Darkness Falls: The unmissable new thriller in the pulse-pounding Kate Marshall series

I thoroughly enjoyed Darkness Falls, the third instalment in Robert Bryndza's Kate Marshall series. It's an engrossing and often dark mystery, with plenty of twists, turns and red herrings to keep the reader guessing. Now officially working as private investigators, Kate and Tristan are approached by local woman Bev Ellis, whose journalist daughter Joanna Duncan went missing from an Exeter carpark thirteen years previously. Bev is adamant that her daughter met with foul play, rather than vanishing of her own accord, and is desperate to lay her to rest. Investigating leads involving Joanna’s personal relationships, stories she’d been working on and a mysterious reference to two young men who went missing not long before Joanna herself, Kate and Tristan uncover a twisted web of lies and murder. Darkness Falls is a complex mystery, with a wide cast of characters and a distinctive setting on the Devon coast. I enjoyed the "cold case" element of the plot and the skilful use of misdirection by Robert Bryndza to maintain suspense. A dramatic conclusion rounded out an engrossing read. I'd recommend Darkness Falls to any reader who loves complex contemporary mystery-thrillers, with well-developed characters and great settings. While reading in series order would allow for a greater grasp of character backstories, my feeling is that Darkness Falls could also be thoroughly enjoyed as a standalone. My thanks to the author Robert Bryndza, publisher Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this latest instalment in what is a great series.

Give me a book to read by Robert Bryndza any day and I am one happy girl! Insanely talented, I can’t get enough of his books and this latest instalment in the Kate Marshall series is no exception! This can be read as a standalone but, you would be crazy to miss out on the other two fantastic books before reading this one! A dark, intense and a full of suspense tale, which he is the master at, Bryndza takes the reader along for the ride with its lead Private Investigator Kate Marshall and her partner Tristan Harper as they become embroiled in a complex investigation involving a cold case. I really enjoyed this case and the one big giant can of worms it opens and was immediately hooked from the outset to its jaw dropping finale. As always Bryndza has weaved his magic and delivered another first class read that I just devoured! An absolute masterclass in the crime thriller genre, this series just keeps getting better and better with each book! I do have to admit that I was in the middle of reading another book when the opportunity presented itself to read Darkness Falls, but as soon as it landed on my Kindle, the other book was temporarily forgotten…(sorry (not sorry) to unsaid author…) Now, do yourself a huge favour and jump on board with this series and Bryndza’s other books. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Darkness Falls is the third book in the Kate Marshall series by British author, Robert Bryndza. Former London Met detective Kate Marshall has given up lecturing in criminology and started her own private investigation agency with her young assistant, Tristan Harper. In the past months, business has been slow, so when Bev Ellis engages them to find out what happened to her daughter, Kate and Tristan are eager to immerse themselves in a big case. An investigative journalist for the West Country News, Joanna Duncan disappeared without a trace in the first week of September 2002. Thirteen years on, the Devon and Cornwall Police have deemed it a cold case, and Bev’s wealthy partner Bill Norris, who is funding their investigation, has managed to acquire all of the police files. Kate and Tristan examine them very thoroughly, vowing to solve this puzzling case. Their first priority is to talk to those who were questioned by the police at the time, including Jo’s editor, colleagues, best friend, husband, and a certain MP who lost his seat after Jo’s hard-hitting exposé. But then Kate happens upon the names of two young men amongst Jo’s papers, who turn out to be missing. It’s apparent from her career prospects that Jo didn’t disappear of her own accord, but did her work make her a target? Was it someone involved in the cover-up of an asbestos-laden office building? Or whoever was taking those missing young men? Or was it her claim that the already-disgraced MP was using his Parliamentary allowance to pay for rent-boys? Or was she actually the victim of an opportunistic killer? There’s plenty of good detective work apparent here, with both Kate and Tristan utilising friendly police or ex-cop sources. Bryndza gives the reader a solid plot with several red herrings and a clever twist. Once again, great British crime fiction. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer.