Douglas Borton

“The sound made him shiver.”

The sound being that of bones cracking. Courtesy of The Gryphon, a serial killer that is terrorizing Los Angeles. A serial killer that Detective Sebastian Júarez Delgado is determined to stop!

The Gryphon decapitates his victims and then leaves a clay gryphon in one of their hands. Pretty gruesome stuff. Some a bit hard to read, including necrophilia, rape, and the aforementioned beheadings. As to the story itself, it starts strong, and slowly, slowly gets weaker. The love story is terrible, and the meek victim turning into the super tough-as-nails survivor is hard to believe. I don't think that 24 hours is enough for either plot point to be possible. But none-the-less, they are in here. I did like that the point of view shifted often between the killer, the detective, and the heroine and it moved the story along at a nice pace. Gross, but good!… (meer)

In Dark Places was a fast moving, entertaining thrill ride. But in this book like the last one I read, I found a few issues. Again, in this book, none of the characters were all too like able. I mean, when you are actually rooting for the serial killer part of the time, even though it was part of the plot twist, something isn't right. Which brings up another problem, too many plot twists, it started getting old near the end. My final problem again, was overdetailedness. So much needless info packed into an already long book just makes it feel that much longer. For example, when Dr. Cameron meets Wolper at the cafe or whatever, why did we need to know about the comic book shop across the way getting hit? We didn't, and I'm glad I just skimmed that paragraph.
Now it might seem that with all these complaints I didn't enjoy the book, which couldn't be further from the truth. It was a very enjoyable read, and I always wanted to keep going to know what would happen next. The complaints are pretty minor, and if you don't get "creeped out" to easily, this book is a fun read. Oh yeah, that was another thing, this author also seemed to be trying to go heavy on the "creep out" factor. Again I didn't mind to much, but sometimes it feels like the authors try to pack it in as much as they can just for the heck of it.… (meer)

When I first started reading, I thought that maybe I had read it before. A serial killer who rips off people's faces? Was that in a different book? Or had I just read this book before? I don't know. As I kept on reading, the book started to seem new to me. I didn't remember reading all of the stuff in the middle before. The ending was slightly familiar.

I enjoyed reading this book. I shared in the main character's frustration that nobody believed that Dr. Cray was evil. And that poor Kaylie could not go to the authorities because everyone thinks she is crazy. The plot moved along at a nice pace, and there were several suspenseful moments. A story set in a mental institution is always creepy, and the fact that Cray is in charge of one makes him all the more creepy. I will definitely seek out more books by Michael Prescott in the future.… (meer)