The Comfort of Black

I hesitated to continue reading “The Comfort of Black” after the first scene: another abuse victim opener. The main character, Hannah, gets beaten by her abusive father, Billy, and that act puts him in prison. However, the author isn't using this opener in a trite, hackneyed way.

Fast forward fifteen years or so. Hannah’s moved herself and her younger sister, Justine, to Seattle, finished college and met and married a wealthy man. Her husband, Dallin, has been behaving strangely for roughly a year, though. They’ve been trying to have a child and the present day story opens with just such an attempt. In the middle of that night, Hannah is awakened by her husband talking in his sleep, with a short monologue that reads like a psycho serial rapist/killer.

Hannah visits her psychiatrist to unburden herself of the feelings of dread that are creeping up on her, despite her efforts at denying and rationalizing what she heard. Then she confronts Dallin. He’s very cagey, she discovers more strange things about him on his laptop, so she moves out. But she agrees to meet him in a public place to talk. While waiting for him to show up she has a chance encounter with a man named Black Morrow. On to the meeting with her husband which doesn’t go well. As a matter of fact, she wakes up in a cabin with Black guarding her. He relates that she was drugged and being carted out in a suitcase by her husband’s henchman when he rescued her. Apparently, Black is an expert on disappearing, forming a new identity and staying safely on the lam. And he offers to help her do just that. Inevitably there is an attraction which they both act on.

SPOILER Are you with me so far? Good. Because this story now takes several quick turns. Black is in cahoots with Dallin to manipulate Hannah into disappearing. Dallin has even planted evidence to make Hannah look like an embezzler so she won’t go to the police.

When Hannah’s psychiatrist is killed, however, “The Comfort of Black” takes a hard left turn. Black changes his mind; he’s beginning to develop feelings for Hannah and balks at murder. He reveals the scheme to Hannah and offers to help her for real. They need to manipulate Dallin to get money for her new life. But Hannah’s doubts about Black fester until she makes an attempt to leave him. They’re confronted by a not-so-innocent bystander (not part of the original scheme, however) and Hannah finds she can kill if need be.

The death of this intruder drives Hannah into a fast right turn. She decides to trust Black and they continue their plan to milk Dallin for eight million dollars. They’re assisted by the henchman who drugged her before Black rescued her. Over time, Black reveals his history and a connection to Hannah’s father. Soon all the threads of Billy, Justine, Dallin, the henchman and Black wind themselves together and the finale is not the same hum-drum murder mystery you’ve read before.

Hannah and Black are fully-realized and completely believable characters. The plot is full of surprises and the ending quite satisfying in a tragic sort of way. The violence and language aren’t something I cared for but were true to the characters and situation.

Hannah Parks knows that starting a family is not the way to save a failing marriage, but she is willing to try anything to reconnect with her husband, Dallin. But all plans for a family dissolve when Dallin reveals a terrible secret while talking in his sleep. The revelation helps bring her relationship with him into focus, and she realizes the unhealthy choices she has made are directly linked to her own past. Now, on the run from Dallin after he tried to have her kidnapped, Hannah is relying on ex-con, Black, who is going to hep her “disappear”. As she tries to escape her past she comes to the frightening realization that her own family has a hand in her nightmare

I just couldn't put this book down today. I started it last night and even took it to the dentist with me.

This is a fast paced book.

Hannah is married to Dallin. On the surface they have a good marriage, but like any marriage it does have its difficulties at times and Hannah has watched her husband grow distance.

She wants a child, maybe that is why he has distance between them, so one day she asks him about it. He said its not the reason, and their sex life resumes.

However, whilst he is asleep one night something happens, something frightening and worrying that she has to listen to.

When she is telling someone about this and it actually putting it into words, the reasoning behind her husbands words is not all what she thinks.

Shes asked if they have an 'active' sex life.

She's asked if he wants anything 'unusual' in the act of love making.

This stops her, she has to think about this.

She starts to investigate Dallin more, what is he hiding? What is his past? who the hell is her husband!

Dallin arranged for Hannah to be abducted and she has to run for her life......relying on a virtual stranger named Black.

This is a VERY good book, so well written that I couldn't put it down, not at all. I hardly did anything today except read this. YES it was THAT good.

I never wanted it to end :(

Let me thank the author Carter Wilson who I have never heard of before [that is going to change] and to Oceanview Publishing via Net Galley for my wonderful copy

Although this book kept me on my toes it was a good type of kept on toes. I loved the main Character from the outset and found myself rooting for her throughout. Black had to kinda grown on me but we became friends by the end. A fast paced thriller that will have you hooked from start to finish.

