Waves of Fiction: Review & Giveaway: In the Dark by Loreth Anne White

Loreth Anne White is an auto-buy for me so I'm excited to feature her newest: In the Dark! It's dark, compelling, and I loved it! For my post I have my review, a Q & A, and giveaway: A $25 Amazon Gift Card as well as a digital copy of In the Dark! Scroll down to enter for a chance to win!

In the Dark by Loreth Anne White

Publication Date: December 1st 2019 by Montlake

Pages: 407

Source: Publisher

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

About the book:

A secluded mountain lodge. The perfect getaway. So remote no one will ever find you.

The promise of a luxury vacation at a secluded wilderness spa has brought together eight lucky guests. But nothing is what they were led to believe. As a fierce storm barrels down and all contact with the outside is cut off, the guests fear that it’s not a getaway. It’s a trap.

Each one has a secret. Each one has something to hide. And now, as darkness closes in, they all have something to fear—including one another.

Alerted to the vanished party of strangers, homicide cop Mason Deniaud and search and rescue expert Callie Sutton must brave the brutal elements of the mountains to find them. But even Mason and Callie have no idea how precious time is. Because the clock is ticking, and one by one, the guests of Forest Shadow Lodge are being hunted. For them, surviving becomes part of a diabolical game.

My Thoughts:

In the Dark was a riveting story, a mystery, a reckoning, and while this mystery wraps up, I hope we get another story with Callie and Mason, the two investigators.

We’re brought into this story as a group of nine prospective vendors are about to be taken to a luxury resort in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, each with eyes on securing a contract to supply transport, housekeeping, security and such when the resort opens. The location is secret until they’re in route on the plane that must fly them into the location. But things are not as they seem which quickly becomes apparent when they arrive.

There are eight people by the time they reach the lodge, each with their own secrets, a mystery from the past, and justice looming. As this all plays out there’s suspicion cast at everyone in their group, sinister warnings, panic, and accusations. Soon it’s an all-out fight for survival miles away from civilization. At the heart of the story is why? Why this group? What happened in the past to connect them, and who is seeking retribution? Also, in the fray are the new RCMP Sergeant, Mason, and the Search and Rescue leader, Callie, who try to piece together the mystery after the fact, and search for the survivors, if any. The story goes back and forth to the events with the eight at the lodge and the investigation a week later.

It’s hard to speak much to the plot without ruining things, but I was kept on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what, if anything, these people had in common. all is revealed gradually as the events from the Lodge Group play out. There’s a huge nod to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. As a diehard Agatha Christie fan, I enjoyed how In the Dark incorporated features of the story. It certainly put the Lodge Group on edge, because they never knew when the next shock would come. I was on the edge with them! Each of the Lodge Group have their own perspective, as do Callie and Mason from the search a week later.

Loreth Anne White did a superb job creating suspense, making me care for the characters, even some of the despicable ones (well, just a little). The setting of In the Dark was dark and atmospheric, in the wintery Canadian wilderness, and the lodge featured sounded like somewhere I’d love to visit, without any murders, obviously! Like I said in the outset, this mystery is wrapped up, but there’s hope for another story with Callie and Mason. I need more!

4 Suns

Q&A: Author Loreth Anne White

1. You are very well known for your romantic suspense tales, but your new title, IN THE DARK, is all about mystery -- a real whodunit! Tell us a bit about the story.

I like to think there is still a strong echo of my earlier romantic suspense books that ripples through IN THE DARK. Yes, it’s a locked-room mystery/thriller -- wilderness style, but the mystery narrative is wrapped inside a romantic suspense-style narrative that follows a budding friendship between Detective Mason Deniaud and Search & Rescue manager Callie Sutton who must not only piece together what happened as they hunt for survivors, but also must race against time to save who might be left. The story leaves off with a promise of more ahead in the relationship between Callie and Mason, so my roots are still showing, I hope.

2. Your story definitely has shades of Agatha Christie as well as a nod or two to Stephen King. Did these authors act as inspirations for this book?

IN THE DARK is not only a homage to Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, but Christie’s story becomes a plot device, a psychological tool that the villain uses to instill fear in the victims trapped in the lodge because the victims know what transpired in the book, and they anticipate the same will happen to them.

And yes, a teensy nod to master of atmosphere and horror, Stephen King’s THE SHINING where characters are trapped in a remote and snowbound hotel and become mercy to the psychological horror that descends on them.

3. A rural, isolated lodge is always a great place to start a suspenseful novel. How exactly did your characters all come to be at Forest Shadow Lodge?

The characters are invited for an all-expenses stay at the brand new, high-end, fly-in wilderness lodge and spa. They are lured by an offer to enjoy a ‘soft opening’, so to speak, where they can assess the accommodation and potentially negotiate lucrative contracts with the new lodge owners. Each guest runs a business that would be suitable for such an establishment. Each is excited by a possible lucrative contract. But not all is quite what meets the eye, of course.

4. Your story is told from multiple points-of-view as you take deep dives into the characters’ lives and histories. Does everyone have something to hide?

Don’t we all have something to hide? My characters in this book certainly do. Some of their secrets are more powerful than others.

5. Mason and Callie are two of the law enforcement responders that are trying to piece together exactly what happened at The Lodge. Tell us more about these characters and what makes them so good at what they do.

Mason Deniaud was a top homicide detective before relocating to the remote north for personal reasons. He lost a young son and a wife and he’s searching for a way to live, or exist, if not heal. Callie Sutton is a young mother who is single, but also isn’t because her husband lies in hospital and is brain dead. Her husband is there, but he also isn’t there for Callie and her young son. Like Mason, she’s in limbo, a place where she can’t move forward, or back. It’s through this they find a bond. And the search for the missing lodge party pushes them together.

6. IN THE DARK is a pivotal novel in your career. What does it have in common with your previous writing and how is it different? How does this inform your next steps as a writer?

Pivotal sounds cool. I’ll take it! Thank you. But yes IN THE DARK is a bit of a departure from my previous romantic suspense books. If readers enjoy it, however, and if my publisher remains happy, I’d like to keep growing in this direction. But I do think my crime stories will always revolve around strong women, or women who might be victims to start with, but who find agency and take back their lives and become strong and survive through the arc of a story. (As with my forthcoming work IN THE DEEP). I do love to include a relationship element in my crime novels, but bonding with a potential love interest comes out of the personal growth of the protagonist. I like to tell—and read—stories of women who find ways to rescue themselves.

About the author:

Loreth Anne White is a bestselling author of thrillers, mysteries, and romantic suspense. A three-time RITA finalist, she is also the recipient of the Overall 2017 Daphne du Maurier Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Romantic Crown for Best Romantic Suspense and Best Book Overall. In addition, she’s a Booksellers’ Best finalist and a multiple CataRomance Reviewers’ Choice Award winner. A former journalist who has worked in both South Africa and Canada, she now resides in the Pacific Northwest with her family. When Loreth isn’t writing, you will find her skiing, biking, or hiking the trails with her dog (a.k.a. the Black Beast) or open-water swimming. She calls this work, because that's when the best ideas come. Visit her at www.lorethannewhite.com.

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