I want to thank Pump Up Your Book Promotion for organizing this tour.

The Darker Side by Cody McFadyen is an interesting thriller. Smoky works for the FBI hunting serial killer, and she’s asked to track a serial killer who has been killing people who have a deep, dark secret. That’s the premise.

But the book starts out by telling you Smoky’s background, and the author almost lost me there. Smoky’s been tracking serial killers for quite a while, but a couple of years ago, one serial killer that SHE was tracking started tracking HER and came to her house to kill her. Her husband and daughter were there, and the killer tied them up (the husband and wife at least…I’m not quite clear where the kid was), tortured Smoky (he did a number to her face, so now she has all these permanent scars), then made Smoky watch while he tortured and killed her husband, and when she finally, somehow, got to a gun, the killer used Smoky’s kid as a shield, and when she went to shoot the killer, he moved and she accidentally shot her daughter.

See what I mean? I just had a hard time hanging with EVERYTHING. Take away a couple of factors and I might be able to go along with you. But really? Did all that shite really need to happen? Could all that shite have happened? I don’t know why I had such a hard time with this, because I’m not reading thrillers because they’re oh so REALISTIC. But I do expect a certain amount of believability, otherwise it’s just silly.

The book was good, but my adrenaline never really got going and I was never really scared or worried. I was like, Wow, this guy’s wacko. Ho hum.

For all my criticisms, the book was good. I was fascinated by the various secrets people had, secrets they were killed for. I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up any other book by this author, and the over-the-top stories is probably what he does well. But again, who am I kidding? Why would I read thrillers if I don’t like over-the-top?

Rating: 83 out of 100

You can find the author’s website here.