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WAIT FOR DARK
by Scott Frost
Headline, December 2010
416 pages
7.99 GBP
ISBN: 0755346521


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

WAIT FOR DARK is a tight thriller set against the backdrop of rolling blackouts in the City of Angels. As darkness falls, LA police lieutenant Alex Delillo receives a taunting phone call which ultimately leads her to a gruesome murder scene. She and her partner - in every sense - Dylan Harrison must race to try and identify the super-competent serial killer before he strikes again and again in the darkened city. As they work the case, they discover there is more going on than just the simple gore-stained machinations of a homicidal maniac.

It's always disconcerting to start in the middle of a series. Will I need to know what happened in the previous novels? Will too much backstory be revealed, thus ruining all those earlier books should I want to read them in future? WAIT FOR DARK is the fourth outing for Scott Frost's cop heroine, but for those who have not yet encountered Alex Delillo there are not too many spoilers to prevent you from going back to the earlier novels.

Although the initial set-up of this novel has a feel of Jeffrey Deaver about it, with an apparently all-knowing serial killer playing a highly refined game with the police, the plot changes gear midway into a corporate territory which is more John Grisham than Deaver. Nonetheless, the story remains satisfactorily gripping, with the added bonus of having some natural breakpoints where you can pause for a while. Cliffhanger chapter endings are all very well in moderation, but if there's never a chance to take a break, you have to stay up all night to finished the darned thing!

It's not great literature, but WAIT FOR DARK is a well-plotted, tidily written thriller with plenty of pace that will make for some engaged hours on the beach or a long plane journey.

§ Toby James is a freelance translator and homedad and lives in Bristol, England. His family think he reads too much.

Reviewed by Toby James, May 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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