Author: Sarah Bailey

Sarah lives in Melbourne, Australia. She has two young sons and one very old cat.

Before she wrote The Dark Lake, Sarah worked in advertising as a business manager. These days she splits her time between writing and working at Creative Projects Company, Mr Smith. Sarah is working on her third book which will be published in 2019.

#BookReview Into the Night by Sarah Bailey @sarahbailey1982 @GrandCentralPub

#BookReview Into the Night by Sarah Bailey @sarahbailey1982 @GrandCentralPub Title: Into the Night

Author: Sarah Bailey

Series: Gemma Woodstock #2

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Dec. 4, 2018

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 404

Format: Hardcover, ARC

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 8/10

After the shocking murder of a high-profile celebrity, Gemma Woodstock must pull back the layers of a gilded cage to discover who among the victim’s friends and family can be trusted–and who may be the killer.

Troubled and brilliant, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock finds herself lost and alone after a recent move to Melbourne, brokenhearted by the decisions she’s had to make. Her new workplace is a minefield and Detective Sergeant Nick Fleet, the partner she has been assigned, is uncommunicative and often hostile. When a homeless man is murdered and Gemma is put on the case, she can’t help feeling a connection with the victim and his lonely, isolated existence.

Then Sterling Wade, an up-and-coming actor filming his breakout performance in a closed-off city street, is murdered in the middle of an action-packed shot, and Gemma and Nick have to put aside their differences to unravel the mysteries surrounding the actor’s life and death. Who could commit such a brazen crime? Who stands to profit from it? Far too many people, and none of them can be trusted. Gemma can’t imagine a pair of victims with less in common–and yet as Gemma and Fleet soon learn, both men were keeping secrets that may have led to their deaths.

With riveting suspense, razor-sharp writing, and a fascinating cast of characters, INTO THE NIGHT proves Sarah Bailey is a major new talent to watch in the world of literary crime fiction.


Review:

Intriguing, mysterious, and dark!

In this latest novel in the Gemma Woodstock series, Into the Night, Bailey immerses you into an intense, sultry investigation into the violent homicide of a movie star and the hunt for a confident, callous killer who seems to have gotten away with murder in broad daylight.

The prose is gritty and raw. The characterization is well done with characters that are driven, flawed, and reckless, including the lonely, DS Gemma Woodstock, whose greatest struggles involve her own personal demons and insecurities. And the plot, including all the subplots, keep you engrossed from start to finish with a multitude of twists, turns, deception, revelations, jealousy, obsession, familial drama, secrets, violence, and murder.

Overall, Into the Night is another sinister, tight, riveting thriller by Bailey that reminds us that the lure of fame and fortune mixed with ruthless ambition can sometimes be a deadly combination.

 

This novel is available now.

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

                                            

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sarah Bailey

Sarah lives in Melbourne, Australia. She has two young sons and one very old cat.

Before she wrote The Dark Lake, Sarah worked in advertising as a business manager. These days she splits her time between writing and working at Creative Projects Company, Mr Smith. Sarah is working on her third book which will be published in 2019.

 

#BookReview The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey @sarahbailey1982 @GrandCentralPub

#BookReview The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey @sarahbailey1982 @GrandCentralPub Title: The Dark Lake

Author: Sarah Bailey

Series: Gemma Woodstock #1

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Oct. 3, 2017

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 400

Format: eBook, ARC

Source: Grand Central Publishing, NetGalley

Book Rating: 8/10

In a suspense thriller to rival Paula Hawkins and Tana French, a detective with secrets of her own hunts the killer of a woman who was the glamorous star of their high school.

Rose was lit by the sun, her beautiful face giving nothing away. Even back then, she was a mystery that I wanted to solve.

The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind’s student years and then again when she returned to teach drama.

As much as Rosalind’s life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town’s richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her?

Rosalind’s enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets—an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past.


Review:

Menacing, unsettling, and intense!

In this debut novel, The Dark Lake, Bailey transports us to Smithson, Australia a small town where gossip and deception run rampant, emotions run high, and solving the murder of the beloved local high school teacher may unearth more skeletons in the closet than anyone could have imagined.

The prose is dark and eerie. The characters, including the scarred Det. Sgt. Gemma Woodstock, are flawed, complicated, and self-involved. And the plot, using a past/present, back-and-forth style is a suspenseful thrill ride filled with familial drama, jealousy, obsession, grief, revenge, infidelity, secrets, and murder.

The Dark Lake is truly a well-written, gritty, absorbing story that highlights that rage and resentment fostered over many years can have devastating consequences.

 

This novel is available now.

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

                                            

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley, especially Grand Central Publishing, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sarah Bailey

Sarah lives in Melbourne, Australia. She has two young sons and one very old cat.

Before she wrote The Dark Lake, Sarah worked in advertising as a business manager. These days she splits her time between writing and working at Creative Projects Company, Mr Smith. Sarah is working on her third book which will be published in 2019.