Into The Darkest Corner
A Novel
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4.4 • 76 Ratings
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
“Check the locks on your doors and windows and surrender to this obsessive thriller.” — Karin Slaughter
When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can’t believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee’s dashing good looks hide a dark, violent nature.
Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life for herself. Trusting no one, she compulsively checks every lock of her apartment and varies her route home each day. Then an attractive new neighbour moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of a normal life. Until the day the phone rings.
Winner of Amazon UK’s Book of the Year Award and shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and the People’s Book Prize, the mesmerizing, skillfully drawn and vividly cinematic Into the Darkest Corner is an ingeniously structured tour de force of suspense that marks the arrival of a major new talent.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
From the first pages of this intense novel, it’s not hard to see where the plot is headed, but Elizabeth Haynes made us care more about the journey—about finding out exactly what happened. The novel’s structured in two tracks: one follows Cathy as she emerges from the haze of a wild lifestyle to live with a guy who seems like the man of her dreams. The other takes place several years later as, now a recluse, she copes with crippling OCD while falling for a man helping her with the disorder. The tension builds like a hotly contested race as both story lines converge, and Haynes’ breezy style makes this a breakneck read. But she also creates fleshed-out characters that we grew to care about, resulting in a compelling mix of drama, romance, and suspense.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Haynes's first novel, a harrowing psychological thriller, charts one woman's life on two different time paths as they gradually converge into a frightening whole. The Catherine Bailey we meet in 2003 was fun loving and liked going out with her friends in Lancaster. The Cathy Bailey we see in 2007, a frightened obsessive-compulsive, has difficulty leaving her London flat for work or talking to neighboring tenants. In 2003, Catherine meets handsome, charming Lee Brightman, who gradually isolates her and controls every aspect of her life, despite her increasingly desperate attempts to escape him. Their story develops in excruciating detail until 2005, when circumstances contrive to give her a respite from Lee. Meanwhile in 2007, Cathy meets fellow tenant Stuart Richardson, a psychologist who befriends her and helps her to begin a fragile recovery. When Cathy learns that Lee could re-enter her life, she fears the horror will start anew. This is a terrifying and convincing portrayal of an abusive relationship and a damaged woman's heroic attempts to recover from it.
Customer Reviews
Well worth the read
A heart breaking look into domestic violence and it's after shocks. Very well written and hard to put down.
Into the darkest corner
I enjoyed reading this book. I also like how the book shows things happening in different years simultaneously and how the main character changed over time and what caused the change. I could feel her pain and fear and that was good.
Nice read and thats why I'm rating it 5 stars. Honestly would have given it a 4.5 but I'm feeling generous lol.
Its not a mystery book which is what i tend to gear towards but its a nice thriller that makes you wonder how someone can seem one way (nice) and be a manipulative abuser.
Plus, the book was cheap so definitely 5 stars.
Into the Darkest Corner
OK, OK, OK...I get it. An abused woman is afraid of her psychotic, abusive boyfriend, and this same nutcase raped her several times over a long period of time four years ago. But does Ms. Haynes have to explain how she checked the locks on her flat five hundred times? Does she have to go over, and over the details of the rough sex, and the related abuse?
I was not a real fan of this novel, because of the aforementioned way Haynes presented the story. It went on and on, spinning its wheels and not getting anywhere for the first 450 pages. I guess you could call it suspenseful, for it was that, but I would say repetitive would be a better word.