Book Review: Darkness Falls by Robert Bryndza

Title: Darkness Falls

Author: Robert Bryndza

Series: Kate Marshall #3

Published by: Thomas & Mercer on Dec. 7, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: Paperback

Source: Thomas Allen & Son

Book Rating: 9/10

A missing persons case gone cold. Until Kate Marshall sees it from a terrifying new angle.

Kate Marshall’s fledgling PI agency takes off when she and her partner, Tristan Harper, are hired for their first big case. It’s a cold one. Twelve years before, journalist Joanna Duncan disappeared after exposing a political scandal. Most people have moved on. Joanna’s mother refuses to let go.

When Kate and Tristan gain access to the original case files, they revisit the same suspects and follow the same leads―but not to the same dead ends. Among Joanna’s personal effects, Kate discovers the names of two young men who also vanished without a trace.

As she connects the last days of three missing persons, Kate realizes that Joanna may have been onto something far more sinister than anyone first believed: the identity of a serial killer hiding in plain sight. The closer Kate comes to finding him, the darker it’s going to get.

Review:

Relentless, unpredictable, and sinister!

In this latest novel in the Kate Marshall series, Darkness Falls, Bryndza has written another complex, ominous thriller featuring former police detective turned PI Kate Marshall and her loyal partner Tristan Harper as they work together on their first big assignment involving the thirteen-year-old cold case of a missing journalist who at the time of her disappearance was embroiled in the investigation and exposition of a local married MP with a penchant for young men.

The writing is crisp and tight. The characters are astute, diligent, and multi-layered. And the intricate plot keeps you engrossed from start to finish with its twists, turns, deception, revelations, corruption, power, red herrings, violence, and murder.

I have to say this series just keeps getting better and better. Darkness Falls is an intricately woven, perfectly paced, highly entertaining whodunit that has all the elements I look for in a thrilling mystery, complete with a riveting storyline, exceptional character development, and an ending that left me eager for more.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Thomas Allen & Son for providing me with a copy in exchange for an review.

About Robert Bryndza

Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over four million copies in the English language.

His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).

Robert has released a further five novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller.

Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling, Shadow Sands and the third book, Darkness Falls, has just been published.

Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.

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Great review Zoe. I can’t wait to start this series. I love your description of the characters as “astute, diligent, and multi-layered” I do enjoy his writing and have waited long enough to start the Kate Marshall books.