed it!

A mix between thriller and crime with cults, serial killers, and spooky fairy tales sandwiched perfectly in between. Williams does a great job of setting the pace, letting us know that something is up and keeping us guessing until the end. A great read, especially for Spooktober!

#ADarkandSecretPlace #NetGalley
Special thanks to Crooked lane books and NetGalley for providing me with ARC.

I don't love this novel, i finished it because i want to know what will happen in the end.

The characters are annoying me, i tried to focus in the novel but i can't , i put it down many times.

Heather, a journalist moves home after her mother's suicide and discovers she's been writing letters to a notorious serial killer--the Red Wolf. At the same time, women are disappearing, and the killer's MO looks suspiciously like the Red Wolf's. Could there be a copycat killer, and is Heather's mother somehow involved--both with the past killings, and somehow in the present?

The author described wanting to write a horror novel, so I was expecting something scarier, and I was a bit disappointed to find that it just... wasn't scary. I do love thrillers, so I went back to it with that mindset, but I also found that it didn't draw me in. I didn't love the main character--or even like her, really--and I had no investment in what happened to her. I wasn't even invested in the core mystery, because it became fairly obvious what was going on pretty early on in the book. I also found the pace to be a bit slow, unfortunately. It's possible this just wasn't for me, but I don't think I'll be recommending this anytime soon.

#ADarkandSecretPlace#
By: Jen Williams
Review By: I Love to Read (librarian)

Thank you Net galley and publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summoned home by her mother's suicide, Heather struggles to make sense of her mother's cryptic suicide note. Having left home as a teen, Heather realizes much about her mother's early life is a mystery. As she tries to unravel the past, she comes in contact with an incarcerated serial killer with whom her mother exchanged letters through the years. Now a copycat killer is murdering women. This macabre story is told in a time slip fashion featuring scenes from the past in the killer's point of view as well as the current narrative. The story moves slowly at times. The ending though fairly predictable, satisfactorily answers all story questions.

A very good read for the season! This creepy and disturbing novel begins when Heather wants to understand why her mother committed suicide seemingly out of nowhere. As she searches for answers, she discovers her mother has been secretly corresponding with a serial killer for many years. In trying to understand, Heather visits Michael in prison. And things suddenly go to - a darker and more secret place. The story goes back and forth in time, yet works well. There is murder and violence but not unbearable, at least to me, to read. The last third of the book goes even darker as Heather and her friend go hunting for clues in a large forest. The creep factor is real with this gory story, but worth a read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow! What did I just read?
Ex journalist- Heather returns to her family home after her estranged mothers suicide. This was out of character for her mother so it leaves Heather with a lot questions.
She finds letters in the attic from a serial killer. On top of that women are being murdered again.
Heather of course is drawn to the investigation and visits the killer in prison.

I finished this in one sitting it was so good. Very unsettling and intriguing. There was tension on every page and I slept with the lights on after reading.

Anyone who enjoys dark thrillers should read this one!
Thanks to the publisher Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy.

I really loved this book!
I enjoyed Heather's character.
To me this was a quick intense book.
At first it was a little slow but quickly picked up.

Thanks NetGalley Publisher and author for this copy.

Wow. This book really surpassed my expectations. I hadn’t heard of the author before and as her previous work is fantasy-based I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was SO good!

Heather returns to her childhood home following her mum’s inexplicable suicide, and discovers a bizarre connection between her mother and a serial killer who’s been in prison for decades. Her quest to discover the reason for the link naturally leads to... well, a dark and secret place!

The storyline had me gripped from the outset and I loved the author’s writing style. The subject matter was grim, but unlike another reviewer I didn’t find the depictions gratuitous or overly graphic.

The characterisation was brilliant - I loved how our view of Colleen changes towards the end of the book; after seeing her as a rather cold and distant character, when we realise the terrible choice she faced we view her in a completely different way. I also liked that Heather wasn’t depicted as one-dimensional; she had her own demons and flaws, but ultimately I empathised with her and felt she was a genuinely plausible and relatable character.

