Review: Don't Turn Out the Lights

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Title: Don't Turn Out the Lights
Author: Bernard Minier
Publication Date: December 6, 2016
Genre: Mystery/Psychological Thriller/Suspense
Recommended If You Like: dark, twisty, character-driven psychological thrillers

The Book:

There's someone out there, stalking women, harassing them and destroying their lives until they feel they have no choice but to commit suicide. When a detective on sick leave receives a hotel room key to a room one of those women stayed in, he is drawn into a twisted game with deadly consequences.

What I Liked:

There are a lot of great twists and turns in this mystery. There was one towards the end, a big reveal, that made me gasp out loud. Minier does an excellent job of laying down red herrings to keep readers guessing.

This is a complex layered mystery. Nothing and no one are what they seem at first glance. Minier creates an atmosphere that is almost suffocating, where readers feel the fear right along with the characters.

Anything I Didn't Like?

It was hard to find a likable character in this book. I highly suspect this was on purpose, as Minier seems to be playing with the idea that not only is no one who they seem, but no one is truly good or evil.

This book also tended to move a little slowly. I felt like there were parts and descriptions, and character musings, that could have been shortened or even cut out completely.

So...?

This book took me a while to read. Even though I was highly intrigued by the mystery, the lack of likable characters and the occasional bursts of long-winded paragraphs kept me from getting completely sucked in. But the mystery was quite good, and kept me interested, and once the story picked up, it had me gripped.

Just a note, that this is not the first in the series, and there are some continuing character storylines that I feel like I would have understood and been more involved in had I read the previous books.