Essentially, The Comfort of Black is a story of one woman’s survival. She’s had to navigate a difficult set of circumstances, one of which will hook readers from the very beginning.

The narrative is fast-paced, set up as a process of discovery—on the part of the readers, and from main character Hannah’s perspective as well. The novel’s unpredictable and suspenseful trajectory kept me curious and engaged all the way through, with no lags marring my reading experience.

To explain the slight deduction in stars:
• Hannah kept being referred to as successful, and the reasoning or justification behind that didn’t sit right with me. At that point in the novel, her “success” was tied up in her husband’s wealth. I wanted success for her; I just wanted it to be defined differently.
• At times, the characters felt two-dimensional, which made it difficult for me to connect with them. (Of course, this may be attributed to my own reading preferences. The Comfort of Black is written in third person, while I generally gravitate toward first.)
• In my opinion, a few of the story's elements lacked development or needed more explanation.

Entertaining, with lots of unexpected twists and turns, The Comfort of Black is deserving of a mystery/suspense audience. I found many phrasings to be particularly masterful; unfortunately, I can’t share for risk of spoiling some major plot points. Nevertheless, concepts like identity, trust, and survival make this novel a page-turner that I'm still thinking about even days afterward.

Wow! What a rollar coaster ride this book was had me up reading all night! Liked Black and Hannah! Everytime I think I knew what was going on another twist would happen.Loved this book.Great thriller!!! Recommended for anyone that likes a can't put down read all night thriller!!!

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley, Carter Wilson and Oceanview Publishing for a copy of this book in exchanged for an unbiased review.
The Comfort of Black is a pretty good psychological suspense novel by Carter Wilson. Carter has written a very creative and original psychological suspense. It is quite an amazing plot and storyline development. Kudos to Carter for accomplishing this feat.
Hannah discovers that her multi-millionaire husband Dallin has been cheating on Hannah with whores. Hannah was naive enough to believe that there marriage was perfect. In fact, after a little rough spot, they were going to try to have a child. GOING. That is, until Hannah’s sister Christine needs to borrow one of their laptops. What Hannah finds on the computer crushes her. She decides that this is it for her and Dallin. Her perfect life with all of the money and what it would buy was coming to an end. Dallin resorts to mild violence. Hannah leaves and stays for a couple of days with her sister Christine and her kids from different dads. She agrees to a public meeting with Dallin in the 4 Seasons Hotel. But, then once she gets there she agrees to go to a private meeting room. Duh. From there, Hannah is kidnapped by a man named Black, or is she?
Hannah goes back and forth from this point with her trust or lack there of. Should she trust Black? Should she trust Dallin? Information keeps flowing into the reader like intravenous feedings. The story mounts and intensifies. The book becomes harder to put aside. What is going to happen? Will Hannah make a clean break? Will Dallin prevail? Who all is involved? Who is a bad guy and who is a good guy? And, then Dallin does some things that convince her they are finished. And, she begins to fall for Black … When something doesn’t quite fit, Carter Wilson just throws something else in. This is one of two things that bother me about The Comfort of Black. Black just happens to show up at the coffee shop? Black just happens to shoot a cop that disappears? A hillbilly in the middle of nowhere knows the details of the kidnapping? Hannah makes more bad decisions than the entire cast of a horror film. Billy, aka Smooth (really?), enters prison a loser,he beats women, he is not too smart, he is not someone that you would trust, the only place that he gets his way is at home, and he is only assigned menial work. However, he graduates in prison (just joking) to the point is that he is somewhat trustworthy, quite a bit smarter, able to enable people to disappear if they so wish, and able to track money and paper trails. Yeah, right. Also, I get the feeling that I am being told a story, which I guess that I am, and that if I question anything in the story, Carter just throws in something else. This doesn’t make The Comfort of Black a bad book, it just distracts from the story a little.
Carter Wilson has written a pretty good psychological suspense with The Comfort of Black. Wilson is probably a writer that we may want to keep in our sights. I can see good things coming down the pipeline. I am very glad that I was approved, and would have no problems recommending this book to anyone who is a reader of this genre. I would give this somewhere in the 3.75-4.00 stars rating.

A great read about childhood and adulthood fears and how they intertwine in life. Sparse clean style of writing with lots of great detail. The story follows the lie of a child of fear grows into a wife of fear. Take the time