Dark Places is a dark and emotional story – an interesting “whodunit” which opens a window to a world that is deeply foreign to me. It tells the fictional story of a young woman’s search for the truth behind the murder of her family.

On one hand, it’s obviously a fictional story, but the story of a family losing one parent to murder, and another parent to drugs, is depressing and sad on every level. A combination of poverty, desperation and misery combines for less of an emotional roller coaster and more of an emotional pinball machine. There were no highs that you might associate with a roller coaster, just repeatedly jarring emotional collisions of a pinball machine.

Certainly don’t read (or listen) to this book if you’re looking for happiness or joy, but instead, come for the emotional impact of this excellently written story.