While I liked Darkness Falls, a Kate Marshall thriller by Robert Bryndza, I know there are two words connected to this book that are trigger warnings for some readers. If you can’t or don’t read books with serial killers, this one isn’t for you. If you like novels featuring dogged private investigators, try this one.

In September, 2002, journalist Joanna Duncan disappeared from a parking garage after leaving work. While the CCTVs in Devon and Cornwall could track her to the garage, that was all they showed. Now, in 2015, Joanna’s mother, Bev, contacts a start-up detective agency and asks Kate Marshall to look for her daughter.

Kate knows what it’s like to crash. She was a young Met officer when she uncovered a serial killer, and her relationship to that killer brought scandal and headlines. She drank, lost custody of her young son. Now, she’s been sober for eleven years. When her AA sponsor died, she left Kate a campground with the provision that she had to fulfill her ambition of opening a detective agency. With her young business partner, Tristan Harper, they’re struggling to keep the campground and the agency afloat. But, Bev’s boyfriend is willing to pay for their current case.

Kate and Tristan start from the beginning. What was Joanna investigating when she disappeared? The more they question, the more links they find to a small group of people. Some are quite successful, but many of the men are gay. And, as they dig through Joanna’s files, they find names of several men who went missing in 1999 and 2000, before Joanna disappeared. What is the connection between these missing people?

Bryndza’s Darkness Falls is not a fast-paced thriller, although it says thriller on the cover. It’s a solid detective novel, and I won’t hesitate to pick up the next in the series. Relationships are important in this book. There’s Kate’s loss of her sponsor, and her current relationship with her son. Tristan’s sister hates to see his partnership in the detective agency. Kate and Tristan are both intriguing characters. Although it’s called a Kate Marshall thriller, and the three books in the series emphasize Kate’s past, I’m sure Tristan is going to come into his own in one of the books.

As a fan of detective novels, I appreciated the careful step-by-step investigation into the cold case. I’m looking forward to following Kate and Tristan into their future.

Robert Bryndza’s website is https://robertbryndza.com/

Darkness Falls by Robert Bryndza. Thomas & Mercer, 2021. ISBN 9781542029629 (hardcover), 303p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to review for a journal.