Corinna Underwood

Reviewed by Carla Trueheart for Readers' Favorite

A Walk on The Darkside by Corinna Underwood is a series of related short stories all focused on paranormal mysteries. Paranormal investigators Harry and Pearl have different ways of approaching these mysteries, but they work together to solve highly entertaining cases. Pearl is grounded and usually skeptical of the supernatural. She is always looking to find an alternate cause. Harry is a little more open and brings his camera to investigations, hoping to find evidence that will prove there is something else, something paranormal, going on. Included in the book are tales of a supposed haunted house, future premonitions of death, a demon in a cellar, poltergeist activity surrounding a troubled girl, a puzzle box that causes strange visions when opened, and a tale set in New Orleans that involves voodoo dolls and murder.

If you’re looking for paranormal stories that involve mystery, suspense, and imagination, look no further. A Walk on The Darkside includes stories that touch just about every aspect of the paranormal, and beyond that, the stories are each rooted in a mystery. Protagonists Harry and Pearl are entertaining and have their own unique personalities and backgrounds, making them enjoyable characters and easily relatable. Harry and Pearl are the best of friends, so the relationship is sweet while never going beyond professional (the next book perhaps?). Each short story in the book provides its own separate mystery, and it would be impossible to read without becoming fully engrossed in these tales. I loved the book, and author Corinna Underwood has a new fan. A Walk on The Darkside is highly recommended to fans of the paranormal, mystery readers, and those who like an imaginative combination of the two.… (meer)

This review was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on February 1, 2013.

This is a nice collection of stories, though I wish that they had been somewhat more spooky. They are all set up and executed well, but the suspense just isn't there.

I think some of my lack of enthusiasm has to do with Pearl's character being so realistic. I understand that the setup is meant for her to be this way, but it feels like her character sucks all the fun out of everything. And these experiences that could be really spooky if they were left as they were, without her explanations. To that end, Pearl's sidekick on her journey, her photographer friend, Harry, is much more of a believer. But, his enthusiasm doesn't quite make up for Pearl's lack of it.

The variety of the stories is really nice. There's everything from ghosts, to telepathy, to mysterious puzzle boxes, to voodoo curses. The stories are all meant to be connected, since Pearl is researching them for Darkside magazine, but honestly, I feel that these would be a lot better as standalone stories. The underlying tie-in thread is very weak, and doesn't really serve to bind them all together.

There are a few details that I wish had been fleshed out a little more. In the first story, "The Secret in the Sanctuary" Pearl starts out driving through the Welsh countryside. Along the way there are lots of signs and town names that she runs across. I thought it might be more helpful to readers if there were translations of the meanings of the Welsh words in to English. It probably seems like such a picky detail, but I think it would help the reader to understand the story that much better.

One other structural aspect that pulled me out of the reading was the timeline. All of these instances of strange happenings were resolved within two days. Even though Pearl's tendency to explain these all away makes for shortened time lines, I feel that they could have been just a little bit longer.

Overall, this is a nice collection. There are some stories with deeply religious undertones, so I wanted to point that out for anyone who doesn't care for those types of stories. I'd recommend this for someone who's more of a skeptic when it comes to ghost stories.

*I receieved a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
… (meer)