Darkness on the Edge of Town

Every parent’s worst nightmare comes to life while Investigator Laura Cardinal faces the demons from her own past in Darkness J. Carson Black’s DARKENESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN.

Laura Cardinal wasn’t the most popular of girls in school, but she finally made it to not being the “one most picked on”. That fell to little Julie Marr. And then one day Julie disappeared. Eighteen years later, now an investigator with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Laura is called in on the abduction turned murder of Jessica Parrish. Step by insidious step Julie’s disappearance seeps into Laura’s investigation of Jessica’s murder. Before Laura can wrap her mind around what kind of twisted mind dressed Jessica in a little girl’s dress and propped her up on against a band shell, Laura learns of another girl’s disappearance. Slowly Laura begins to see the tendrils of similarities between the girls’ disappearances and murders…even to images of little Julie Marr. From the quaint and quiet streets of small town Bisbee, Arizona to a guarded little town in Florida Laura tracks down the killer. Each turn another aspect of her personal demon confronts her until he takes shape…and it is no one she would have ever suspected. Like a spider weaving her web, the killer spins his own, luring Laura to her ultimate challenge…or death.

From the very first page of DARKENESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN J. Carson Black draws her reader into the web beside Laura. Her fears become the reader’s. Her drive to find the killer becomes the reader’s need. The darkness that caresses Laura through the story permeates the pages as this amazing author weaves an intricate tale that will leave the reader speechless. Without using the word “darkness”, the reader feels the menacing evil this killer brings. There are splashes of light when Laura goes to Florida and Ms. Black paints a vivid picture for the reader with words like “sherbet colored” sunset. And then she allows the darkness that follows Laura seep back in. Rather than be a negative, it drives Laura and makes this one of the most compelling stories this reviewer has read to date. Sitting up late into the night, turning page after page, this reviewer often found herself holding her breath as Laura moved to the startling conclusion. One that this reviewer was so unprepared for she had to go back and read the chapter revealing the true evil genius twice.

Ms. Black’s characters open themselves up to the reader. From the father who dedication to his job almost costs him his daughter to the small town Chief who in one blinding moment loses almost his entire police force to Summer Holland, the latest little girl to be taken, each becomes a part of the reader’s life as they appear on the pages of this hypnotically captivating story.

Ms. Black takes her readers into the real towns we know. Not glamorous cities with beautiful people, but real down to earth people, events and locales. The reader will recognize the funky little story where Laura begins looking for her suspect. When Laura ventures into the sultry streets of Apalachicola, Florida the muggy heat seems to come off the pages and wrap around the reader. The bad guys don’t all drive expensive cars…they aren’t all glamorous or ugly…they are every day people. They could be the guy next door…and may well be. Splashes of color show through the intense and absorbing story.

J. Carson Black’s DARKENESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is a do not miss read.

August 2006