Michael Reeve too was brilliantly portrayed - clearly disturbed and responsible for despicable acts, but I even summoned some empathy for him and found the last chapter quite moving. Had he been given a different start in life who knows how he would have turned out? Unexpected I actually felt some compassion for him - his life seemed so hopeless.

The author didn’t shy away from the reality of Reeve’s crimes and there were no inconceivable plot twists - the sad, dark reality was as anticipated and Reeve is presented as a complex character who we never really fully understand.

The plot moved at a good pace and although I foresaw some of the twists/reveals, the major twist involving Colleen came as a complete surprise. I was sad to finish it knowing this is the author’s first and only thriller so far - hopefully there will be more to come, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another.

My thanks to netgalley, the publisher and Jen Williams for the ARC.

This book was so good. It's actually one of those books that I won't forget for a while after reading it, and that means something.
I loved the setting, the atmosphere, the characters. Heather was a great protagonist, and I loved all the scenes in her mother's old house, how she got more and more paranoid, the little notes being left to her. It all built up an atmosphere that was creepy and unsettling, and it matched the tone of the story.
The scenes between Michael and Heather were my favorite, they were so well-written and I grew to really enjoy Michael as a character. The split between past and present is not always something I enjoy, but I liked it a lot here and it made a lot of sense. I liked the concept of the commune a lot and it was fascinating to see Michael grow into the person he later was.
The pacing of the book was really great, I couldn't put it down once I had started and I was not disappointed with the ending. I did think it was a little predictable, I knew who would be involved almost right away and it should have been obvious to Heather, too. I also thought the romantic subplot wasn't needed and could have been left out.
Overall this was a great book, and I would definitely check out more books from this author in the future.

Firstly a big thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the galley proof of this book.

What’s is all about ?
A convicted Serial Killer. A series of Copy Cat Killings! The police struggling to catch this killer! While unbeknownst to a young women, her life is going to be intimately woven into this macabre world.
This is a story of a suicide, and an estranged daughter trying to make sense of why her mother took her own life. As ‘Heather’ works through the circumstances of her mothers death, she discovers a disturbing truth! Her mother has had frequent and close contact with one of the most notorious serial killers in the prison system. This discovery starts off a sequence of events and leads Heather to question her own relationship with her mother, and motivates her to interview the Serial Killer ‘ Michael Reaves’.

Heather hoping to find some answers why her mother took her own life; and the Police motivated by this reveal, use Heather to find a way into the mind of this monster.
Things don’t go as they expect…

What’s good about it ?
If you like Thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you guessing, teasing you with a slow reveal of the full story. This book is for you!
So much was good about this book, the pace of the story, the rich characters and the distrubing unravelling of this morbid tale, page by page! I loved the narrative between Heather and Michael, Its well written , keeping the reader right on the edge! I also liked the style of switching back to the time ‘before’ , and back to the modern day – it really worked for me.
Its a tremendous read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done Jen Williams!

What’s not so good about it ?
The only thing that I would say about this book is, why this title? ‘A Dark and Secret Place’ does not do the story justice.

This was a HORRIFYINGLY APPEALING BOOK. It had all the elements of a good EDGE OF THE SEAT, DARK AND TWiSTED TALE. It drew me in right from the get go.
It talks about SERIAL KILLERS,
BRITISH DARK FOLKLORE,
URBAN LEGENDS,
FRIENDSHIP TILL DEATH DO US APART,
COMPLEX HUMAN EMOTIONS and how one can never really know someone entirely. I love dogs but now get a slightly unnerving feeling about them, they might not be a normal, squishy furry ball of love but a BARGHEST (phantom dog).
Heather , an estranged daughter of thirty something is forced to get into the ugly details of her mother's checkered past after her mother, Colleen Evans commits suicide. Heather discovers letters exchanged between her mother and a formidable serial killer , with the moniker RED WOLF famous for grisly and spine chilling murders of young women. Heather loses her mind with this disturbing discovery and plans to face the music by meeting the convicted serial killer.

