Joe Lucchesi was an NYPD detective until a case he worked on went horribly wrong. He now lives with his wife, Anna, and son, Shaun, in Waterford -- a small town in Ireland. Joe thinks he's found the peace and quiet he needs to put the past behind him until his son's girlfriend, Katie, goes missing.
Katie's disappearance sends Joe, his family and the Waterford police force on a suspense-filled roller coaster ride to figure out what happened to her. The police don't want Joe's help, but that doesn't stop him from providing it, especially since Shaun is one of the main suspects. Matters become even more complicated when something from Joe's past in New York catches up with him in Ireland.
DARKHOUSE is Alex Barclay's first novel and with it she sets the bar high. Although the story starts out a bit slow and is somewhat hard to follow in the beginning, it quickly smoothes out and picks up the pace. The heart- racing story doesn't slow down until the nail-biting end. Barclay skillfully uses flashbacks and cut-scenes to craft a compelling and entertaining mystery/suspense. At times, I found it difficult to put this book down. I anxiously await Barclay's sophomore effort!
In this electrifying thrillerβa bestseller in Great Britain
and IrelandβAlex Barclay creates a stunning array of
contrastsβfrom the violence of a copβs world to the
fragility of an embattled marriage, from the danger of New
Yorkβs gritty streets to the quiet of a seaside Irish
village. With brilliance and subtlety, Barclay delivers a
nerve-wracking tale of a troubled family, facing a brutal
danger rushing relentlessly out of the past.
One year has passed since a kidnapping drama exploded into
violence on a New York street. And for NYPD detective Joe
Lucchesi, the memory of that terrible moment is still
alive. Joeβs wife, Anna, has brought him and their teenage
son to Ireland, hoping to repair their fragile marriageβand
cut the cord between Joe and the job. But when the
girlfriend of their son vanishes, Joe begins to suspect
that the crime may have its roots in his old lifeβand that
someone has followed him all the way thereβ¦.
An outsider in Ireland, Joe watches with rising
apprehension as local cops try to solve the disappearanceβ
and then reacts with fury when his son becomes the leading
suspect. Frantically, Joe tries to piece together clues to
the crime, certain that a predator has come to Ireland in a
twisted act of vengeance. And in a culture he doesnβt
understand, among people who may or may not be his friends,
Joe must find a way to strike backβ¦against a vicious killer
who has Joeβs family in his sights....
A novel that plunges like a knife, Darkhouse delves into
the intimate struggles between a husband and wife, between
lovers and desperate friends. Seething with menace and
mounting dread, Alex Barclayβs ingenious tale of a family
under siege ratchets up the suspense one shocking
revelation at a time as it races to its shattering
climax....
No excerpt available.
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