This book was DISCONCERTING , CRAZY, EERIE but OH SO LOVELY!

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Publications for giving me the opportunity to read this DARK book, it will always hold a DARK AND SECRET PLACE IN MY HEAD.

This book has the creepy factor.. was a good solid read. Was the first for me from this Author and will be keeping my eye for more.

Thanks the the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

This was dark and atmospheric and a great read for October. However, while the premise was interesting and drew me in, it felt like it slowed down for a good portion of the middle but the last quarter or so flew by really quickly.

This was somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars for me.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams is about a woman (Heather Evans) who discovers her late mother, whom committed suicide, had been secretly corresponding with a serial killer (Michael Reave AKA The "Red Wolf") for decades and has remained steadfast on his innocence throughout those decades. This book was a piece of storytelling worth reading, the tension ramped up with every chapter. I stayed up late to finish as I was so on edge! Not as cookie cutter as the summary makes it out to be more of a dark thriller that really will keep you guessing, loses it a little towards the end. A big Thank You!!!!, to Netgalley and the publisher for my early access of A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams and Crooked Lane Books. All opinions in this review are my own honest opinion. If you do not agree, it's ok! :) I would recommend this book to anyone that likes mystery and thrillers.

A Dark and Secret Place is a tightly written, unsettling psychological thriller from author Jen Williams. Thanks to #NetGalley and #CrookedLaneBooks for providing me with the ARC in return for a fair review.

Ex-journalist Heather has reluctantly returned to her family home to tie up her mother's affairs after her estranged mother died by suicide. This out of character action has left Heather off balance and questioning whether she even knew her mother. This feeling only deepens when Heather finds bundles of letters stashed in the attic. Letters from a notorious serial killer, Michael Reeve - The Red Wolf. What's more, women are being murdered again, in the same way Reeve killed his victims years before.

Heather finds herself drawn to the fringes of the investigation, and volunteers to visit Reeve in prison.
All the while remnants from the past keep haunting Heather and she starts to feel a malign presence dogging her every step.

This was an excellent piece of storytelling, the tension ramped up with every chapter. I stayed up late to finish as I was so on edge!

I found the character of Heather very believable, with her complicated feelings towards her dead mother. Family relationships are rarely simple, and the unresolved conflict felt genuine. Heather makes some dubious choices, but I felt they were entirely in keeping with the character. Her interest in Reeve as well as her revulsion towards him felt understandable - her previous work as a reporter makes it understandable that she would find him and his stories intriguing.

I thought I had figured out all of the twists, but I had not! I've given this book 5 stars, it will be published in the UK under the title #DogRoseDirt I hope Jen Williams writes more in this genre.

#ADarkAndSecretPlace #DogRoseDirt

A Dark and Secret Place is a psychological thriller that had me near terrified to read this late at night. The story itself is very interesting and had me intrigued the whole way through. I will say there were some parts I did find uncomfortable and some instances I was confused as to what some of the plotlines had to do with the story in general, but I think the author was able to tie up the loose ends near the end of the novel. Overall, this book was really intriguing and it was a good spooky read.

Heather returns to her late mother's house after learning that her mother has committed suided. In hopes to figure out as to why her mother killed herself, Heather finds letters between her mother and the notorious Red Wolf killer, who has been behind bars for the majority of Heather’s life. As she learns more about her mother's past and has the opportunity to meet with Michael Reeve, the famous Red Wolf Killer, tensions rise as a copycat killer emerges from the shadows. Heather must do everything she can to figure out why her mother was associating with Michael and if she can stop the copycat killer, even if it means returning to the place where it all started.

I want to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an ARC of this book. Publication Date : June 8th, 2021

This was a great thriller - and a scarier one than I've read in a long time. I had ideas about some of the twists but they still caught me by surprise. This is a really intricate story and I liked the bits of fantasy that played into it. I'm not a big fantasy fan, so this was the perfect balance. All of the puzzle pieces came together really well in the end but I was definitely left wanting to keep reading! :)